I like all the F lounges in their own way. I think that at B gates the F lounge is miles better than the J one. The BJ lounge is very busy :D

At A there is less of a difference although I've not been in the A J lounge for a while. I like that its direct boarding (on the whole) and that its like a whole private terminal with nice food and drink and places to chill (for a couple of hours...). I don't like how the spa is outside the lounge at A. A is not as smokey with the cigar room...

C lounges are both average being quite small but again ok for an hour or so.

I'm on first name terms with the spa and the staff in the lounge I've been there that much this year and always find them pretty good (smoking areas aside).

I had the same feeling the first time I used the J lounge in C in DXB. It is too big and impersonal and with what felt like walls along the entire length on the edge purposefully making it impossible to look out at the aircraft. You might as well be in a warehouse or under the ground. But then again how else do you connect every gate directly to the top deck of an A380? By its very nature that means a lounge exactly as long as the concourse you're in, which is nearly 950 meters. So you will have lots of empty open spaces making the place feel as dead as a morgue. At the far ends you can look down into the F lounge below and it looked as dead as the J lounge - but then very few people would venture that far unless their gates are at the end.

The B Concourse J lounge of course is from a time before they wanted direct access to the top deck and you have to go down to get on your aircraft. It is still a very long and impersonal lounge in my book.

The DBX J lounges are strange places. Two hours max in there (as suggested above) is about right in my book.

I think you mean A not C

The B lounges have some gates that are direct entry to the upper deck. You access them from the lounge complex.

I didn't read through the whole thread but I kind of agree with the OP. The lounge is acceptable but doesn't show glitzy glamour that EK is notorious for. There are no sleeping rooms, and the shower rooms are meh. You can barely fit all your luggage in one of the shower rooms they are so tight. I would expect more from an EK F lounge at their hub.

However, unlike the OP I actually like the people following you around to make sure you're okay. If you make it known to them you don't want them, they will go away. Also if you sit down and get a space for yourself, and make it clear you don't want them bothering you, they don't.

What is cool about the lounge is the restaurant, and the fact that they can literally make you any dish and any drink at any time of the day that your little heart desires. I arrived at 6am and they were serving breakfast but I wanted dinner and just told the waiter what I wanted and 30 minutes later it came out. In addition, you can order exotic drinks like Lassi's and Asian drinks like Vietnamese coffee, and the attendants are from those parts of the world so they know how to make them. Those are my favorite parts of the lounge.

Just curious, is there an alternative lounge at DXB with a partner airline we can use flying EK F?

You are correct - I had my C and A the other way around! Apologies. I've never flown from C!

Yes, but only very few and it's hardly worth mentioning.

And as I stated elsewhere before, I'm working on the new DWC terminal here in Dubai to which all of EK will be moving around 2025 and there will be NO direct access from any J or F lounges to the upper deck of any A380 sadly. Someone realised having a near kilometer long lounge simply doesn't work if you want any atmosphere in said lounge.

So sadly all F and J pax will have to go down to the shopping centre floor (that's what airports are these days!) and walk with the general Y class peeps to get to a standard gate from which they will board all flights. I think it is a great shame to take away the direct boarding. But at least there will be dedicated airbridges connected to the top deck - unlike the B concourse where you just have Code E airbridges connected to the lower deck and you have to climb the stairs inside the aircraft to get to the top deck making it impossible to roll your luggage all the way to your seat.

I'll beleive that when I see a line of EK A380's at DWC.

I'd bet £10 of m3red's money that EK end up staying at DXB, and it effectively becomes an EK only airport.

You are not the first to state that to me... :) Time will tell of course.

I have been in the F lounge in B terminal four times in the past month and in my opinion service levels are dropping fast.

It appears to my untrained eye that they have reduced the number of staff in the dining areas and it is taking far too long for simple requests.

Last time I was there I ordered something really simple like a plate of chips and took over 30 minutes to arrive, then I had to wait another 10 minutes for the requested condiments.

Ok not a big thing in the grand scale of things, but, not something you would expect from somewhere that is marketed as a premium experience.

Was there a few times this month (2xA and 2xB). I haven't noticed staff service standards slipping, by and large I find them quite efficient and friendly, and didn't get the impression there were less. However, I do find the service standard of the a la carte food items has been gradually going down, and they seem to run out of one or the other items more frequently (today I was surprised it was the (admittedly sushi) rice they serve with the dashi salmon main course).

We can test again on the 23rd.

Gurantee it will be B gate to make sure all the drunkards can find the plane :D

Apparently EK are burning cash at a phenomenal rate at present and are deep in the red. So this might explain why levels of service is dropping - and will continue to drop I suspect.

$200m planes will do that! :D

That's where I'm going wrong then. I only ever go to the smoking lounge in B :o:p

Safe & Happy Travels

S

What time are you flying out? I'm on EK11 to LGW departing at 0250.