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Flight Review: Frankfurt (FRA) – Dubai (DXB) in early 2017

Carrier: Emirates, Boeing 777 Economy Class
Flight Duration: 6h

On a recent trip to Asia I was able to experience and review Emirates Economy Class.

First of all there seems to be a small difference in level of comfort within their whole fleet. I was lucky enough to get all the different views of Emirates Economy Class by flying on  their older 777’s, their fairly new 777 and also on the way back to Europe on one of their state of the art A380’s.

This review covers my Frankfurt to Dubai leg in one of their older 777’s.

On longhaul Economy Class flights I usually prefer to sit in a windowseat for two simple reasons:

There won’t be any passengers waking me up by trying to climb over me to use the lavatories and also I tend to lean my pillow against the wall to have a decent position to rest and sleep in.

Unfortunately Emirates wants non-status members to pay a fee of 25USD per flight to choose their seat more than 24h before departure, so I decided to wait until a few hours before departure to assign my seat for free online. Long story short, I ended up not getting my window seat but assigned myself an aisle seat, 42D.

Emirates B777 Economy Class aisle seat and entertainment system

Other than that Check-In and Boarding procedures seemed to be very well organised. The seats weren’t great, but I have experienced worse. Seat width and leg space seemed to be quite decent on their 3-4-3 Economy Class layout, at least for this 6 hour flight. Even though this particular Boeing 777 plane seemed outdated, I noticed USB outlets for your electronic devices and was happy to use them to charge my phone. I also appreciated the Emirates inflight entertainment system “ICE”, which is updated regularly. So a good choice of some of the latest TV series and movies is given at any time.

Emirates B777 Economy Class seating

Emirates Economy Class blanket, pillow and noise-cancelling headphones

One thing I really enjoyed in Emirates Economy was the paper menu which was handed over to every Economy Class passenger shortly after takeoff. I have noticed this kind of service only in Business Class before. A wide range of complimentary beverages, non-alcoholic and alcoholic, was given. There was also the option to pay for champagne, which is served for free in Business and First Class.

Emirates Economy Class food and beverages menu

So about half an hour after takeoff FA’s went through the cabin to provide beverage service. I ordered some white wine and orange juice before lunch was served.

Emirates Economy Class beverages

I was excited to try the lamb curry for lunch but unfortunately they were out of it very fast so I had to go with the chicken, which wasn’t a gourmet meal – and didn’t look like it for sure – but was still fairly tasty.

Economy Class lunch, Chicken with gnocchi, green beans and carrots

Overall flying longhaul Economy Class is not something I am very excited about, but this flight in particular went by quite fast since it was a shorter transcontinental flight and the food, IFE and overall service was still great.

I certainly wouldn’t mind flying Economy Class on Emirates again, even if it was on a longer route.