My bucket list of dream lounges is getting ticked off
Emirates operates three First Class lounges at Dubai Airport, and this is a review of the largest and best in Concourse A. If you’re thinking of visiting one of the First lounges or paying to access one, then this is the lounge that you want to use. The others, whilst perfectly decent lounges, are a fraction of this lounge’s size and offer fewer facilities.
How we got access to the First lounge at DXB (Concourse A)
We were flying from Seoul to Manchester, UK with a connection in Dubai. Both legs were booked in Business Class using Emirates Skywards points. We transferred Amex Membership Rewards points into Skywards to make that booking.
You can no longer book directly into the First cabin using points unless you have a higher Skywards status. Instead, you can book Business and then use points to upgrade, if that option is available.
The option to upgrade our Manchester leg opened up as soon as we had booked our Business seats. This was the critical flight to get moved up into First, because Emirates lounge rules mean that you have to be flying First on your next flight to get into their top tier lounges. If you fly into Dubai in First, then connect to a Business Class flight, then you won’t be allowed access. You can, however, pay to upgrade to the First lounge.
Our Seoul to Dubai upgrade became available 17 days before the flight. We did not need to upgrade this leg to access the First lounge, but we did so anyway just for the First experience.
Where is the Emirates First Class lounge located?
Firstly, there are three Emirates First lounges, each offering different levels of service. This review covers the best of the three, located in Concourse A.
We made the mistake last year of paying to get into one, and while it was a pleasant lounge, it was firmly in the second tier. I wrote up my review of the Emirates First lounge in Concourse C. It wasn’t a bad space, but since we were connecting from a First to a Business flight, we had to pay £230 to access it. It was not worth that amount.
There is also a First lounge in Concourse B, which I have not yet visited.
How do you get access to the Emirates First lounge?
You have to either be flying first class with Emirates or have Emirates Skywards platinum status. If you have a First-class ticket booked with Skyward points, you will be able to access this lounge.
If you are travelling on a Business Class ticket, you should be able to pay to upgrade to the First lounge. I wrote a long article on paying to access Emirates lounges, and the current quoted price is $150 per person for Skywards members (membership is free).
If you’re travelling on an Economy ticket, you can get access to the First Class lounge for £250 if you’re a Skywards member. I would suggest caution when considering the cash upgrade options.
Whilst officially Emirates allows it, you are at the whim of the reception staff. If the lounge is busy or they expect it to be, they may turn you away. As the old adage goes, if you don’t ask, you don’t get, but be prepared for a potential “no” during peak times.
When did we visit this lounge?
We arrived at this lounge just after half past four in the morning. The airport was extremely quiet, and there was no queue to get into the lounge. We simply walked up to the front desk, presented our boarding passes for our next flight, and we were ushed in to the space.
Given how quiet it was, and potentially because Emirates was running a reduced number of flights due to the ongoing issues in the Middle East, only one half of the lounge was open. The lounge has near-identical facilities on both sides of the lounge, so this did not impact the experience.
As you walk in, the first thing you’ll see is a duty-free shop. Whether you turn left or right, you’ll get to see one, because there is one on either side of the lounge. There’s also an Emirates Skywards desk, and some seats next to that. That seating is useful if you’re waiting for someone in the duty-free shop, or if you just need to pause before you enter or exit the lounge.
This lounge is not short of seating. Its everywhere, in different colours and sizes. There’s private semi-enclosed seating around the bar, a ten-person seating area underneath a stunning lighting installation, and single-person relaxation pods near some of the gates. I get the feeling that this lounge is never more than half full, meaning you have your pick of where you want to park yourself.
What’s the Emirates First lounge like inside?
This is a huge lounge, and I think the largest I have ever been in. It’s a long, thin space that is so expansive that it’s effectively split in two, with most facilities duplicated on both sides. The lounge takes over half of the entire upper floor in departures.
It’s decorated in the typical Emirates style, with dark woods and golds. It’s an attractive lounge that is incredibly spacious but it has not had any significant refresh.
Emirates is starting to develop lounges based on a “next generation” concept. The first to launch was Munich, and soon Manchester’s Terminal 2 will open. This new look is far more modern. The Dubai lounge, as attractive as it is, feels a little dated. It’s uncertain whether this lounge will be refreshed, as the airport is expected to close between 2023 and 2035
Food and drink in the lounge
There are two different spaces to eat in the lounge. You can head to a sit-down dining space, which overlooks the rest of the terminal. There’s more formal seating, which is great for couples or groups, alongside single seating for those travelling alone.
