We (Spouse and I) are on a (Alaska booked) Emirates one way F SFO-DXB-MLE in Jan 2019

SFO-DXB (A380-800) lands at 19:25 (7:25 pm) and connects to (9 hour connection)

DXB-MLE (B777-300ER) departing 4:35 am.

Our inclination is to rest in the Emirates F lounge. I imagine we can shower and sleep a bit to be ready.

Q1. Any problems with that plan?
Q2. We don't need a transit visa do we?
Q3. Recommend anything different?

Q1: No, it's doable. However you might prefer a hotel for the longer duration, you may even be eligible for a free hotel and transfer from Emirates, called Dubai Connect. If you are it will appear in your Manage My Booking
Q2: No, if you remain airside. If you want to enter Dubai it depends on what nationality you are, which you don't say, so impossible to answer
Q3: Hotel a per No 1, especially if free, though personally I'd probably be happy to stay in the lounge

Thanks. USA born and passport.

No visa required. You could go into Dubai for dinner, with a 4am departure a hotel may not be worth it, shower before descent, go through immigration and catch a taxi into town for dinner and see the Burj Khalifa and downtown, back to airport by midnight for 4 solid hours in the lounge, have a massage and then a nice meal before the next flight

Agreed... get out of the airport, at least for a few hours. It's very easy to get around Dubai, taxis are cheap and Uber is available. At that time, the metro is still running, so you could just get on and head to Dubai Mall (next to the Burj Khalifa) and have a good meal watching the fountains.

Immigration will be quiet when you arrive. I arrived last week about that time, and there was no queue at all.

Actually wouldn't recommend metro for that, as the walk from metro station to mall is annoyingly long.

Also travelling F, as long as it isn't a partner award, you can probably get EK to drop you for free by just showing up at the CD desk, and they may also agree to pick you up again (gillyd22 had success with this earlier this year)

I'm in the same boat for May! same SFO - DXB flight with a similar layover before DXB - HKG. So glad I read your post as well as the replies - please let me know how your layover goes! Have fun!

They are on AS award so won't qualify for CD, Uber or regular airport taxi would be the best option. As Skywardhunter said you can shower onboard just before landing and head straight out.

Note that the DXB F lounge does not have sleeping rooms, there are quite rooms with loungers but no beds.

Traveling first class Flight 224 EWR-DXB connecting to DXB- MLE Flight 660 with a 1 hour 55 min transfer time
Is it a long walk between gates? Will I have time to use the lounge in DXB?

The aircraft has 8 seats in first so I believe it is the old 777. Is that is a correct assumption?

Correct assumption.

1h55m is plenty of time to connect. Unless you're going from A to C (or vice versa) you should have time for a brief lounge visit provided flights are on time.

Nobody can answer that, depends on which gate you land and depart at, nothing is fixed in DXB. If you do struggle, you can use the free golf buggies.

Has anyone done a T1D-T3 transit recently? My partner will be coming off an SQ flight and connecting to an EK flight.

From what I read, there seems to be an airside transfer bus every 30 minutes, but I'm not sure what the timings are, and which part of T3 it drops you off at. Do they make the rounds to each concourse, or is everyone sent to Concourse B?

I did this a month ago. I had a day layover on Emirates between Africa and the US. I used the layover to take a day trip to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, flying from Dubai to Bahrain on Gulf Air. The connection between my EK and GF flights was very tight, 2h 10m. I found the airside bus shuttle to T1, but I had just missed it. I had to wait about 40m until the next one. I arrived at T1 at 7:15 AM for my 8:00 AM Gulf Air flight. I of course had to go through security at T1, but not immigration. T1 security was deserted, so I breezed right through and was at the gate a few minutes after getting off the bus.

That evening I arrived into T1 on the Gulf Air flight from Bahrain at 10:35 PM. My Emirates flight to the US was leaving from T3 B at 2:20 AM+1, so I had plenty of time. I took the airside shuttle bus from T1 to T3.

I only experience the shuttle at B, so I'm not sure if it goes to the other terminals. I know that when I was on it that it did not stop at any other terminals. All of my EK flights were into and out of B, so I had no reason to go anywhere else.