Emirates Airbus A350-900 Premium Economy Review

The Airbus A350-900 is the newest aircraft type in Emirates’ fleet. The airline’s first A350 entered service at the start of this year, initially on the Dubai-Edinburgh route.

Emirates has since added A350 service from Dubai to other smaller, “secondary” markets such as Bologna, Lyon and Tunis. From December 2025, Emirates will also fly its A350 to Adelaide. This plane is ideal for these routes because it’s smaller than Emirates’ Boeing 777s and Airbus A380s, and has Premium Economy instead of a First Class cabin.

Emirates will eventually have 65 Airbus A350-900s in its fleet. Every single one of them will have Premium Economy, which has proven to be a hugely popular product since Emirates first launched it in 2022.

I recently flew Emirates Premium Economy from Melbourne to Edinburgh via Dubai. After arriving in Dubai on a Boeing 777, my onward flight from Dubai to Edinburgh was on a near-new Airbus A350-900.

This review covers my Emirates Premium Economy experience from Dubai to Edinburgh, the first route to get Emirates A350 service. I’ll also look at the differences between Premium Economy on the Emirates Airbus A350 compared to the Boeing 777.

Flight Details

Flight number	EK23
Origin	Dubai (DXB)
Destination	Edinburgh (EDI)
Aircraft type	Airbus A350-900
Class of travel	Premium Economy
Seat number	16A
On-time performance	We arrived on time
Star rating

The route

Flight Cost

This was the last of three flights that I booked on a single ticket from Wellington, New Zealand to Edinburgh, UK (via Melbourne and Dubai). In total, I paid AUD2,762 for this ticket.

For reference, Emirates typically charges around AUD1,763 for a standalone one-way ticket from Dubai to Edinburgh, with a return flight costing a bit more than double that due to the UK’s Air Passenger Duty.

If you have Emirates Skywards miles, you could book a one-way Premium Economy seat from Dubai to Edinburgh for 49,000 Skywards miles + AED420 (~AU$173). Emirates Premium Economy redemptions are not currently available through partner airline programs such as Qantas Frequent Flyer.

Airport Experience

As I was connecting from Melbourne, I didn’t get to experience the Premium Economy check-in at Dubai International Airport. However, unlike at Melbourne Airport, I believe Emirates does offer dedicated Premium Economy check-in counters at its home airport.

Only a small handful of airlines include lounge access with a Premium Economy ticket, and Emirates sadly isn’t one of those.

I was able to access the Emirates lounges thanks to my Qantas Platinum status. But if you don’t have an eligible status tier, you can buy access to the Emirates Business Lounges for a rather high fee. As a cheaper option, you might also consider accessing one of the other lounges in Dubai using Priority Pass or LoungePair.

Boarding for flight EK23 to Edinburgh started a bit earlier than the time printed on my boarding pass. In Dubai, Premium Economy passengers are invited to use the priority boarding lane to enter the gate area.

I was randomly selected for an extra security check at the gate before being able to board with Group C.

The Hard Product

I’ve previously covered Emirates’ Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy seat in detail in the review of my flight from Melbourne to Dubai.

Emirates has installed almost identical Premium Economy seats on its Airbus A350-900. That’s a good thing, as I loved the Premium Economy seats on the 777. They’re well-designed, spacious and very comfortable. That said, I did notice some subtle differences.

On the Airbus A350-900, Emirates uses a 2-3-2 Premium Economy configuration. This means the seats are wider than on other airlines such as Cathay Pacific, which has a 2-4-2 Premium Economy layout on its A350.

As with the previous flight, I was travelling with my colleague Wilson and we selected a pair of seats in the last row. I was very happy with these seats, except for one small thing. On the A350, the Premium Economy cabin is directly in front of Economy and not separated by a galley. This meant I could hear the crying babies at the bassinet seats in the first row of Economy.

I found the legroom plentiful, and appreciated the useful legrest, adjustable headrest and deep recline. Some people might find the storage space below the entertainment screen useful.

Being an almost brand new plane, the Emirates Airbus A350-900 felt modern and the cabin was a great condition. I particularly liked the mood lighting. This plane was also noticeably quieter than the older Boeing 777, and I think the A350’s aisle was a bit wider too.

I liked the electronic window blind, which closes in two stages. First, there’s a dimmer that blocks out the glare but still gives you a full view outside. In the second stage of closing the window shade, it shuts completely.

I think this is a way better system than on the Boeing 787, where the windows sometimes fail to completely block out the glare from the sun, even when in the fully “closed” position. Unfortunately, since the blind is controlled electronically, this also means the cabin crew can override it. I could not shut the blind at all for the first two hours of the flight because the crew had locked it open.

In-flight entertainment and Wi-Fi

The in-flight entertainment system on the Emirates Airbus A350-900 is super modern, with a large, high-definition screen that’s very responsive.

I think this system is even better than on the Boeing 777. It has a better user interface, allowing you to browse more quickly and easily see descriptions of all the content, without having to individually open each movie or TV show. The vast array of content also seems slightly different – for example, there’s a different selection of games.

The in-flight entertainment on the A350 also has some neat extra features. For example, it displays the number of cabin crew, languages spoken by the crew, the purser’s name and the dining menu. The A350 also has three external cameras that you can view through the entertainment system, in addition to live TV.

Below the screen you’ll find USB and USB-C charging outlets. However, there’s no universal power socket for Premium Economy on this aircraft type.

Wi-Fi is available for free to Emirates Skywards members, if you have your Skywards number on your boarding pass. If you aren’t a Skywards member, or (like me) want to credit your flight to a partner airline, you can pay to access the Wi-Fi.

The Soft Product

As soon as I got to my seat, the flight attendant looking after our side of Premium Economy warmly welcomed me on board by name, without even looking at my boarding pass. That was an unexpected nice touch!

Waiting at my seat were the same amenities as on my previous flight – a pillow, blanket, headphones and a water bottle. On this flight, though, there were no amenity kits for Premium Economy. I’m not sure if this is because it was a shorter flight, or due to it being a daytime flight – possibly both.

The purser and the two flight attendants looking after just 21 passengers in Premium Economy on this flight provided exceptional service. They were friendly, up for a chat and eager to please. Nothing was too much trouble.

Food & drinks

Before take-off, we were offered a welcome drink of water, orange juice or – for something different – strawberry juice.

After take-off, the cabin crew handed out some lovely hot towels and printed menus. This was the lunch menu and the wine list, which featured exactly the same three wines as on my previous Premium Economy flight:

The lunch service began with drinks, followed by the meal which was served on a single tray with proper china, metal cutlery and glassware. My prawns were nice, and combined with all the sides and bread basket, this was a substantial amount of food.

Wilson had the other main course option, which was the butter chicken:

Tea and coffee were offered to round off the lunch service. Later in the flight, the crew regularly came through the cabin to offer juice, water and nuts.

The flight time from Dubai to Edinburgh is just over seven hours. Afternoon tea was served three hours before landing, which I thought was probably a bit too early as I was still full from lunch!

This was the afternoon tea menu:

Although I would have perhaps preferred to get this an hour later, the afternoon tea was really good! Being a flight to the UK, the finger sandwiches and the warm scone with jam and cream were the perfect snack. They went down well with a glass of Cointreau.