Trip Report – Emirates First Class Lounge – A380 Terminal – Concourse A – Dubai

by Adam Last updated August 10, 2014

Seriously, the nicest lounge I’ve ever visited period…and it’s the length of the entire terminal! This is part five of a fifteen part trip report from my travels to the Maldives and Dubai. This picture report covers the one year old Emirates First Class Lounge at the A380 Terminal – Concourse A in Dubai.

The First Class Lounge at Concourse A in Dubai officially opened last February and is exclusively for A380s (though other aircraft types are now located there as well). The lounge is incredible and spans the entire concourse with all gates directly accessible from within the lounge. Did I mention it’s so big that it has multiple sit down fine dining areas, private duty free shopping, cigar lounges, spa, and many other crazy amenities? To walk from one end to the other can take ten minutes or more.

Our connecting flight to the Maldives left from Concourse B, but it was well worth the 10 minute train ride and walk to reach the A380 Terminal First Class Lounge (you can enter any Emirates First Class lounge with your first class ticket). Not to mention we had almost six full hours prior to boarding our 3:25 am flight. There is a separate first class lounge at Concourse B and I’ll have a trip report on that one tomorrow.

Now, a word of warning. If you book your flights using miles from Alaska Airlines your tickets won’t show lounge access. You’ll have to explain to the agent that you are not traveling on a reduced or staff fare but that you booked an award via Alaska Airlines. This was a common theme for us in LAX, Dubai, Male, and Milan.

Exiting reception you can walk either left or right depending on where your gate is located. Being that our gate was in another terminal it didn’t matter. Both directions have the exact same amenities…meaning both sides have their own duty free shopping, a fine dining room, multiple seating areas, children’s play rooms, business centers, prayer rooms, quiet lounges, showers, and cigar bars. It’s that big! Oh, and expect to be greeted by EVERYONE as you walk through the terminal. As we arrived at 8pm we were the ONLY guests in the entire gigantic lounge for almost an hour or more (most flights depart between 12-4am ).

First experience with private duty free in the lounge…not that I bought anything:

Tons of seating options – each with multiple outlets …some look a bit like the Wynn in Vegas…

Wifi requires login with your name, flight, and seat number:

The fine dining area – Wow, there’s a huge buffet with amazing hot and cold entree, snack, and dessert choices – Kobe beef, sushi, chicken dishes, lamb, salmon, cod, salads, sandwiches, Arabic mezze, etc. Lots of attendants on hand to answer any questions and help you with your selections.

The buffet is just the start though, check out the full made-to-order menu!

I went with the chicken and barley soup, tuna carpaccio, and grouper fillet. Everything was fantastic. We were also given an amuse-bouche courtesy of the chefs to begin our meal. Bread and Voss water to start…and of course waiter service:

Some fresh chicken as well…

As it’s the middle of the night you can choose both dinner or breakfast options. It really is crazy how much goes on after 12am at Dubai airport! Note that the changeover to only breakfast occurs at 3AM. OK, why not head to the spa…

There’s a spa located just outside the lounge and first class passengers are given five complimentary treatment options: de-stress back massage, reflex therapy leg and foot massage, manicure, hair shaping / dry cut, or professional blow dry. Business passengers can use the spa as well, though services are not complimentary. See the pictures below for the complimentary menu and regular price menu. I went with the back massage and boy did it hurt…though i guess some people like that sort of thing.

I even received a thank you from the spa a few weeks after my trip

Shower on-board, shower on the ground…

Kids play areas:

Cigar room –

Quiet / rest areas –

PS3 anyone?

Now, even if you avoid all the special areas and simply go sit by one of the gates, you’ll still have access to food and beverages. Granted there’s a bit less but we are still talking tons of choices, including sushi!

Thoroughly impressed! Great food, excellent service (the staff to passenger ratio is ridiculous), and lots of fun ways to stay busy. When it’s time to board you can simply walk right into the first class section of your A380. For us it was off to Terminal B. Check out that first class lounge trip report tomorrow.

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Adam

Adam is the proud Founder and CEO of both Point Me to the Plane and point.me. An international consultant turned TV programming strategist, Adam currently works full-time on both websites. His obsession with points and miles dates back to his freshman year at college. After browsing Flyertalk and Mileage Workshop, Adam pulled the trigger and signed up for his first Citibank AAdvantage credit card and MCI phone line (yes, landlines still existed). Back then, both deals were churnable and in no time at all, the college freshman had enough miles to travel to Europe and Asia in First Class for free, multiple times. Needless to say, he was hooked! Fast forward a few years and Adam of course ended up in a career with a heavy travel requirement…which meant extra miles for awards! As his colleagues and friends started to hear about and see pictures from his trips, they wanted in on the secret and Adam began to assist them with their bookings, Juicy Miles was born. At the same time, Adam started an email newsletter to prevent those less obsessed co-workers from squandering their point collection opportunities. The bi-weekly email covered everything from upcoming promotions, guidance on maximizing points, and redemption advice. The distribution quickly expanded outside the office and Point Me to the Plane became a BoardingArea blog.

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15 comments

JD February 12, 2014 - 11:30 am

Is the cigar bar and open bar, or do you have to pay for them?

naroowal February 12, 2014 - 11:54 am

If I am arriving in JFK-DXB in First but connecting to a business class flight to MLE would I still get access to the FCL?

– naroowal

Greg February 12, 2014 - 6:34 pm

Why does Emirates have so many departures between midnight – 4am? I’ve always thought that was so odd, but clearly I’m missing something.

Etienne February 12, 2014 - 11:40 pm

You should throw in that all of the people working there are basically slave labour, imported in from Southeast Asia and Manila.

Kris February 13, 2014 - 12:42 am

I look at that and think how much of a chore it must be to get around. In theory it may be nice, but unless there are golf carts at a moments notice, I think it would be a burden, depending on what you plan on doing there.

Richard February 15, 2014 - 3:32 pm

How insistent did you have to get to be allowed into the A380 lounge? We have an Alaska award ticket and are dreading the international incident tomorrow at DXB.

adam February 15, 2014 - 3:41 pm

@Richard – Not too bad at all. We simply had to explain the situation each time and then were delayed while they confirmed the details. Annoying but not longer than 5-10 minutes in any lounge.

Richard February 21, 2014 - 11:12 am

Just wanted to give you some new data. The first class lounge scanned our tickets, casually asked if it was an Alaska award, and we were admitted. No hassle. Not sure if it was just this employee, or if Emirates staff in Dubai have figured things out.