The sheer joy of an arrivals lounge
What’s cooler than a regular lounge? An arrivals lounge. My spirits are always lifted at the end of a long journey by having a shower, something to drink, and just existing in a quiet place for half an hour. The American Airlines arrivals lounge at Heathrow is one of my favourites after an overnight flight. Qatar got the memo, with two stunning spaces at Doha. I’ve passed by their arrivals lounges (note the plural) many times, and that’s probably the issue: they’re very easy to miss.
What are the Qatar Airways arrival lounges at Doha airport?
These lounges serve two different purposes. The first lounge is more of an expedited passport control with seating, food and drink.
The second is post-baggage reclaim, and is a luxury lounge that features all the things you would want before you head out into the city: food, drink, space to work and shower facilities.
Neither lounge has the breadth of facilities in Qatar’s flagship Business and First Class lounges, and yet they are still beautiful, functional spaces that are still better than most other lounges.
Who can use these lounges?
- Passengers travelling in Business or First Class with Qatar
- Passengers travelling in Business or First with a oneworld airline should be able to access these lounges. They do not exist in the oneworld lounge database, but others have said they were able to use them.
- You can also pay for access to this Qatar lounge.
The arrival lounges are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The Pre-Security Qatar Arrivals Lounge
This lounge sits at the far end of passport control. As you enter the security hall, turn left and keep on walking. You’ll see the signposts for the Al Safwa First and Al Mourjan Business lounge.
Walk past the bathrooms on the right-hand side and through the glass doors to enter the lounge. You then check in at reception on the left-hand side.
When we arrived at around 7pm the lounge was completely deserted. The only two people in there were a Qatar staff member on reception and an individual manning the passport control at the far end of the lounge. In between them was a giant space, bigger than most standard UK lounges, with seating and some basic food and drink.
There are no bathroom facilities in this lounge. The nearest bathroom is just outside the entranceway.
Whilst this is a niche lounge used by far fewer people than any of the departure lounges, Qatar have not held back on the decor. It’s a stunningly beautiful space that follows the same design principles as the First Class lounge.
There are no scratches or scuffs, or tired old furniture. The food and drink are fully stocked. Take a can of Coke, and a staffer will appear and replace it. Then they’ll disappear. It’s a lounge that runs like clockwork.
It’s one big square room that could hold a hundred people, and when you look at the layout, it does feel like they simply ran out of things to do with the space. There’s a ton of seating, in various shapes and styles, grouped for couples, groups or families.
Food & Drink
There’s a single self-service food and drink counter. It’s basic by Qatar standards, but it actually stands up well compared to some European lounges.
There are some cold food options, including sandwiches and hummus, as well as a few varieties of bread rolls and desserts.
For drinks, there’s a coffee machine and a hot water machine, with a selection of tea bags.
Further along the counter, you have chilled water and soft drinks in cans.
This is not a lounge you will stay in for a long period of time; however, it serves three purposes. Firstly, it’s relaxing. Grab a snack, have a quick drink, and unwind from the hustle and bustle of the airport for ten minutes.
Secondly, it’s likely a faster way to get through passport control.
Clearing passport control in this lounge
When it came time to leave, we wandered towards the border agent, who pointed us towards the automatic E-gate machines. I was in and out of them in two minutes, whilst my wife struggled a bit with her passport for another minute. The agent did help her, but he didn’t seem particularly happy about it, which was strange given that he had nothing else to do.
When you leave, you exit directly into the middle of the baggage hall. That gave us the third purpose of this lounge: we just walked to the right baggage carousel, and our cases were slowly working their way around. Spending ten minutes in the lounge meant that everyone else had got their bags and left, making the process of collecting them so much easier.
We walked through customs and then headed to the main arrivals lounge.
The primary Qatar Airways Arrivals Lounge at Doha
This is another easy-to-miss lounge. Turn left as you get out of customs, and the lounge is on your left-hand side. A small sign above it just says “arrivals lounge”.
You check in at the lounge on the arrivals level, then take an elevator up to the next floor. This takes you into the first of many spaces in this lounge. During our twenty minutes in here, we were the only passengers. This was a really quiet space.
It’s also another beautiful space. I can’t think of any other airline that would put so much budget into a lounge that will be used by 1% of its premium travellers.
What’s the main arrivals lounge like?
When you exit the lift, you’ll find yourself in a large, attractive space with seating. At one end are wooden pods, similar to what you get in the First Class lounge. They are semi-private, with wood walls and seating for two. The chairs in here are comfortable and include footstools.
In the body of the lounge, there are banks of very comfortable red and blue seats, with each chair having wireless charging and a universal power port.
At the back of the lounge, there are also larger private areas with more seating, suitable for families.
There’s also a smoking area, if you need to fire up a cigar.
Food and drink at the main arrivals lounge
At the other end of the lounge are some dining tables and a self-service food and drink counter. The self-service offering here is just as limited as the first arrivals lounge, with soft drinks and light snacks, and you can order directly from a menu.
The arrivals lounge menu isn’t extensive. During breakfast, you can get yoghurts, pastries and fruit. The lunch and dinner menu has salads and sandwiches, plus a limited dessert menu with cheesecake and Arabic sweets.
The Five Star Business Centre
Past the dining space is a small seating area with a bridge.
Walk over that, and you’ll get to the business centre, which is huge. Qatar do not scrimp when it comes to business centres.
There are three banks of desks, some of which have Apple iMacs. There are industry-grade printers, and some desks that are empty and ready for laptops.
At the end of the corridor are two attractive meeting rooms. If you need to work, or meet, then this is a really attractive space.
The bathrooms and showers
The arrivals lounge has beautiful bathrooms, which feature make-up areas in the female bathroom, and as you would expect with Qatar, they are exceptionally clean.
The shower facilities are within the bathrooms and are exceptionally spacious for an airport shower. Each one includes an entranceway to get changed in, a toilet and the shower itself. They’re decorated in the classic Qatar lounge style with light stone walls offset with dark woods.
The bathroom and shower toiletries are from Dypthique, the same brand you’ll find in the Qatar amenity kits and plane bathrooms.
The Verdict on the Qatar Arrivals lounges
I hate getting off a plane. You’re already tired, and ahead of you is a long walk to passport control, a queue, and then a wait for your luggage. No matter how premium your flight was, getting out of the airport is usually stressful and annoying.
What I loved about the Qatar Arrival lounges was the difference it made to the exit process. We avoided the main passport control area and relaxed with a soft drink and a snack for ten minutes. We missed out on the crush at the baggage reclaim, and then sat again in a peaceful space before we grabbed a taxi.
Yes, it delayed us by twenty or so minutes, but I would do this again in a heartbeat. It was a much easier, calmer, way to get out of Doha airport.
Qatar have such high standards when it comes to their lounges. They’re spotlessly clean, modern, bright and they just feel better than most other lounges that we’ve been to. Some Doha lounges are over ten years old, and yet they look like they’ve only just opened. The arrivals lounges are no different, having opened in 2015. And yet, they have more then stood the test of time.
While the food and drink on offer in the arrivals lounges is limited compared to the departure lounges, it’s enough, just about. You really won’t spend much time in these spaces, so light snacks and soft drinks are fine.
If you’re passing through the airport, and flew in on a Business or First ticket, then I’d highly recommend a visit.
Rating the Qatar Arrivals lounges
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