HOW TO KNOW IF YOUR FLIGHT HAS STARLINK
Check your plane's equipment number [tail number or registration number, Eg: A6-EEE] on Flightradar by typing your flight number [eg: EK201] in search bar. The number will be shown within 24 hours prior to departure or sometimes just a few hours, until then it will be shown as 'Unknown/ Not available'.
Cross check it against the list below:
*Unofficial list of registration/tail number of Star Link equipped flights [updated 24.10.2026]
The flight leaving at 4am the next day has the tail number assigned
ONE CAN NEVER PLAN TO BE ON A STARLINK FLIGHT because its tough to say which route has this installed because the flight get used over different sectors for Example: A6-EEN, A380 did:
03 Sep EK185 Dubai → Barcelona
02 Sep EK751 Dubai ↔ Casablanca
01 Sep EK751 Dubai ↔ Casablanca
31 Aug EK377 Dubai → Bangkok
30 Aug EK376 Dubai → Bangkok,
29 Aug EK029 Dubai ↔ London
28 Aug EK925 Dubai ↔ Cairo
27 Aug EK763 Dubai ↔ Johannesburg
Emirates is generally generous, but if the flight is full, they become the "baggage police." Your allowance depends entirely on your class of service.
Economy Class
1 Bag up to 7kg
Max Dimensions: 55 x 38 x 20 cm
Premium Economy
1 Bag up to 10kg
Max Dimensions: 55 x 38 x 20 cm
Business & First Class
2 Pieces: One briefcase plus either one handbag OR one garment bag.
7kg each (14kg total).
Briefcase: 45 x 35 x 20 cm | Handbag: 55 x 38 x 20 cm | Garment bag: 20cm thick when folded.
💡 The Regional Exceptions:
India: You are strictly limited to one piece of carry-on. No "bag + laptop" games here; the total size cannot exceed 115cm (L+W+H).
Brazil: If you're flying from Brazil, you get a boosted 10kg limit even in Economy.
🧳 Checked Luggage
Emirates uses two different systems. Which one you get depends on your route.
1. The Weight Concept (Most of the World)
Used for flights between Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East.
How it works: You can check in as many bags as you want, as long as the total weight is within your ticket limit.
Allowances: * Economy: 20kg to 35kg (depending on Special, Saver, Flex, or Flex Plus).
Business: 40kg.
First: 50kg.
The Rule: No single bag can ever weigh more than 32kg.
2. The Piece Concept (Americas & Africa)
Used for flights to/from the US, Canada, and Africa.
Economy: 1 or 2 pieces (usually 23kg each). Check your fare—"Special" is often just 1 bag.
Business/First: 2 pieces (up to 32kg each).
The Rule: Total dimensions of each bag (L+W+H) must not exceed 150cm.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: Is the checked baggage limit 23kg or 32kg? I’m confused.A: This is the big one. On the Piece Concept (Americas), each bag is capped at 23kg for Economy. If you are 24kg, you pay a fee. On the Weight Concept (Europe/Asia), you can have a 30kg limit, but no single bag can be over 32kg.
Q: Can I "pool" my baggage with my family?A: Yes! If you are on the same booking (PNR), Emirates allows families to pool their total weight. If two people have 30kg each, you can bring one 32kg bag and one 28kg bag.
Q: What is the deal with Power Banks and "Smart Bags"?A: Power banks must be in hand luggage only. Smart Bags are only allowed if the battery is removable. If the battery is built-in and can't be taken out, the bag is banned from the flight.
Q: Are liquids still restricted to 100ml?A: Yes. Even with new scanners in some airports, Emirates still requires the standard 100ml containers in a single, clear, resealable 1-litre plastic bag.
Q: What about sports gear (Golf clubs, Skis)?A: Sports equipment is usually accepted as part of your standard baggage allowance. If it’s within your weight/piece limit, there’s no extra charge.
