Originally Posted by RustyC

Just getting back from it (3 hours in the KL lounge in AMS). Trip went well, generally. The AF flight on IAH-CDG was pretty crummy...very tight seat pitch on the 777, half the legroom taken by the IFE box and rubber BBQ chicken or bad vegetarian pasta in economy. They were also late getting out and kept saying they'd be on time into CDG until around takeoff, after which they didn't say much. Was over an hour late, and I had to dash through CDG, from one terminal to another and thru Schengen immigration to catch the connection to AMS. I made it but the bag didn't, and it was such a beautiful day in AMS that I wasn't going to wait 2 hours for the bag to arrive, so I had them deliver it to the hotel (thankfully no valuables inside).

Things went better after that with KL. Immigration at AUH was slow (about 40 minutes worth of line; I guess they're easily overwhelmed). The airport bus runs half hourly and is a good service for AED 4 (though it could use better signage). The hotel was an easy walk from the city air terminal.

It was pretty hot already in AUH, and the city is unfortunately (and needlessly) very pedestrian unfriendly. But the #5, #7 and #54 city buses were handy, and with the #54 (AED 2) u can get to the big mosque, which is well worth seeing. Lunch at the tower over the Marina Mall also affords some great views.

Emirates Express (AED 25) as pretty good connecting Abu Dhabi and Dubai, though sometimes demand exceeds supply and there's a wait. The metro in Dubai is really wonderful and a game-changer, making it easy to see things like the Burj Khalifa and the mall with the ski slope. But the creekside area around sunset was probably the best.

Anyway, this is getting into trip-report territory and I'm about to be auto-logged-off, so I'll quit. DXB and AUH are very user-friendly, though the heat can get ya even in May.