Business Class travel on Flydubai Boeing 737- 800 from Dubai to Istanbul

flydubai, UAE’s leading low cost carrier surprised me when I flew it’s business class for the first time ever!
As a disclaimer, I want to mention upfront that I have always flown Emirates and never ever flown on flydubai before!

I am a business consultant and my work takes me places on business class flights that are usually paid by clients (perks of the job) and for my travel to Istanbul on a visit to a company that deals in manufacturing, they could not book me on an Emirates business class because the tickets were exorbitantly expensive this time and hence I had two choices: (a) Fly economy in Emirates or (b) Fly Business class with flydubai

It’s almost a 5 hour flight to Istanbul and it’s a medium haul flight and the timing of the Flydubai flight suited my schedule better — landing in at 23.40, so I decided to give flydubai business class a try!

The thing about traveling business class is, it’s too difficult to go back to economy once you have experienced the extra leg room and the business class service!

My flight was scheduled for 17.45, which meant I would have to reach T2 90 minutes before the flight, oh yes, that is the advantage of flying out of T2

The check-in and check-outs are so quick that you can finish the whole damn process in under 300 seconds flat!!

I am not kidding! I stay in Dubai and hence have an Emirates ID so the “Smart gates” allow automated immigration clearance using an emirates Id by scanning your biometrics like retina and thumb impression

You reach the check-in counter, collect your tickets, and sail through smart gates to your boarding in under 300 seconds!! Beat that!

At T1 and T3, this process is 10 times longer!

Pre-Booking

Before booking my flight on flydubai I looked up Trip Advisor and Skytrack for customer reviews on business class and there were none!

All the reviews were for economy class and it’s one of the reasons I decided to write this blog! On these review platforms there were some very positive, some not so good and some neutral reviews. Most of the customers had good things to say about their service and one-time performance so it helped in making the decision to fly with flydubai easier

Booking Process

I normally book tickets and am reimbursed by the client once they approve my tickets. So after comparing the prices on various travel websites I visited FlyDubai’s official website & it had the cheapest rates, cheaper than the OTA’s by 40–50 AED. Not a world of a difference but I wouldn’t want my clients to feel, I don’t care about spending their money! The desktop site was very smooth, easy and quick to use, I was done in a jiffy!
flydubai and Emirates airline share the same loyalty program called skywards that allows you to earn miles when you fly either of the airlines. When you book on flydubai you earn loyalty programs on emirates too and can use it for redemption on emirates too. It’s a seamless process that requires just your skywards number. So I used my skywards number to log on to flydubai and earn my loyalty miles

Check-In & Lounge

I reached airport at 15.15 hours exactly 90 minutes before departureAfter collecting my boarding ticket and breezing through immigration I was at the Business class lounge in 300 seconds! Yes really!
The T2 lounge is cozy and comfortable, I sat there for a while, looked through some business and entertainment magazines. I had had a good dinner but airport lounges are too tempting to let go of munching.The lounge has regular updates for flight departures & the distance from the lounge to the boarding gate is barely a 2-minute walk!

Boarding experience

There was no aero bridge at T2. For business class passengers flydubai has a dedicated bus for 12 business class passengers only which I found quite surprising. But nonetheless it’s a smooth experience for the business class passengers with an entire bus dedicated to them. Like all airlines, Business class passengers are given priority on boarding and once they finish boarding, do rest of the passengers start boarding

Seats

The seats were pretty spacious and comfortable with ample room. The only drawback that I experienced was the seats did not become a flatbed. They do recline all the way back to 45 degrees or more but not all the way to 180 degrees but they are very very comfortable with pitch 42 and width 21. Since, flydubai does not fly long distance, they probably don’t have a flat bed in my understanding. For 5–6 hours of fly time, a 45 degrees recline with ample legroom is pretty good

Leg Room

There is enough legroom on the business class seats that allows someone like me who is 6 Feet tall to stretch my legs all the way. It was very comfortable and spacious with plenty of legroom and good seat pitch.

In-Flight Entertainment

They had a very good collection of new movies on board in various languages and segments like Comedy, Action, Drama, Family and new movies. I am a sci-fi fan & I picked the recently released Ad Astra to view on the flight. The headphones were top notch in terms of sound and quality. They were “around-ear” headphones, which are very comfortable for watching lengthy movies. Whole experience of watching this movie was exhilarating.

Food & Beverage

A very good selection of food and beverages was available inflight. The food served was really sumptuous and filling. The quality of the food & snacks was much better than most other airlines I have traveled. My favorite was the roasted cashew nuts. When the crew saw me enjoying the cashew nuts she offered me another pack and also recommend that I try another variant, which was very popular with flyers.

In-Flight experience

Post meal, I tried to connect to the wi-fi on board. The wi-fi on the flight is not complimentary and you have to pay a nominal fee for the same

On a business class ticket having to pay for wi-fi seemed unfair and unnecessary. The 30-minute connectivity costed just 10 USD or 37 AED, whereas a non-stop access costed 18 USD or 66 AED.

They should either provide it for free or add it to the ticket cost & allow people a 30-minute free connection. Most will not need more than that for a 5 hours flight!

After fruitlessly checking the wi-fi connection I decided to catch a quick nap. The flight attendant offered me a blanket and I tucked into one

Overall experience

The experience of flying on a business class flight with flydubai was more than pleasant. I was happily surprised at the experience

• The Flight Attendants were very courteous, attentive and hospitable
• The entertainment options on-board were top notch but having to pay for wi-fi connection was disappointing
• The food & beverages served was delicious and sumptuous
• The seats were very comfortable but did not recline all the way to 180 degrees
• The on-boarding and off-boarding experience was again marvelous

Looking at the overall experience, I would be willing and more than happy to fly flydubai again, overlooking the 2 shortcomings which were a missing flatbed and paying for wi-fi. But when I compare the cost at which I flew business class to my destination, which came at 1/3rd the price of a business class ticket for premium airlines flying the same route, it was totally worth it. So for short distance flights from UAE, I will definitely be looking forward to flying business class on flydubai!