The Emirates business lounge in Dubai

A while back in the comments, J mentioned about someday flying business class. As I don't travel so often in business class myself, I thought I would take a few photos on the Dubai trip, so come along with me on a little virtual tour of the Air Emirates business lounge. This is not to be confused with the Emirates First Class lounge, this was just the Business lounge. ;-)

This one reminded me of the adverts where they show relaxing passengers. The view in front was the main concourse shops one level down, and further outside were some parked aircraft.


There were plenty of food and beverage stations, all serving the same menu in a self-serve buffet fashion. I originally started off with a plate of Indian food, but it was not edible, way too salty. There were plenty of other options like fresh fruit, ice cream, and cereal.


There were plenty of ways to whittle away your waiting time...worship rooms, an internet rom with painfully slow access, free newspapers and magazines, shower areas, televisions set to news channels, a discounted spa and video game areas:


And plenty of video game areas there were:

Interestingly, though, none of the executive types were playing them. ;-)

I was erring on the side of caution in taking photos as the guidebooks warn about photographing the Muslim women without first obtaining permission. As I was still on Emirates soil, I played it safe and photographed no one at a close distance, except for the sleeping Indian fellow in the first photo.

Overall, it was a mega-lounge experience and too big. The new A380s are zipping in and out of Dubai and hauling plenty of business passengers, so being in this lounge wasn't too special. I didn't spend so much time in the general airport, but it seemed to be a pleasant airport experience, with lots of space, as opposed to somewhere more cramped like Heathrow where the lounge can be a little more of an oasis of peace to preserve one's sanity.

I missed to take any photos on the outgoing lounge at Heathrow. That one was much smaller and I found the staff there to be more pleasant than at this one. At Heathrow they would operate the coffee machine for you and be generally friendly, whereas in Dubai you would be standing at a counter and have to wave someone down to get you something behind it, as they were too busy gabbing with their colleagues. I thought perhaps the Dubai thing was gender driven, but then I realized they ignored everyone equally, males plus females.

Next up, on boad the Emirates A380...