Superjumbo smackdown: Qantas vs Emirates on the Airbus A380

Not mentioning the excellent free service bar in Qantas A380 economy seems a little strange....especially when that alone (in my opinion at least) comprehensively puts Qantas A380 economy on top, despite slightly smaller seats.

We did HKG/DXB return on EK A30 in J, the service was great the bar was fantastic, not mad about the gaudy interior.

Interesting comparison. But I beg to differ on a couple points having exprienced both premium offerings a number of times from both airlines:

- While it's true that EK F has the extras (spas, exhaustive dine on demand menu, entertainment, drinks menu) that make it a more interesting experience as a whole, QF F seat is far more comfortable in every position. EK's has bumps and lumps and never to goes full flat (the leg rest is sort of up there, it's NOT parallel to the floor but rather at a slight incline - some argue it is flat due to the angle at which the aircraft cruises). And since QF's F cabin is located downstairs it's a full 9dB quiter than EK's (with proper earplugs you'd struggle to tell you're flying in QF!). Add to that the possibility to join with your partner over a meal in the same suite. If I was to choose between the two I'd edge towards QF. And I'm not a QF loyalist by any measure.

- In J, EK once again has the edge in terms of entertainment, drinks, and meals. Afterall their J menu is a subset of their F (it just loses out on appetizer options)  but without dine on demand. On long haul however, that's a biggie. They force feed you when perhaps you're not that hungry, and because of the way the service is delivered, it takes a while to get the meal from ordering to clearing out the tray at the end. By contrast, QF's service allows for a more welcoming timing (reserve the meal for later), and since it's delivered from a cart, makes it far more time efficient service. Then you have the seat. EK's seat is cramped to say the least. I am a smaller build of a person and find it quite annoying. There's the issue with the shoe holder (we call warmer in the older A380s) which makes resting and getting into/out of the seat quite annoying. QF's J seat is far more comfortable, spacious, proper full flat and affords oodles of shoulder space. And unlike with EK, you don't have to sleep curled up to fit in the seat. The icing on the cake is the PJs that QF hand out in J (EK gives none). So again, if I was to choose between the two, it would have to be QF.

In you review of QF and EK business class on A380 you neglected to compare the dining offering. Having flown both a few times in the last two years, I have to say that Qantas's contemporary Oz cuisine beats Emirates old-fashioned stuff hands down. On QF the food is actually exciting, a descriptor I would rarely use for airline food in biz class. It's better even than Emirates First Class dining. Qantas business class champagne - lovely Charles Heidsieck instead of lacklustre Moet - wins too, other wine selections are on a par. 

I will fly Qantas only. Love the whole experience

EK is great and some days shades it as long as the FA s are on the same page.  Have had one or two very indifferent crews which detracts totally from the EK A380 experience.  My flying is 6 times a year to LHR and LAX on QF. Consistent service makes it for me.  

I have travelled both business classes....while Emirates appears to be better there is one area that never gets discussed-in flight entertainment. I attempted to watch 'Mama Mia' on Emirates (a movie I have watched with my children) only to find it was heavily censored...it jumped past bits that were deemed inappropriate. It made watching the movie a a very ordinary experience.

Whilst I have only flown Emirates A380 from NZ ( a one movie trip) I can only imagine the annoyance on a 14 hour flight. I was wondering whether anyone else has noticed this censorship and whether it is specific to Muslim countries.

Agree.  As a Gold QF for many years, I did Emirates last month (again) on QF ticket.  Interesting thing was Emirates gave me Business Class upgrade all Rome to Dubai and then to Sydney.  Never happend on QF.

As for the service - worlds apart.  Even in terms of the staff.  Emirates are so helpful, and always eager to fill a glass.  Most QF crews slap down the food and hide.

The Business semi suite in Emirates is a notch above QF, though I do like the QF cocoon. 

The bar at the back of Emirates is amazing, and great for a stretch.

AS for economy.  Still Emirates.  They greet Gold flyers (QF do so only rarely) and the food is better.  Seats are about the same.

