Unreal: A Private Flight In Emirates’ New First Class

I'm fortunate to be able to travel in first class frequently thanks to my points. International first class is always a treat, but there are flights that are just on a different level. I had one of those flights this weekend, and I am still pinching myself.

Flying Emirates’ new first class from Washington to Dubai

I think the new Boeing 777-300ER is the best first class product in the world. Prior to this weekend, I only flew it once, back in the early part of last year, when it was introduced.

Washington to Dubai is one of the few routes where the new first class is offered. I want to experience this product on a long haul flight, since the flights between Europe and the Middle East aren't long enough to fully enjoy the experience.

I booked two first class seats on the route for Saturday because I saw that the airline had opened them up, and I will reveal the full details of that shortly. It's pretty cool to have two first class award seats in a cabin with just six seats.

You know what's even better? You can have the whole cabin to yourself. There were no other passengers in first class. There are some premium travel experiences where you can't help but wonder how you got so lucky, and this was definitely one of them.

The flight was full in first class, so we had to make do with six tins of caviar and a dozen bottles of Dom Perignon. I think I'm getting over my illness.

The crew to passenger ratio on this flight was pretty good, with two flight attendants plus the purser taking care of us.

The funny thing about having a new first class cabin all to yourself is that it doesn't matter how full the cabin is. Each passenger gets a fully enclosed suite with a floor-to-ceiling wall on both sides.

There are three seats open to each aisle, but there is no way to see what is happening in the other aisle.

I didn't want the flight to end, and it almost felt like half the flight.

VIRTUAL WINDOWS ARE AWESOME!!!

I sat in a window seat on the new first class flight. I sat in one of the center seats with virtual windows. Are you talking about virtual windows? The two center first class suites on the 777 have fake windows on one side so that you feel like you are in a window seat.

The fake windows are not real. If you were in a real window, the camera on the side of the aircraft would show you exactly what you would see. Virtual windows are amazing.

• Obviously there’s the novelty factor to having virtual windows
• The center suites have the benefit of being a bit more spacious vertically, given that the fuselage is a bit higher in the center of the cabin
• Because these windows are virtual, you can get your private cabin 100% dark, since no light will shine through, unlike in true window seats
• Then there was just the general amazement of realizing you’re not looking out real windows, but that this is all fake… I must have spent half of my flight thinking about these windows, and for that matter I can’t even tell you how many hundreds of pictures I took out these “windows”

Bottom line

There are great first class flights, and then there is the new Boeing 777 first class cabin that is all to yourself for 13 hours. I flew from Singapore to New York in a double bed on the A380, and then flew from New York to Singapore in a double bed on the Emirates.

It was an amazing experience. I will get started with this one after I finish my previous trip report. What an experience.