REVIEW | Emirates Airbus A380 3rd gen Economy Class (Dubai to Kuala Lumpur)

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After the previous leg from London Stansted, my family opted to take a 10 hour transit in Dubai after the previous leg from London Stansted. This gave us sufficient time to explore the city and to have some fresh air.

By evening, we had returned to the airport for our flight to Kuala Lumpur. Getting to the airport was a painless affair thanks to the Dubai Metro, and the 24 hour pass definitely made travelling around the network easier.

First posted 26 March 2020.  Updated 4 March 2023.


Departure experience from Dubai International Airport

Emirates operates exclusively from the partially underground Terminal 3 at DXB.  It is a vast complex, with its departure concourse area resembling a giant mall than an airport.

As we had already checked in online, it was a simple matter of dropping the bags at the counter, and then proceeding onwards to departure immigration.  I took the opportunity to register for the automated immigration gates just in case I ever passed through DXB again.

Our flight was scheduled to depart from Concourse A, which required a trip on the airside people mover. With a few hours to go before boarding, I spent time stocking up on the duty free and enjoying the free wifi.

Before I knew it, the gate opened and we trooped down into the holding room. Boarding was then called, and the holding room erupted into a somewhat chaotic queue for the jetbridge.

Our departure was delayed slightly as cabin crew attempted to help a passenger with their misplaced passport. This was quickly resolved as it turned out they had it on their person all along.


Cabin & Onboard Amenities

We were lucky to snag seats on the upper deck for this sector.  The plus side of having upper deck seats are the storage units you get with the window seats.

The window port holes on the upper deck also noticeably show off the fuselage’s curvature, with the port hole at a different angle (and bigger sized) than the actual fuselage cutout.


Emirates Airbus A380 3rd generation Economy Class seats

Emirates’ Airbus A380 Economy cabin is largely configured in a 3-4-3 layout, with 32 inches of seat pitch. On the upper deck, the layouts of 2-4-2 and 3-3-3 were used due to the narrower width and curvature of the fuselage upstairs.

The Economy seats onboard this aircraft were the 3rd generation seats. These are largely similar to the 2nd generation seats, but the IFE unit seems to be shared with the ones on the airline’s Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.

Each seat was outfitted with a 13.3 inch touch screen for the IFE (the largest in the world for Economy!), a power outlet, a USB port, and a small coat hook. The requisite IFE remote control was also affixed in its cradle, but was of the newer type with a touchscreen to control the bigger IFE screen.

I must say that I was quite happy to have these seats back. The A380 seats are definitely much more comfortable than the ones on the airline’s B777-300ER aircraft, and I slept better on this leg than I did on the previous one.


Inflight Amenities – Emirates ICE inflight entertainment

Like all other EK aircraft, the IFE onboard was the airline’s own “ICE” system with its famously huge selection of content. The system also feature views through external cameras, but for some odd reason the ones installed on the A380 are not as sharp as the ones installed on the B777-300ER.

I chose to ignore the IFE for this leg, and went straight to sleep after the supper service.


Onboard Catering

The menu was passed around shortly after the doors were closed.  The meal service for this flight was to consist of a supper service, and a breakfast service before arrival at KUL.


Emirates DXB – KUL Supper service

I opted for the smoked turkey with a roasted vegetable chutney sandwich for my supper service. It tasted alright, and I liked that it came in this small basket with geometrically shaped perforations.


Emirates DXB – KUL Breakfast service

The breakfast selection on this flight was similar to the breakfast on my DXB – LGW flight a week earlier, but with an added Malaysian flair. this is standard for EK, as the airline usually tries to adapt its food offerings to the prevalent cuisine of the destination.

I woke up to the smell of breakfast being served just past the coast of India. For breakfast, I chose the cheese omelette again but this time with cubed potatoes rather than hash potatoes.  The taste was the same pleasant taste you get with cheese omelettes, but again I must say I’m not too sure about the mushrooms with tomato concasse side.


Arrival at Kuala Lumpur International Airport

It was already day time in this part of the world at breakfast, so I switched to the tail camera channel and enjoyed the view.

Soon, we were descending over the west coast of Malaya on the usual approach track into runway 32L.

Touchdown was smooth, and we were back on home soil.

Stepping out of the aircraft and into the boarding bridge brought me back into the humid heat of Malaysia. 


Final Thoughts

It had been a pleasant flight with Emirates and I must applaud them for the relative consistency of quality across all 4 legs. I can definitely see why the airline has grown into the institution that it is and, conversely, why its legacy competitors faltered.

If I ever have to fly westwards to Europe again, I would seriously consider Emirates.


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6 responses to “REVIEW | Emirates Airbus A380 3rd gen Economy Class (Dubai to Kuala Lumpur)”

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