As a Gold, on Emirates you can get the front of the A380 which is quiet, full of frequent flyers, and also has the best toilet in any economy class.  Up the stairs behind the pilots to a big bathroom on the left.

certainly EK has rhe bling and the caviar and mezze plate are outstanding BUT 1. i found the 1st cabin too warm and the crew told me they keep the temp at 23 deg and 2. found the mini bar in business claustraphobic expecially if its against the window

Having travelled three sectors in Business with EK and four with QF, I have to say that despite all the seemingly attractive attributes of Emirates, Qantas wins in several areas.  Firstly my wife and I found the EK seating too constraining, it seems as though you are stuck in this enclosed area and it is awkward to get in and out of. Qantas, with it's more open seating is more relaxing and easy to be seated. I agree with other comments about the food, I would also add the service overall, including wine ( if you can get it) is far more relaxed, efficient and friendly on Qantas. The lounge /bar area at rear of Business is overrated, we experienced very disinterested service on two of our legs.   I have booked next London trip with QF and are looking forward to it.

First on QF: great bed, weird seat position. Overnight from LA to Oz you can't beat it. The EK first bed is lumpy and uncomfortable. 

Business on QF is has more room,but you need the window bin to get enough space for bits and pieces. On the Emirates 380 you need the window seat if you're on your own or the middle seats if traveling with someone. The aisle seats are too narrow and cramped for a large person (I am 190cm). 

Service wise I find the Emirates meal service is too long. In first it's a huge meal as well, really the appetiser is enough on its own. I like the Qantas approach but sure, sometimes the cabin crew can be a little grumpy. But I'm not there to worry about that. I'm there to get where I am going in comfort and fresh ready for work when I get there. So on balance I prefer the Qantas A380 in both business and first. 

I flew QF F to London and EK F back from Paris.

I can say the QF seat is unquestionably more comfortable than the EK seat.  The EK seat on the A380 feels narrower, not sure if this is a dimension thing or just the way the suite sides go up so high.  I liked the closing doors, but the bed did feel a bit lumpy.  The actual seat when sitting is softer, but I preferred the firmness of the QF seat when lounging.  In bed position, QF wins hands down, the bed is more supportive and the bedding was far more comfortable.

QF also wins in my opinion on the food out of Sydney.  The tasting menu was far better than anything I had on Emirates.  The flight from Dubai to London was underwhelming on the food front though.  The food on EK was by all means good, but QF's was superb out of Sydney.

Where EK definitely wins I think is in the timing of the flights.  I felt sleepy around 5 hrs into the SYD - DXB leg, and conked out.  Woke up a bit before landing, felt like morning, but spent two hours wandering around the empty F lounge at DXB at midnight, got back on the plane, wasn't tired, and landed in the UK feeling like it was late afternoon but it was 6:30am.  I think the next time I would prefer trying to take EK's 9pm flight.

Another area EK was better I felt was sitting next to my partner.  It was easier to converse on Emirates.

QF's flight attendants were a bit more attentive and a thousand times friendlier.  I don't know if it's a training thing or a culture thing or a workplace attitude thing, but it was noticeable.

And finally, the shower was a bit of a novelty and didn't impress me that much.  The ones in the EK lounge were much better.

That's my review :p

Thanks Chris

I effectively did a "head to head" in May this year using QF F SYD-LAX and then JFK-DXB-MEL F on EK

My thoghts:

1. The Qantas F lounge in Sydney continues to be outstanding compared to all EK lounges in my view (with the notable exception of the sashimi in the EK F lounge in DXB).

2. The EK bling factor was not too my taste and I thought the finishes in the suite looked cheap (the mini-bar has warm drinks which get warmer through the flight rendering this a useless feature). If Barry Manilow and Liberace had a baby it would be the Emirates F cabin!