🕵️ The "Reddit" Factor (Strictness)
The Laptop Loophole: In Economy, you are technically allowed a "small handbag or laptop bag" in addition to your 7kg bag. However, if your "laptop bag" is a massive tactical backpack, they will count it as your main piece.
When do they weigh? If you check in at a kiosk, you might skip the scale. If you go to a human agent, they usually weigh everything. Expect a "Cabin Approved" tag if you’re boarding in DXB.
The Gate Scale: On full flights, agents often stand at the boarding gate with a portable scale. If you look like you’re struggling to carry it, you’re likely getting caught.
💎 Pro-Tips for the Savvy Traveler
Skywards Status: Silver, Gold, or Platinum members get extra weight (12kg to 20kg extra) or an additional piece for free.
Buy Early, Save Big: If you know you're over, buy extra weight online at least 4 hours before your flight. You can get a 50-60% discount compared to airport prices.
The "Jacket" Hack: If you're 1kg over in your carry-on, put your heaviest hoodie or jacket on while checking in. They can't weigh what you're wearing!
The "Squish" Test: Is your carry-on bulging? If it doesn't fit easily in the overhead bin, a gate agent will spot it.
The App Check: Open the Emirates App -> Manage Booking. It will tell you exactly if you are "Weight" or "Piece" concept.
Liquids & Batteries: Put your power bank and liquids at the top of your bag for easy access at security.
I am flying with emirates for my next flight from Mumbai (BOM) to Vienna. I saw on the website that emirates allows 7kg in the cabin bag, but for India, the dimensions should not exceed 115cm in total (length + width + height).
My cabin bag's dimensions are 41L x 24W x 58H.
Will this cause any issue? Has anyone travelled with emirates with a cabin bag exceeding the dimensions? Specifically from BOM? Please let me know.
I've been a long time lurker on this reddit. Thanks all for all the pointers.
Having read the forum, it seems to be good VFM if people are paying 100$ per hour as an upgrade from Economy to Business. Is there any rate that you would say is good VFM for being upgraded to Business from PE?
Also anyone here has history of upgrading in such a way? My understanding is to phone 72hrs before the flight to get the best deals.
I am flying from Rome to Dubai on October 30 at 14:55, which falls directly into the 13:00–17:00 Air Traffic Control strike window where no civilian flights are expected to depart. Since ground staff are striking for 24 hours and other airlines are already cancelling flights, does anyone know if Emirates usually delays until the 18:00 protected window or cancels entirely? With regional train and taxi strikes starting at 21:00 the night before, I also need advice on the most reliable way to reach Fiumicino if the flight actually proceeds.
Title has it all. I need advise from the community to see if the quoted upgrade price is worth it from Business to First. We are 2 people, so it is $1500 total on top of whatever we paid for Business. This is a promo upgrade during online check-in. We paid full price business class with lounge and chaffeur-driven car. The flight departs KUL at 6.25 PM and lands in DXB at 9.45 PM. So no long sleeping needs and we would be awake for almost the whole way. The flight has refurbished 1-2-1 business class.
Also, we have a second leg from DXB to LAX. Any idea what would be a typical Business to First promo upgrade cost for that?
Tried booking Dubai Connect VIA Emirates booking page and received technicle error (see screenshot). Upon asking Emirates chat support they said my passport origin (Pakistan) is not eligible at this time for Emirates to arrange visa for Dubai Connect? Although the Manage Booking page clearly states I am eligible for Dubai Connect (see screenshot). There was no indication of that when I was booking flight. Now I am stuck at Duabi airpot without Dubai Connect hotel for 23 hours!
As above, I've found a very competitive fare on Expedia for a FRA-SYD ticket in PE. I usually wait until the upgrade offers come through at T-48 hrs to upgrade, but have only ever done this on a ticket booked directly with Emirates. Do you still receive offers if you have booked via a OTA? Expedia seem to deal directly with Emirates, so I wasn't sure what happens. Any experiences with this?
