During my last visit to the A J lounge , I noticed that a few of the dining areas have been closed off.

I.e there was only one dining area on the left and maybe two in the right wings of the A J lounge.

I hadn't been there for a few months but I am fairly certain that there used to be multiple dining areas in both sections.

With connection times increasing they really should provide better rest facilities. The current loungers in the quiet area are really uncomfortable.

Slightly OT but when did they start closing off the sleeping areas /quiet areas at the far end if the A J lounge. These are the ones on both left and right wings of the A J lounge that you can access by stairs/lift at the far end of each wing.

These used to be a hidden location as most noobs will sit somewhere closer to the entrance but on my last two visits to the AJ lounge it was closed off.

Yeah, saw the same a few weeks ago. All the other sleep cubes were taken and ended up throwing out my back sleeping in a chair.

Interesting reading different opinions on what's considered luxurious. While EK's F lounges are far superior to their J lounges what I've found most annoying about them are that they are bright and have a lot of background noise because they are not isolated from the rest of the terminal.

I've often thought given the real estate they occupy, they could offer multiple concepts or even follow different time zones (a part that is bright and airy where you'd want to have Sunday brunch at the beach, and another that's dark and cozy like a bar at a 5 star hotel or a spa lobby).

Then there's also the bath experience that is not very spa-like, and the overall ground experience (I've found it very strange that they have a separate check in that doesn't take you directly to the lounge level).

It is a nice experience (perhaps the nicest possible at DXB) but by no means is it anything to write home about.

Agree with your views on the lounge. To me pretty much sums up what EK mostly is. Products seemingly not always thought sufficiently through but launched with enough bling, money and marketing to get off to a good start with little, if any, follow up. Partly probably a cultural and management style thing, partly probably also because the ME3 now have to face up to economic realities.

Because buying reputation is cheaper than actually maintaining product and service all the time.

-Directly or indirectly keep 20-50 bloggers/journalists happy.
-Subscribe to service/safety ratings sites and places synonymous with public squares in Roman cities.
-Pay $1 per put down and 50c per +ve post social media workers.

Do the math, way cheaper to maintain brand image consistently than any airline working their tails off.

That only works for so long, and now that a sustainable business model in a competitive environment also matters to them, this is likely to bite...

Sorry, this is a tremendously American-centric nitpick but the B-concourse J lounge toilets have toilet seat covers (a$$ gaskets) but A J lounge has none (at least the ones I visited).

Far be it from EK to have that kind of service inconsistency

It was there a few weeks. They might have run out ?. You can always ask the lounge attendant at A as you don't have to 'fight' for the toilets at A.

Even at busy periods I have never had to queue at the A J toilets while it can be a nightmare at the B J lounges.

Coming back to toilet seat covers , most people don't know how to use them.

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I.e you need to put it on the seat in the reverse direction of the toilet seat with the hanging bit in front.

Passed through a pretty much deserted lounge in the A terminal yesterday afternoon. Excellent food and wine, courteous service and great whiskey in the Cigar Bar.