Emirates' impact on the local market - both transtasman and for flying onwards to Europe - has been profound.
Price: You can get into Business Class seats for $1749, return.
My seat: 25B.
On time? We take to the air bang on the scheduled 5.10pm departure. This flight is down for four hours, but we're home 20 minutes early.
Fellow passengers: A load of holidaying Kiwis returning from the Queensland sunshine. I had my mum, Heather, and my 4-year-old son, Baxter, for company. The boy spent the entire flight slugging fizzy drinks and watching cartoons.
How full: Of the 76 flat-bed seats in Business only half a dozen or so are vacant. The cabin crew chief staffer Perya tells me the 14 First Class seats are all full. A quick stroll down below shows they're at about 90 per cent capacity.
Entertainment: Baxter reports that the cartoons were "good".
Service: The cabin crew come from 22 different countries and speak 18 languages. Chief staffer Perya, from Hungary, says they enjoy working the Auckland-to-Australia flights. It's a short-haul in, then the crew get a day to relax (watch out for them on Waiheke), before working a short-haul back to Oz.
Food and drink: I had a superb cod, then popped into my favourite pub in the whole world: The bar at the rear end of the upstairs section of the Emirates A380. They're revamping the bars this year, bringing in tables and bench seats and going for a "yacht cabin" feeling. Sounds grand.
My unsolicited, free advice for Emirates President Tim Clark: Give each of the bars a name. Different planes, different bars. Bit of fun. (No problem, Tim - you can thank me with upgrades.)
The toilets: Clean throughout.
Luggage: Business Class gets up to 40kg.
Would I fly this again? Certainly. Standing at the bar on an Emirates A380 remains the finest way to cross the Tasman.
