Emirates Will Fly To Auckland Via Bali From June 2018

Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission which helps contribute to the running of the site – I’m very grateful to anyone who uses these links but their use is entirely optional. The compensation does not impact how and where products appear on this site and does not impact reviews that are published.

Emirates has announced plans to start a new service between Dubai and Auckland which will stop off in Bali along the way. Thanks to ‘Fifth Freedom’ rules travelers will be able to fly solely between Auckland and Bali or Bali and Dubai if they so choose.

The new service will be operated by an Emirates 777-300ER in a 3-cabin configuration making this the first Emirates aircraft to offer a First Class cabin between Dubai and Bali.

An Emirates press release reads:

The new service will offer global travellers a total of three daily services to New Zealand, complementing Emirates’ existing non-stop daily service between Dubai and Auckland and its current daily A380 service between Dubai and Christchurch via Sydney.

Travellers will also enjoy a choice of three daily services between Dubai to Bali in the summer, as the new flight adds to Emirates’ two existing daily services which are currently operated by a Boeing 777 300-ER in a two-class configuration.

Emirates’ new Dubai-Bali-Auckland flight will provide the only year-round non-stop daily service between Auckland and Bali, giving passengers an opportunity to visit and/or stop over in one of the most popular islands in Indonesia.

From 14 June 2018 the schedule for the new service looks like this:

EK450 DXB 06:55 – 20:20 DPS 22:00  – 10:00+1 day AKL (Daily)
EK451 AKL 12:40 – 17:55 DPS 19:50  – 00:45+1 day DXB (Daily)

Although the new service will be operated by a 777-300ER aircraft this won’t be one of the aircraft offering the airline’s new First Class suite (they’re still very rare) and travelers not guaranteed a newer Business Class product either.

Emirates’ PR machine is so good that a lot of people associate the airline with a set of all-round excellent premium cabin products….but that’s simply not the case.

While the Emirates A380 aircraft may all come with impressive First Class suites and good Business Class seating the same cannot be said for the airline’s 777s.

The older Emirates 777s don’t offer true lie-flat beds in Business Class (they’re angled flat) and, regardless of whether the flight offers the new or old Business Class cabins, travelers will be faced with a less than impressive 2-3-2 Business Class cabin layout.

Emirates’ new 777-300ER Business Class Cabin – Image Emirates

In Economy Class you get a semi-decent (by modern day standards) 32″ of seat pitch but thanks to 10-across seating passengers will only have seats 17″ wide. While this isn’t exactly unusual it also isn’t exactly comfortable.

Bottom Line

Air New Zealand also offers flights between Auckland and Bali but only on a seasonal basis. Emirates says that its new service will operate year round making it the first year-round service between Auckland and the Indonesian island.

Given the choice of Air New Zealand or Emirates I would probably choose Air New Zealand if I was booking Business Class (although I’m not a big fan of the airline’s herringbone Business Class seating it still beats the Emirates configuration) and Air new Zealand offers a Premium Economy option which Emirates doesn’t.

If, however, I was booking Economy Class I’d probably book with Emirates to get an extra inch of legroom (both airlines offer approximately 17″ of seat width on their flights to Bali).

Featured image: Emirates