3. The caviar and Dom on tap on EK were a plus but the overall standard of food was very poor and inconsistent. The food on Qantas, although distinctly lacking in deluxe ingredients (caviar, lobster - I recall Qantas used to serve Sydney rock oysters in J in the old days!) was far superior, stronger flavoured and not served overcooked or too cold. For wine nuts, the EK wines were poor at handling the effects of a pressurised cabin on wine taste and smell (this is an often neglected part of wine selection) whereas the Qantas wine list shone at high altitude.

4. The service on Qantas beat EK hands down. The overall service style on EK lacked direction and focus. There was no sense of a cohesive team that was service-oriented. On one sector the CSM equivalent on EK spent a lot of time chatting to personal friends and individual greetings to F passengers were totally omitted, compared to Qantas where there is often (but not always) a sense of an organised CSM in charge of his troop.

5. The shower on EK was great.

Still yet to fly EK longhaul (have done Y CHC-SYD which was so-so given the seat layout) but the comments above are very interesting.

My outside impressions were probably inline with Chris's article, but appears that there are cracks under the surface, and a lot of marketing hype in Emirates premium cabins.

Having their first class upstairs means there is less room in the EK suite than on QF and whilst EK's showers are a novelty, one has to book a time which then mightn't suit eight hours later - one can always shower in the lounge.  The thing that stops me flying EK, though, is that they (and all Arab airlines I've been on) censor their movies and we're not just talking explicit sex scenes.  On long haul flights I want to watch lots of films and QF has a better range.  Whilst their switch to Winston Churchill instead of Comtes de Champagne is disappointing, it's still not a bad drop so Qantas for me!

Thank goodness we have a choice! Right? Each to his own. I have just done BNE-DXB-LHR-DXB-SYD, alternating metal, on QF ticket. For me, EK hands down for these reasons: 1) solo seat when A or B, 2) much more snug and comfy all around with own bar 3) much much better screen and film options, 4) service consistently more professional. I am a QF Plat One, and for me it is EK metal on a QF ticket in the future now. Only downside is cant use EK points to upgrade on QF ticket.

where is this snack bar located. :) I had been flying at least 6 times in Y 380 with QF and I have not seen it!! I have always sit in exit row upper deck though.

EK is great and some days shades it as long as the FA s are on the same page.  Have had one or two very indifferent crews which detracts totally from the EK A380 experience.  My flying is 6 times a year to LHR and LAX on QF. Consistent service makes it for me.  

its like asking a bogan weather they 'd rather go to bali or paris, you know which they'd pick, its not even worth comparing because a lot of people just look at Emirates as "that foreign middle eastern" and Qantas as "Austrayan" so bias is there.

and lets face it one person to thank for rubbish qantas offers is Joyce. 

Qantas A380 economy is better in my opinion. Emirates colours scheme is boring and the snack bar wins it for me. 

Have travelled in business with EK & QF and I have to say both have their positives and negatives. For me as QF platinum I've always enjoyed the QF experience & I get treated better than on EK. EK flight crews always seem a bit stressed & not particularly happy (flown 6-7 times in business & economy. QF crew whilst not always friendly are generally more laid back.

The bar on EK is a great experience but as others have commented the meal service goes forever & the seats are a bit cramped. You don't fly just for the bar though so overall for me I prefer the QF 380.

A first post from a very "rusted on Red Roo supporter". ( Platinum )

Funny how a stack of flights that I flew in August, on both QF and EK, made me want to respond to this.

Managed to fly in F for the first time....twice....1 on QF and 1 on EK, then 4 flights in J....2 each, plus a couple each on both, in Y.

I don't want to work on a flight, I want to be entertained, fed well, sleep if necessary and have a great lounge experience....Qantas have this covered with an attribute I'm  yet to see on Emirates....class, and an effortless laid back sense of style !

I'm a real sucker for a great marketing campaign, and I expected to be impressed by the EK model....and it invariably left me underwhelmed.

Sorry for the lack of minutiae that seems to dominate these posts, but I felt inclined to share my observations....IAN posted very similar observations to mine.

Qantas wide seat is great. I have never faced a problem getting over the person next to me. Qantas service is consistent and classic. EK lounge is better but seat it too narrow. 

