Emirates First Class Dubai to Los Angeles A380 Review

Posted By Jon Nickel-D'Andrea on Jan 18, 2020 | 1 comment

Emirates First Class is, without a doubt, one of the most luxurious ways to get from point A to point B on the planet today. From the $1000 cognac, the caviar, wine cellar to the onboard showers, gold plated coffee pots and attention to detail, Emirates First Class is what all over first class products aspire to be.

Our $46,000 vacation to the Maldives for only $1,818

• Part 1 – Introduction and Planning
• Part 2 – Flights to London and Hamilton
• Part 3 – Refined Luxury London’s St Pancras Renaissance Hotel
• Part 4a – The House Lounge, London Heathrow
• Part 4b – Etihad First Class Apartment LHR-AUH
• Part 4c – Etihad First Class Lounge, Abu Dhabi
• Part 4d – A340 Etihad to Male, Flight Review
• Part 5 – A day in the life of Male, Capital City
• Part 6 – St Regis Airport Lounge
• Part 7 – The St Regis Hotel Arrival Experience
• Part 8 – Overwater Villa, $3000/night for FREE
• Part 9 – Things to do at the St Regis Maldives
• Part 10 – Free Breakfast at the St Regis Maldives
• Part 11 – How to not go broke eating in the Maldives
• Part 12 – Snorkeling at the St Regis Maldives
• Part 13 – Male Airport VIP experience
• Part 13b – Male Leeli Airport Lounge
• Part 14 – Emirates First Class Male to Dubai
• Part 15 – Dubai Transit Hotel – Amazing Value
• Part 16 – Emirates First Class Dubai to Los Angeles
• Part 17 – Conclusion and Giveaway

Mention the Maldives and images of pristine turquoise blue waters come to mind. Overwater bungalows with direct jump-in access to the water and romantic sunsets are commonplace in this island paradise.

While it’s on almost everyone’s wish list, getting there can be a challenge. Flights are often ridiculously expensive and once you DO get to the islands, a barrage of expensive hotels with overpriced meals await. Never mind the flight distance involved, those expensive factors are enough to turn some people off and have them looking for cheaper destinations.

Lonely Palm Tree

Getting to paradise and back doesn’t have to cost a fortune. We booked a ridiculous, normally unattainable luxury vacation valued at almost $46,000 for a grand total of $1,818… for two people!

Considering that’s usually the price of a regular coach class ticket to the Maldives, that’s one heck of a steal.

In the series of posts to follow, we’re going to walk you through all the experiences that we enjoyed on this trip. While most people would consider this once-in-a-lifetime, with just a little legwork and dedication you can have a luxury getaway to make Instagram followers drool with envy.

The Lounge

We spent some time in the first class lounge before departure to relax. The lounge has direct gate access to the planes so as a First Class passenger (or Business Class for that matter) you never have to mingle with those sitting on the floor below you. It is classism at its finest.

The Seat

Once we board we were gleefully directed to our seat. I was in 2F and Ben was right next to me in the middle. Most times in First Class there were empty seats as the flight goes about half full, but this time every one of the 12 seats was full. I’d never seen an Emirates First Class flight go full, and this was jam packed.

At each seat was a snack basket in case you were a bit peckish before take off.

Shortly after we got settled in our flight attendant from Portugal, Cristian, came over to offer us some Arabic coffee.

The seat mate next to me just wanted to prove a point. No matter how much money or miles you have, you can still be a stinky, nasty son of a bitch with bad hygiene. I asked the flight attendant for an extra hot towel just to wipe down my seat. Stay Healthy y’all.

We’ve reviewed the seat before and you can read extensively about it here. We’ve also got a Youtube video from our flight from IAD-DXB that goes over all the functions of the seat. Take a look here:

Light Breakfast Service

I decided just after take off to have a tea service. Oh, but we can’t just bring you some tea. We have to bring you tea, honey, cookies, sugar, and more… it’s a proper tea service and I love it.

After the tea I opted for some carrot juice and a light breakfast service. I asked Crisitan for a small fruit sampler and some yogurt. I’d never had a yogurt this creamy before in my life.

The Bar

After a quick breakfast (remember that we had some breakfast in the lounge as well) we opted for a quick tour back to the bar area on the A380. One of the reasons why we always choose IAD, LAX, or SFO is because of the bar that the A380 has. It’s really cool to be able to head back to the rear of the plane and just mix and mingle with other premium cabin passengers. The people you meet are so interesting.

The bar is fully stocked with every liquor you could want, snacks on demand, and, if you’re sitting in first class, all the liquors and wines from first class. Since business class can’t order the Dom champagne and the Dessert wine, you can drink it and make all of business class salivate 🙂

If you make friends with the flight attendants, they’ll even let YOU man the bar if you want!

Shortly after we started drinking at the bar, a special surprise came out. The Emirates crew found out somehow (I wonder…) that it was my birthday, and they brought out a special cake just for my birthday. They even sang to me!

Since I was manning the bar, I made sure that everyone who came back to the bar was served a slice of cake.

Ben and I finished off a bottle of that amazing Sauternes dessert wine and headed back to our seat to take a nap.

First Class has its own bar exclusively for first class passengers. It’s located right next to the shower suites and is fully stocked with free pour liquor. Feeling like a fantastic Rum? How about a great cognac? What about Hennessey? This isn’t just any Hennessey… this is Hennssey Paradis, a $1,000+ bottle that you’re allowed to just finish off the whole bottle if you like.

Perhaps champagne is more your style? Here’s a fresh bottle of Dom here for you so you can just have your own private party back in the suite.

Light Dinner Service

About 6 hours later I woke up and was feeling a bit peckish. By this point I had completely forgot what was even on the menu for dinner/lunch, so I had to get the menu again to take a look.

Not terribly hungry I decided to have a chicken and lemongrass consommé and pan fried cod. Arguably the best fish I’ve had on a plane, ever… period.

Another glass of champagne and come canapés too? Don’t mind if I do!

The Shower

At this point, the flight attendant let me know that it was time for my allotted time for the shower.

Pro Tip: As soon as you get on the plane, ask if you can have the second to last spot in the shower. The reason you don’t want the LAST spot is because sometimes you’ll hit turbulence and miss your shower, but if you ask for the shower spot that’s 2 hours before landing, you’ll get a good half hour spa time and then plenty of time for you to head back, clean and refreshed to your seat, and have a glass of wine before landing.

The bathroom is massive. Like, really massive. You could fit 12 people in here! Everything is done in a light maple finish and looks super classy.

The toilet has a heated seat and the floor is heated as well.

The shower is just off to the side at the entrance. With each shower you get 5 minutes of water to bathe, and while I thought that was a small amount of time, you’ll be surprised how much you can get done in 5 minutes of water. The water can be turned on and off, so no worries that you’ll run out while you’re soaping or shampooing.

Voya products are available with two scents, tranquility and revitalize. Not sure that they do anything different, but one is rosemary and mint while the other is rosemary and lavender.

If you enjoy smelling extra nice there is Bvlgari cologne and parfum for men and women.

Sadly, shortly after the shower and heading back to my seat, it was time for landing. Wanna know the best part of landing in an Emirates A380? The tailcam!

13 minutes later we were on the ground, sadly, and off the plane.