mogoy

Easy question to answer.
Being QF plat in DXB, i usually spend the night in EK F lounge while having a regional flight with the M-E at around 8 am the next day. I am a "regular" of this. So have plenty of experience.


1/ You are not allowed to enter the DXB concourse until 8 hours before your departure flight (coming from city - not being in transit within the aiport obviously, and if you don't have an airport hotel booking). It is controlled by Airport agent just before Immigration.
But it has happened that they let me in 11 hours before departure without question but most of the time the agents know their regulations. So don't count on it.

2/ To circumvene 1/ you need to have an EK agent approving your entering : the first time, the Airport agent called EK on the phone and I was allowed. Now I simply go to a supervisor in the J/F T3 and ask to be escorted so that some EK agent waves me through. Have tried and suceeded 4 times. Worst you can expect, is some questionning of "why so early" but no real difficulties.

m3red

I will never understand this, ever.

I'd rather be at home and get up early.

mogoy

You should factor the pros and cons :

+/ lower risk to miss your flight
+/ better night time coz not forced to wake up as early as if you were at home
+/ free nice dinner with excellent wine
+/ doing something unworldly in a very sanitized and conformist world

-/ under standard bedding
-/ promiscuity

Depends on much value you grant to those. YMMV.
I made my choices ! Cheers, mate !

subject2load

+ 1

Or in a hotel.

Both options offering a proper, comfortable bed.

There's a part of me that still initially thinks that people might be joking when they enquire about the possibility of spending an entire night (by choice ) in an airport lounge. And then I realise they're serious !

skywardhunter

There's a certain allure to the buzz of lounges, the globality... I wouldn't wan to spend the night but have often considered booking a longer daytime stopover if it's a weekday and spend the day working from the DXB lounge and just enjoying the ambience

subject2load

Well, it's a weird one, IMHO. I can generally think of better things to do.

I can't recall ever hearing of folk with aspirations of spending eight hours or upwards in, say, the guest lounge of a 5* hotel (and which would, most likely, be far more comfortable than any airline lounge)

Perhaps the difference - and hence the true 'allure' of the airline lounge is simply that the food & drink there is free .....

Is there another attraction .... ?? Plane-spotting ? People-watching ???

jackal

Good on you!

One idea no one has mentioned yet is to spend the night in the lounge and don't sleep.

That's what I did. We arrived at the airport around midnight, checked in, and went to the lounge. We spent some time enjoying the amenities, and then my traveling companion napped for a bit while I worked through the night. Then we had a nice breakfast just before boarding, whereupon we boarded our flight to SFO and I immediately went to sleep.

The 9am departure meant I was going to sleep at midnight US Pacific time. I woke up eight hours later very refreshed and was immediately adapted to our destination time zone. It worked absolutely wonderfully--FAR better than either trying to get to sleep early and then wake up at some ungodly hour to drag my heels to the airport and try to coax some exhausted enjoyment out of the lounge or to rush for our flight after oversleeping and encountering traffic to the airport and miss enjoying time in the lounge entirely.

I'm glad we ignored the advice in this thread and went ahead with our plan.

That said, is this lounge the panacea some make it out to be? Far from it. It's actually kind of mediocre for a first class lounge at a global hub. I much prefer the LH FCT, the TG FCL, or CX's Pier at HKG. The EK F lounge with it being noisily open to the terminal below and with various and sundry duty free shops around it felt like the second floor of a shopping mall. The decor was somewhat plain. The sleeping areas were uncomfortable. The food and drink was barely. The nicest thing I can think of is that because it's the size of the entire terminal, you can board at any gate directly from the lounge. Otherwise, it's a big "meh."

It's still worth a visit, though, and if an evening check-in and nighttime visit to the lounge enables that in a more pleasant way than rushing to the airport at 0-dark-thirty in the morning, why begrudge those who want to do that? And if it solves jet lag, it almost doesn't make sense not to.

subject2load

Well that's an interesting and well-reasoned post jackal. And it seems very much like your time at the lounge was very productive given that you worked through the night. Can't deny it.

That said, I doubt anything would persuade me to want to spend a whole night at the DXB F lounge (which, I would agree, does not enjoy the most ideal 'setting')

m3red

The only time I do something like this is for 3am departures where we may go about 10pm and have a massage get some dinner etc etc.

ft101

I did a 6 or 8 hour transit in DXB a few years ago just to experience the A380 as it was new at the time. I'll never willingly do it again. I think some of the previous posters will be the same after they've done it once.

skywardhunter

That's nothing. I've done 21hours in DXB in the terminal with NO lounge access. Poor student at the time with a passport requiring a visa to enter

Saltire74

Do the First Class lounges have any sleeping/quiet rooms (that are fit for purpose)?

Have noticed the area in the J Lounge in B (I nearly worded that wrongly) that unless you are nearly dead on your feet, wouldn't imagine getting much rest/sleep.

S

ft101

My point was that after one such experience, of whatever length, I wouldn't do it voluntarily again. Those saying it's not so bad might change their mind after doing it once.

eternaltransit

Not really no - not bad for a nap perhaps, but not really sleep imho. That's what the hotel is for!

eternaltransit

I think there is some merit in arriving late evening for a early morning departure - the F lounge, especially Concourse A, is a perfectly acceptable place to spend a few hours (at most!) in the early hours of the morning.

F&B provisions, decent showers, earplugs to block out the noise of the terminal and eyeshades for the rest rooms. I've stayed in worse places! But most importantly, you can wake up 45 minutes before boarding and go straight on board!

I did laugh at this though mogoy:

Commercial air travel is one of the most sanitized and conformist experiences in the entire world, lounge access included!