Ugh I was disappointed with the polite but really robotic experience of Emirates. It's happened each time I've flown with them. Qantas crews on the other hand act happy to have a job, rather than being programmed to give what's considered acceptable service. 

Same me goes for the lounges. Qantas will often allow a third guest in with you, the Emirates computer generated staff just say NO, only one guest. 

Hamds as down qantas every time if I can help it. 

As far as hard product goes I'd pick EK over QF.

I have flown QF from SYD - DXB - LON and EK LON-DXB-SYD (all on a QF ticket) and can say that yes QF's food out of SYD is nothing short of brilliant and the service is up there. However, EK to me has taken the out first place. The bar, Direct aisle access and the quality of the wines. I will still fly QF but to Europe I will always book a EK jet. 

A random idea, when EY gets their A380 do a review with EK's one. It would make for an intersting read :-) 

Having flown EK J on the A380 between Australia and DXB several times per year over the last three years, I would like to share some of my longitudinal observations:

1. The IFE on EK is superficially whiz-bang.  But after mutiple sectors over a relatively short space of time (say, three months) you quickly exhaust the supply of watchable entertainment.  EK's little secret here is that 5 million channels means hardly ever having to add new content.  "New release" means 12 - 18 months since cinema release.  Some truly excellent non-English language content to explore, but even that has it limits.  Uncessessary as well as random (extreme violence still gets through, labels on wine bottles do not), ICE censoring take the experience down even further.  More points lost for the dated, bulky toytown ICE control tablets.  Finally, the highly repetitive and intrusive advertisements before every program drive me to distraction. EK have a real hide subjecting their premium passengers to the inane banality of these ads ad nuseum. In fact, EK get more wrong with their IFE than they get right; but they get away with it by blinding us with science.

2. Not mentioned in the article above: EK's J class seats on the A380 are astonishingly narrow and lumpy.  I prefer the J class seats on the EK777 for width comfort.  Look it up on SeatGuru and see for yourself just how much style there is over substance when it comes to seat width on the EK A380.

3. Meal service can be glacially slow.  Slow enough to ruin the dining experience, really.  50 minutes between courses or wine top up?  Choose EK's A380.  It's not the fault of the FA's (usually): the layout of the huge J class cabin and awkward meal protocol equates to lot of waiting for passengers and hours of shuttling back and forth to the rear galley for the poor FA's.  Catering quality is VERY hit and miss: usually fine or better ex-Australia; usually ordinary or worse ex-DXB.

4. The J class bar on EK.  Fine if that's your sort of thing.  But I've been on flights when the back of plane sounds like the front bar of the Birdsville Hotel on race day.  Intoxicated passengers bellowing for hours at the unfortunate FA tending the bar? Classy. Best avoided by selecting one of the (rarely available) seats toward the front of the cabin.

5. EK decor: it must cost a lot to look this cheap.

Phew, I feel better getting all that off my chest.  QF for me next time, if I get a choice.

Let battle commence :-)

Few weeks ago did ADL to LHR on QF flight numbers and Emirates metal. For me, Emirates BC on ADL-DBX nosed ahead, much as I like QF BC.  Wonderful service.  Can't fault the seats and comfort and food was wonderful.  I never use the IFE but my wife enjoyed a movie and an audiobook.

But THEN....boarding for DBX to LHR we were upgraded to First Class on the A380.  I've been QF Platinum for many years and have NEVER once been offered an international upgrade.  I'm loving Emirates more by the minute.

What an experience!!  We were actually wishing that we hadn't had a shower in the the DBX lounge.  The "Maximum of 2 people in the shower at once" notice is a bit disconcerting though.  They obviously didn't have the "fuller figure man" like me in mind :-)  Comfort and facilities were phenomenal in the "suite", as were cabin staff. I've slept in hotel beds that weren't as comfy as this. This time I did try the IFE system but gave up as the remote 'control pad' was just too hard to work out :-)  Stuck to the iphone and my headphones for music.  Wonderful experience and top marks Emirates.  You really know how to create fans.  QANTAS please note.