Hi all, I'm flying from Dubai to Thailand tomorrow (Oct 28) and coming back Nov 1. My new Emirates ID was approved and printed on ICP, and it's with Zajel for delivery, but the physical card hasn't arrived yet.
Will the digital Emirates ID in the UAE ICP app / UAE Pass be enough for:
Check-in and immigration when leaving the UAE?
Immigration and smart gates when returning?
I'll have my passport, and my residency is active. Has anyone traveled while waiting for their physical card? Any problems at the airport?
I have booked a return ticket (economy saver) and my departure airport is Stockholm. Is there any possibility to only change my departure airport (in Italy)?
2 flights per day and I have business travel but it depends when it gets over and I have to decide just few hours earlier which flight should I catch the morning or the late evening
I am having Eco Flex Plus, How latest can I change the Eco Flex Plus ticket ?
My wife is traveling with our baby. We have 25kg allowed for her and 10 kg for the baby. The thing is she will be having only 1 bag of 30kg. So I wanted to know will this be okay or she needs to have 2 separate check In bags?
I fly emirates twice to thrice a year. I am the kind of guy who tends to relax and enjoy his flight. Everytime I have flown with them and asked for a couple of beers I tend to feel the air hostess becomes a little hostile. Never end up being drunk in any flight but I just tend to enjoy 3-4 beers in a flight over 6-7 hours. What is the deal here? Am I missing out something?
I am planning to take my mom on emirates first class for the first time (for me as well) from India to Dubai. I just want to make sure the menu has caviar along with all the offerings, since I couldn't verify that emirates have caviar in flights from India to Dubai. Can anyone please confirm? If not every flight menu has caviar, which flight does?
Hi, i am travelling via emirates from germany to india and both the legs of my flights are with emirates. I have a 3hrs 40mins layover in dubai. I found out that there is a shuttle bus between t3 to t2 and it drives within the airport and you can get some closer views of flights and maybe even the runways. Could i take it like for timepass/sightseeing or is it only allowed for connecting passengers?
I applied for UAE tourist visas for my family through Manage Booking on emirates.com, using my PNR. We're Indian passport holders living in Germany, and I hold a German Blue Card residence permit. The application went through the DVPC/VFS Global portal (ekweb.dvpc.net).
The tracking page now says the application was successful and the visa has been granted, and that a copy was also emailed to me. I haven't received any email. I've checked spam and junk, and I've emailed dvpccustomersupport@dubaivisa.net several times with no reply.
The tracking page has no download button, only the status message. We fly from India soon, so I'd like to have the visa PDFs in hand before then.
Has anyone been in the same situation? Specifically:
Is there a way to download the e-visa from the Emirates site or the DVPC portal?
Which Emirates contact actually got you a resend of the visa (phone, chat, or a specific email)?
Did the airline check-in staff manage to verify the visa in their system without the PDF?
How long did it take for the visa to arrive after the status changed to granted?
When I logged into Emirates, I was shown the option to upgrade from Economy to Business, but when I click in the checkbox, it doesn’t let me complete the upgrade. Has this happened to anyone else? As seen in the image, I have enough miles to complete the upgrade.
Business class upgrade, MNL-DXB. A week prior to my trip, I’ve chatted and called customer service every other day and was told there were no available upgrades at the moment, but to keep checking closer to my departure for promotional upgrades.
72 hours prior, was told more or less the same but one call got my hopes up—upgrades are available but will have to change flight to an earlier sched, because current flight is full. Not an option so was told to just try at the airport. Still kept contacting CS 48 hours til the day of my flight but answer didn’t change, so airport was the only option left.
At check-in, I first spoke to airport ground crew who was managing the rather long lines and they were kind enough to check with Emirates’ ground crew about my upgrade request. AGC said there should be two (2) biz class seats left so I proceeded lining up at Emirates’ CS counter. Only to be told there are no biz class seats available because flight was full. But AGC said there was?
