Emirates is now rolling out its upgraded Boeing 777 interiors with an A380 styled Business Class, all new Premium Economy and upgraded Economny Class. We take a test fly in Business Class.

Emirates flies the world’s largest Boeing 777 fleet, with 123 in service. With their new 777-9s now delayed till 2026, the current 777-300ER version will be the mainstay of the fleet for years to come along with the A380.

Till now the offering on the 777s has been an outdated Business Class cabin in a 2-3-2 configuration per row, including dreaded middle seats and only angled lie-flat beds.

Emirates is now upgrading 81 of its 777s with an updated Business cabin and it premiered in August 2024 and is currently flying to Geneva, Zurich, Brussels, Tokyo Haneda, Riyadh, Kuwait and Dammam, as well as to Chicago and Boston from later this year.

The in-house makeover of one aircraft takes two weeks, but Emirates hasn’t given a timeline of when all 81 Boeing 777s earmarked for the upgrade will be done. Until late October, just six Boeing 777s at Emirates had been through the process.

The airline has touted the refreshed cabin as a “new product”, which it clearly isn’t. Contrary to expectations, Emirates chose the conservative approach, basically installing an updated version of the A380 Business Class seat on its 777s. The new aircraft have four cabins, including Premium Economy. Business Class comes in two compartments, three rows in front and ten rows aft, a total of 38 seats (down from the current 42) in 1-2-1 configuration.

While Emirates advertises it as “best in class” and “industry benchmark”, that’s too far-fetched but certainly a huge improvement over the 2-3-2 configuration.

The seats to go for are the A and K ones, twelve in total, directly at the windows, as they offer much greater privacy as the rest are open to the aisles with no sliding doors or walls. Best are the single bulkhead rows 3 and 6 window seats, which also have more shelf space to deploy a laptop or carry-on during flight. As lack of personal storage space is another issue with this seat – no drawers or closets found here, as Emirates’ signature personal mini bar takes away possible storage room.

Having said that, the soft leather cream seat itself is elegant and very comfortable. Even for a tall person, its dimensions of 52.5cm (20.7 inches) width and 112cm (44 inches) pitch are generous, which is also true for the flat bed that measures up to two meters (78.6 inches) in length when fully extended. To go to sleep, beds are padded up with soft mattress covers, enabling a good rest without any seat cushion edges noticeable. One of the few new things in this upgraded Safran seat are additions of two USB-C ports, one of them integrated with the other power outlets, now installed at the edge of the mini bar shelf. Another novelty is what Emirates calls a “small bar” behind each last seat row in both Business cabins. In fact, it’s just a shelf with snacks laid out, nothing where you could stretch your legs and stand upright for longer.

Airlineratings.com recently flew two legs on the new product, from Brussels to Dubai and on to Tokyo Haneda. The reporter was seated on 3A during both flights.

Overall, Emirates seems to pursue the goal to bring its Business Class offerings in line for the entire fleet which makes perfect sense, seeing other airlines having a wildly different mix of premium products, all flying at the same time. Very often, this brings disappointment to passengers, when aircraft with the promised new seats on a route are then being swapped for another aircraft still equipped with older ones.

While a very mature and well-crafted product overall, with often outstanding service levels by crews, there is still room for improvement in Emirates’ main premium product. One is wifi access. Emirates is one of the few top airlines not providing any free internet time to Business Class passengers without strings attached.

To use at least messenger services for free during the entire flight, one needs to register with their frequent flier program, in all classes. If passengers are not Skywards Gold or Silver members, however, even in Business Class, they have to pay for full internet access, $9.99 to $19.99, depending on flight length. That’s not very premium-like, as not even a limited amount of time is offered free. Especially in the context of others like Qatar Airways which now offers boasting complimentary, high-speed Starlink wifi on board, Emirates needs to reconsider its policy.

Another big improvement for many passengers would be dine-on-demand in Business Class, especially as Gulf peers Etihad and Qatar Airways already have this option. On the nine-hour day flight to Tokyo, for example, breakfast was served fairly soon after take-off, which made sense. Dinner then was only brought out very late in the flight, less than 90 minutes before landing, here an option to dine earlier would have been very welcome. Emirates President Sir Tim Clark told airlineratings.com recently that the incoming Boeing 777-9s “will have an improved version of the current Business Class product.” Watch this space.