Emirates A350 Business Class Review From Dubai to Edinburgh
Emirates' A350 inaugural debut—modern features, stellar service, and a glimpse into the airline's evolving future.
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Emirates A350 Business Class Review
After multiple rounds of delays and route changes, the Emirates A350 inaugural flight from Dubai to Bangkok finally took off on January third, and of course, I had to be there!
The A350 is a big deal for Emirates as it marks the first new aircraft type since 2008. With the A350, Emirates will be able to increase its network further since they can now access smaller airports where the A380 couldn’t land—Edinburgh being one of those!
How I Booked This Flight
Initially, the A350 was scheduled to fly its inaugural flight to Bahrain in November 2024. However, this got pushed back and then rescheduled for a launch to Edinburgh, which is a perfect route to experience all that Emirates has to offer.
I had purchased a cash fare out of Bangkok as this worked out much cheaper than starting the flight in Dubai. I’ve got a full guide on how I find and book these kinds of flight deals here. While my initial ticket was an acceptable price, this soon doubled as Emirates kept changing the date. Each time, I was forced to pay a change fee and the fare increase. Unfortunately, award seats weren’t available, and Emirates Skywards charges outlandish fees for redemption tickets. Often, these are close to the cost of a cheap cash fare out of one of the Asian hubs.
The Lounge
This might sound elitist, but I’ve only been to the Emirates First Class lounge before. By comparison, the business lounge is very much a zoo. It’s huge, with lots of people, and overall, I find it one of the worst business class lounges out there. I have no doubt Emirates is planning to create something worthy of a flagship lounge when they move the entire operation to Al Maktoum International Airport.
Ground Service
Luckily, I went to the gate early as there was a secondary security screening, which was very thorough and time-consuming. One of the main challenges with flight reviews is being able to take pictures and videos before other passengers board and take their seats. With this being an inaugural flight, there were a few other avgeeks hoping to pre-board, which Emirates flat-out refused.
Emirates A350 Cabin Overview
The new A350 is one of 65, with deliveries expected to continue until 2030. This aircraft also marks a change in direction, as there’s no First Class onboard—something Emirates has focused on for most of its fleet.
However, we do find the popular Premium Economy seats behind the Business Class cabin. It’s a small setup with 21 seats in a 2–3–2 configuration that share the Business Class lavatories. In economy, there are a total of 259 seats configured in 3–3–3. Up front in Business, we’re seeing the industry-standard 1–2–1 layout.
The Emirates A350 Business Class Seat & Cabin
While we already knew Emirates had opted for the tried-and-tested Safran business seat, used on the A380 for some time now, there are actually many small improvements to the setup that modernise it. The seats are inspired by the Mercedes S-Class, and even though there’s a lot of faux wood and gold on display, somehow it looks pretty good and very much on-brand.
The IFE display is now 4K, and it’s extremely snappy. Pinching and zooming around the in-flight map was “virtually” lag-free. You’ll also still find the secondary tablet screen, which detaches and can be used to play media while watching the main display. In my opinion, it doesn’t serve much real-world purpose other than the fact that it’s fun to have a map going while you watch a movie. Apart from that, it seems like the money could have been spent elsewhere—like adding a door or increasing the seat width.
Speaking of seat width, even though I’m not exactly the Hulk, it’s a very narrow setup, especially around the shoulders when in bed mode. This is mainly due to the fixed armrests, which don’t come down to create more sleeping surface. Larger passengers are definitely going to struggle with the narrowness of these seats.
The seat now has a huge amount of charging opportunities with two USB-C 60W fast chargers, one USB-A 10W charger, one wireless charging pad, and one full-size outlet in each seat. Emirates also offers free wifi throughout the flight but this was pretty much unusable, no doubt because the entire flight was trying to access it.
Emirates has also kept the mini-bar, which is a nice touch, with a few bottles of water stored there to keep you hydrated throughout the flight.
While the seat might be narrow around the shoulders, the footwell offers plenty of space for your feet to move around. Unlike many airlines that offer a narrow space, Emirates has kept the same width as the seat, making it pretty comfortable.
You can now also pair your Bluetooth headsets to the IFE if the noise-cancelling headphones Emirates provides aren’t quite up to your audio standards.
Best Business Class Seat Onboard the A350
On this flight, I picked seat 8K, a window seat offering more privacy between you and the aisle. The seats are staggered in an aisle/window configuration, meaning the first row of 1B and 1J are both aisle seats.
People travelling together and looking to sit next to each other are best off picking a centre seat in rows 1, 3, 5, or 7, as these are staggered away from the aisle. There’s a large divider that can be brought down if you want to converse with your seatmate.
My seat was close to the galley, but this wasn’t at all disruptive. I would suggest picking 2A or 2K, as these seats are close to the front but still offer maximum privacy as window seats.
Emirates Food & Drinks in Business Class
Usually, Emirates serves a stock-standard Moët & Chandon Brut in Business Class, but on today’s inaugural flight, they had a very delicious Veuve Clicquot 2015 vintage on offer.
I’ve always found Emirates Business Class food underwhelming as they still operate with a tray-style service, unlike Qatar Airways, which offers on-demand dining without trays. On today’s flight, the food was very tasty and well presented.
I opted for the Arabic mezze followed by a crusted beef fillet, which was cooked to airplane perfection.
While the dauphine potatoes were tasty, the green beans smelt musty or mouldy, which was disappointing.
The dessert—a chocolate caramel cake—was outstanding! Afternoon tea and gnocchi were also offered before landing, but I passed, having already eaten too much at lunch.
Crew & Service
Emirates crew are some of the best in the sky, and today’s flight had a rockstar team looking after the cabin. Drinks were proactively topped up, and not once was I left waiting for service. The whole experience was flawless, and all the team members I spoke to seemed genuinely excited to be working on this new aircraft.
Emirates A350 Business Class in Conclusion
Overall, it was an exceptional flight, as expected on an inaugural service. The daytime departure and early evening arrival meant breathtaking views, with the A350’s wings looking absolutely stunning.
While I do like the refreshed Business Class cabin, it’s still somewhat disappointing to see the same old seat design again. That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with these seats—they are, for the most part, perfectly comfortable. It also finally marks the end of the dreaded 2–3–2 configuration on Emirates’ older B777-200 jets, as these are being refurbished with the seats found on the A350.
Overall, this will create a very consistent experience for travellers, which is probably the priority while Emirates waits for its next-generation B777X.
Who funded this review?
This flight was paid for by the writer.
