Review: Emirates First Class Lounge Concourse B
- Konrad Tillman
- Apr 6
- 7 min read
Intro
Arriving rested from a Kam Air flight after a sensational trip to Afghanistan, I headed off to the Emirates First Class Lounge due to my onward ticket to Mahe, The Seychelles.
Emirates is known to have flashy First Class products onboard, but I have to say, the First Class Lounge is nowhere near as nice as it could be. Emirates obviously has to cater to plenty of passengers, but the champagnes were lacking, and at times, the service was lackluster.
Location+ Access
Emirates has three first-class lounges at Dubai International Airport, one in each of the concourses. The Lounge in Concourse B is extremely easy to find no matter if you are connecting or departing originally from Dubai. There is signage across the whole airport, but the lounge is located close to gate B16 for those curious.
To access the lounge, simply head upstairs and take a right (the business class lounge is on the left) and the entrance will be right in front of you with an agent waiting to graciously greet you.
Conditions for entrance are as follows:
Passengers flying in Emirates First Class
Emirates Skywards Platinum Members (flying in any cabin)
You can buy access for the following:
Business Class passengers can upgrade their lounge to First for 150$ (125$ if you are a Skywards member).
Economy class passengers can buy First Class lounge access outright for 300$ (250 if you are a Skywards member).
Around The Lounge
This lounge is ginormous, there are no two ways around it, but it's also not the biggest lounge they operate. Upon stepping in, there is a very large space featuring seats for well over 100 people and a couple of TVs.
Supposedly, the lounge staff come around and provide table service for drinks here, but it's better to go up to the bar and ask.
The Emirates Lounge is so large that there are three corridors leading through to the dining area/bar. On the left is a small corridor with seats featuring bathrooms and showers.
Down the middle is yet more seats, with more bathrooms...
And then down the right is the largest corridor where you will find plenty of comfortable seating, nap rooms, and a children's play area. I do like the red colors in this lounge, but it just feels a bit dated overall.
Children's Play Area
If you happen to be someone who travels with kids, you'll be pleased to know that Emirates offers a closed room where kids can play. While I didn't go in (because it would have been creepy) I kind of wanted to since I saw Playstation 5's.
This is a nice touch all around for passengers.
Nap Rooms
Located right next to the children's play area is the nap rooms, featuring 6 suites in a 1-1 configuration 😅. There are no attendants to check in at the nap rooms, so if you want to reserve a room you just walk in and go to sleep. Be aware that attendants come in around about every hour to replenish the blankets and sleep masks, and due to the thin curtains in each pod, it can be disturbing.
While it's nice that Emirates offers nap rooms, it's a shame that they are nowhere near the likes of Qatar or Turkish Airlines.
Feeling thirsty? There is still and sparkling water available inside of the nap room.
The nap rooms certainly aren't cutting edge, but they did allow me to escape paying 300 USD for the airport hotel upstairs as I ended up sleeping for 5 hours here. Additionally, there doesn't seem to be a time limit unlike most.
Smoking Lounge
Finally (in terms of rooms), you have the smoking lounge which is rather large. Instead of a smoking lounge, Emirates allocated the back left part of the lounge to people who would like to smoke.
For those that don't smoke, don't worry as the ventilation is very good and you probably would never know someone is smoking unless you sat within 10 feet of them...
Bathrooms
Across the lounge are a couple of different bathrooms you can choose from. In all honesty, I wasn't pleased to see that these bathrooms had seen better days for a first-class lounge and felt quite sterile overall. However, there were some basic amenities in here which is better than nothing.
It's not necessarily the amenities or sinks, it's more the flooring that just looks tired. If Emirates was able to update the flooring, it would make the overall design much nicer.
Showers
Those looking to freshen up will be happy to know that Emirates offers showers in their First Class Lounges, but the one in B isn't much to get excited about. There were no attendants on duty during my time, so I grabbed a towel and headed to the showers only to find no hot water. Ridiculous.
Once again, this could have just been an issue with my shower, but the showers in the A concourse were infinitely better well-managed and appointed.
Dining
Now for the highlight of the experience: the dining. Located in the back of the lounge lies a decadently appointed and large restaurant. Sorry for the bad picture I am not sure what happened.
And this is where Emirates truly shines: their FOOD menu. Once arriving I was presented with a menu, which is the same as this below (there is more but this is the most appealing):
Throughout the roughly 10 hours in the lounge, I devoured four beef tenderloins due to not having beef in about 6 days (since Polaris I think).
All in all, the food was superb and the highlight of the lounge experience. Each steak was cooked to perfection, and the presentation was delightful.
However, when I decided to order a follow-up tenderloin, the staff forgot to put in my order. Overall, this resembled the Emirates First Class Lounge service which I'll talk about in a minute.
Reading previous reports, one of the biggest drawbacks of the lounge was the lack of good coffee. Wel,l I am pleased to report that Emirates has added a partnership with Costa Coffee which is now served in the lounge.
If you fancy just grabbing a drink and not sitting down for a meal, there is a bar located right outside of the restaurant with plenty of drinks. Note: as of April, Aperol will be added to the menu due to high demand.
Now, apart from the service, there is one issue I have with the Emirates First Class Lounge: they serve Moet. I understand that Emirates has a partnership with Moet and Chandon, but for an airline that markets the heck out of First Class, this is the bottom of the barrel for a First Class Lounge. I mean, look at what British Airways serves in the Chelsea Lounge and that's a US Lounge...
Service
Aside from a few amazing staff, I didn't find the service to be that great honestly. It felt more or less as if the staff didn't exactly want to be there 'on this particular day'. Here are a couple of details that stood out to me:
The second time I went to sit down for breakfast, the staff took about 15 minutes before they came over to take my order, and the dining portion of the lounge was practically empty. A simple "could I get you started with a juice or a drink" or something along those lines would have gone a long way.
When I sat down for dinner and ordered my second tenderloin, the staff forgot to put in my order. When I followed up with the staff after 35 minutes, she simply looked confused and then said "It's coming". No apologies when the order had clearly been forgotten. I get that accident happen, but a simple "my apologies, I'll make sure it comes out as soon as possible".
I'm not entirely sure if staff are supposed to come around and offer drinks to passengers in the lounge, but that was not something I observed. I am not discrediting Emirates here, as I do not know the policy.
Just overall, the service was nowhere near as polished as their onboard product, and miles behind the Al Safwa First Class Lounge which is exceptional with a manager that goes around frequently to check on passengers.
Final Thoughts
If you happen to be flying Emirates First Class, you are in for a treat with their First Class Lounge featuring good dining, a large lounge, and plenty more amenities. However, if you are someone who flies First Class with multiple different airlines, the Emirates First Class Lounge falls behind a good chunk of airlines, especially in the continent of Asia.
With that being said, after this, I headed over to the lounge in Concourse A which was leaps and bounds better, minus the food 😂 (funny that is swaps).
Overall, I would come back and spend a couple of hours here to get a nice meal in, but this isn't a place like the Singapore Airlines Private Room which I would highly look forward to visiting.
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