The Emirates A380 800 business class cabin with lie-down bed. Courtesy Emirates
The Emirates A380 800 business class cabin with lie-down bed. Courtesy Emirates
The Emirates A380 800 business class cabin with lie-down bed. Courtesy Emirates
The Emirates A380 800 business class cabin with lie-down bed. Courtesy Emirates

Business

Emirates A380 800 business class review: Pleasurable except for unruly children

Flying business class on the new Emirates A380 800 was a pleasure thanks to the attentive cabin crew - but the cries of unruly children tarnished the experience a little for Triska Hamid.

Triska Hamid

July 19, 2015

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There is something reassuring about a new plane. The engines are not as overworked, the seats are cleaner and the entire experience is smoother. The Emirates A380 800 is one of those planes that delivers such an experience, especially when you're seated on the top deck, away from "cattle class".

Flying from London Heathrow to Dubai on a morning flight, my spirits were lifted by an upgrade to a business class seat.

The new fleet of A380s has had an interior facelift. Gone are the grey plastic framings, replaced with wood veneers that reinforces the feeling of luxury. The fully reclining seats of this aircraft offer space, comfort and sufficient privacy – each seat is attached to a personal minibar perched on top of a high cabinet. Within the cabinet is a foldaway table, sturdy enough to enjoy your meal and place your laptop. Given the power plugs next to the minibar and on-board Wi-Fi, working on those presentations becomes a doddle.

The in-flight entertainment is more enjoyable on the bigger screens and the option of strolling to the bar at the back for drinks and nibbles promised a sophisticated alternative to economy class ankle rolls to prevent deep-vein thrombosis. For those wanting to sleep, a cotton duvet is available, so no static shocks during your snooze.

The service was attentive with no chance of going thirsty or hungry as the cabin crew paced the aisles with drinks and snacks to sample. The menu offered a variety of dishes including chicken, salmon and lamb. I opted for the cold mezze to start (a staple on all Emirates flights it seems) and the salmon, cooked just right for my palate – a tiny bit pink in the middle.

However, the experience was tarnished a little by the piercing screams of children. This was not the forgivable short-lived cries that occur during take-off and landing or a child in distress struggling to get to sleep; this was unruly children not being managed by their parents.

Airlines should consider bundling families together in one section and leaving part of the plane as a quiet zone for adults – particularly those wanting to get some work done.

The professionalism of the staff made up for it though; they did their utmost to keep the children entertained.

q&a something to savour

An Emirates spokesman tells Triska Hamid more about the Emirates experience:

How frequently does Emirates fly from London to Dubai and on which aircraft?

We fly to both London Heathrow and London Gatwick. We have eight flights a day in total. For London Heathrow, we fly an all A380 operation five times daily. For London Gatwick, we fly thrice daily.

Unruly children can ruin a flight, what is Emirates’ policy on this?

Emirates offers special assistance to make travelling more comfortable and convenient for our youngest flyers and their families.

Has Emirates considered “adults only” zones on the A380s?

No we have not.

What has been the response to Wi-Fi on board?

The response has been tremendous. It’s free to blog, post or tweet from your seat on most of our A380 aircraft as you can enjoy 10MB of data for free. In fact, we have found that the longer the flight, the higher the rates of people connecting.

What inspired the menu selection for the London-Dubai flights?

Menus are planned to ensure that meals served are appropriate to the destination. Emirates strives to make every journey a destination in itself, so our passengers get a taste of local palate or be reminded of home. The menus are planned by regional catering managers and the concept development team who visit outstations to sample the dishes before launch.

business@thenational.ae

* The writer was a guest of Emirates.

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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