The dining area is an attractive space with no ceilings. If you look up, you’ll see the curvature of the terminal roof. This has sections made of glass, so in the daytime it will let in a lot of natural light. It’s also a big space to dine, meaning that you’re not on top of other diners. There are wooden dividers between tables, or, for more privacy, some dining tables set to the side of the entranceway.
You can also help yourself to food from the bars. Despite the early hours of the morning, the fridges and food counters were fully stocked.
There was a mixture of breakfast items, including Arabic coffee and pastries, alongside some savoury, less-breakfast-like options for those whose bodies were operating in a different timezone.
You can order from a menu at the seating around the bars. It’s a more limited menu versus the sit-down dining, but it’s still decent.
Despite the early hours of our visit, there were staff members on duty in the bar area. One came over to take our food and drink order. We had eaten on our inbound flight, and planned to eat on our outbound, so we ordered soft drinks, and then I helped myself to a chocolate muffin (which was great).
You can read the full First dining menu, as active when we visited.
Facilities
As you would expect from a lounge of this site there’s a wide array of facilities, including:
- A sit-down restaurant
- A fully enclosed quiet area
- A children’s play area
- A cigar/smoking area
- Showers
- A spa including a hairdresser
- A prayer room
- The ability to board directly from the lounge
There are also multiple newspaper and magazine racks, and multiple bathrooms. There’s a business centre, complete with desks and computers. The lounge has wifi, and I managed to get 60mb/s download, which is more than enough for most uses.
The bathrooms in the lounge are plentiful, clean, and they come with self-service toiletries including shaving kits, dental kits and combs. The soaps and hand lotions are from Emirates’ preferred Voya brand.
Boarding from the lounge
As you walk around the Emirates lounge, you’ll see gates dotted around the outskirts. These allow you to board flights directly from the lounge, going through biometrics on the same floor as the lounge, and then going down in an elevator to board the plane.
Our gate was A24, which was in the closed half of the lounge. You’re still able to walk through it to access the gate. Alongside the area we boarded were partly enclosed single-person booths. They were attractive mini-rooms, with a TV, an armchair and power.
The future of this lounge (and Emirates in Dubai)
Dubai’s current main airport will be closing in the next decade. The masterplan is to move all commercial flights to Al Maktoum Airport. That airport is already in operation, serving a small number of passengers each year. It currently has just a single airport lounge and four places to eat and drink.
A $35billion expansion project has started, and by the end the airport will be able to take over all the flights and passengers that the current airport handles, with room for many more. When completed, Al Maktoum will be five times bigger than DXB. It will also have an astonishing 430 gates, spread over seven concourses. In total, it will be able to handle 150million passengers a year when the airport fully opens.
What this means for Emirates is that they have a blank canvas for their passenger experience. Unlike other airlines, they still value luxury, and the airline still operates a First cabin (and expects to do so well into the future). That means there will be plenty of First Class passengers who expect an exceptional lounge, and everything points towards Emirates delivering on this.
Their new “next generation” lounges have a more modern look. New lounges at the new airport will look far better than the current spaces at Dubai airport. In terms of facilities, less is known about what Emirates is thinking. I would hope that they take some features of their current First space, such as the spas, and transport them into their business lounges as Qatar has done. They don’t need to be complimentary: when we visited the Qatar Garden Lounge, we were happy to pay to use one of the spas as it wasn’t priced too high.
The verdict on the Emirates First Lounge
It’s showing its age a little, but it’s hard not to be impressed by this lounge. It’s an adult playground, spread out over an enormous footprint, and yet despite it containing so much, it feels spacious.
There is no doubt that visiting this lounge should be on your travel bucket list. My only regret is that we didn’t have more time in here. As you would expect from Emirates, the staff in the lounge are warm and attentive. The airline has a well-deserved reputation for its staff.
It’s comparable to the Qatar First lounge in Doha in some respects, but head-to-head it does lose out. The Qatar lounge looks better and has more facilities: where the Emirates loses out is the dedicated sleep rooms. That’s not to say this is a bad lounge, and the hope is that when they move to the new Al Maktoum airport they will match, or even better, the Qatar space.
Where Emirates does win, hands-down, is that you can board from the lounge. Not all flights will offer this. You have to be departing from Concourse A, but there are a lot of gates in this lounge so a reasonable likelihood you’ll get to experience this. Qatar offers the same boarding option from it’s First lounge, but I believe only from a single gate due to the airport layout.
Rating the Emirates First lounge in Dubai
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