Emirates Adds 2nd Daily A380 Service to Mauritius

Last week, Emirates announced that it will be upgrading to twice daily A380 service to Mauritius effective December 1st. While there is already one A380 in service on this route, the 2nd A380 will replace the existing Boeing 777-300ER in operation which will increase overall capacity on the route by 19%.

More importantly, for those that are hoping to use miles for premium cabin redemption, this will increase First Class capacity by 75% from 8 suites to 14, and will increase Business Class capacity by 81% from 42 seats to 76. In addition to the added capacity, the Business Class seats will be getting an upgrade from angled lie-flat seats to flat-bed seats.

And while the First Class suites are the same between the Boeing 77W and the A380, the A380 features the Shower Spa which I was able to try last year from DXB-LHR. Any change that improves your chances of showering on board a plane should be considered positive.

I have been in the very early stages of planning a trip to either Seychelles or Mauritius, so this is of particular interest to me as I've been finding that both SEZ and MRU are expensive destinations for flight bookings. Also, as a recent United defector that's found a new home with Alaska Airlines, Emirates is one of Alaska's partners which has opened up a lot of new options for getting to the Middle East and Africa that weren't previously available through Star Alliance.

For destinations that are expensive or hard to get to, this is where I've found the most value in using miles for award bookings comes. So any potential increase in capacity and subsequently in award availability is music to my ears. To get an idea of existing award availability on the DXB-MRU route, I did a search a month from now and there is limited award space both in First and Business Class. There isn't any space during the week in First Class aboard the A380, and only a single day available aboard the 77W. Business Class isn't much better either, with just a single day open on the 77W but with multiple seats.

It will be interesting to see how this impacts award availability, and hopefully improves everyone's chances of showering in the sky!