So kind AGC basically had to convince EGC to sell me a seat. Which I found so ridiculous. A few minutes and a supervisor insisting “no biz class seats left, it’s
completely full” later, lo and behold, a bulkhead window seat freed up. No lounge access, no additional baggage, paid USD620 for it.
Do you know why they were borderline gatekeepy about the whole thing even if I was a willing, paying customer? Would they rather keep a premium seat vacant over profit? Not sure if it matters but it was a 777 with the old config. It seems they also gave free upgrades to two more pax to biz class after take-off. Also noticed first class was practically empty.
EDIT: please spare me the “you should’ve bought a business class ticket outright if you want it that bad” lashings. This was a work trip with the cheapest fare as a default option, and I could only make the upgrade afterwards.
I've booked premium economy twice this year on trips from KHI-DXB-LHR and KHI-DXB-SFO to travel in June and August, respectively. Both times, my Karachi flight (EK-606/607) was cancelled and I was involuntarily downgraded to premium economy and given 12 hours connections. My issue is that on the call, the Emirates representative said that I would be refunded the difference after travel however that hasn't happened yet nearly 4 months later. Now, it has happened again for my flights booked in December, KHI-DXB-ORD. Why do they keep selling a flight they have no intention flying?!?!? It's really frustrating and unprofessional imo, didn't expect this from Emirates. Also has this happened to anyone else?
I flew Emirates CPT to DXB a few days ago, and never again. It was my second time flying with this so called "premium" carrier, and both times were terrible. On this occasion, I was offered a paid upgrade to business for 900 USD, now I'm no dummy, I did my research before booking, and I knew it to be an older aircraft, so my expectations were not high for the hard product. However given the airline's status and reputation, I thought I could at least expect the soft product to hold up... this was not the case. Most food I've eaten on any economy flight was better than this (see picture - apparently this is a "miso tofu poke bowl", complete with supermarket bagged lettuce, and mushy tomatoes). Mezze plate and cheese board were also terrible, as was the martini I ordered. Oh and a grand total of one red, one white and one sparkling on the "wine list".
I probably would have bitched to a few friends if it was just this, but the second leg is where it gets fun... we boarded and there was a leak (I'm assuming from the aircon) that was dripping on me every few seconds. I reported it to the crew, and the guy said "it's a full flight, but it should stop after take-off". Okay, fine, fair enough, anything to avoid upgrading someone right. What transpired next was farcical, we spent, I'm not exaggerating, 3 HOURS on the tarmac (me being dripped on the whole time), before they finally got us to disembark to change planes. Now look, sht happens, sometimes stuff breaks, what can you do. But the absence of any communication, or operational support when we disembarked (despite them having had so long to get ready for us) was a joke. They literally just said "go to X gate" and when we got there, there was one lady to 500 passengers, who just kept assisting people adhoc who got fed up enough to barge up to the front of the queue (if you could call it that).
Honestly, people are pretty forgiving, most aren't arseholes, all it would have taken is "sorry, we're still working through things, if you'd all just take a seat and we'll communicate with you again as soon as we can". But no, it was chaos. Oh yeah, and thanks Emirates for the "food and drink voucher" that no one could use bc we had no time/communication and had to stand in a line for another 3 hours whilst you figured it out.
Oh, on the subject of food, when we did take off 6 hours late, they had one F&B service for a 6.5hr flight. And it was better than the business class fare 👍
I am currently flying from Toronto to Dubai in economy. I been to lot of long flights and all of them were in economy, however having free wifi (it's undeniably fast and smooth, it literally I felt like using my own home internet) made my journey 10x better than what I use to had. This is also my first time using starlink and it's great.
Hello. I have some plans to travel with emirates and have miles, but don’t have status to upgrade from business to first. So I want to find someone who can grant me gold partnership and I present some “exchange”. If you have it please send me a DM and we can discuss. Also it’s possible to organise exchange at personal meeting in Dubai
I have booked the flights already but haven't got the details yet in regards to what Terminal I land in Dubai and which one I depart from but do you think 2h 05m is enough time to get to the gate for my second flight?
