Emirates lounges open to all

Emirates is opening up its luxury lounges in Dubai to economy-class passengers on a pay-per-visit basis.

Those passengers who are members of the airline’s loyalty programme, which they can join for nothing from their first flight, will be able to access the airline’s businessclass lounges for $136 and first-class lounge for $272. They can stay for up to four hours. “We made the decision to expand access to our lounges in Dubai based on our customer feedback, and after a careful review to ensure that the same quality experience can be maintained,” said Adel Al Redha, Emirates’ executive vice-president and chief operations officer.

Business-class travellers now also have the option to pay an upgrade fee to access the first-class lounges.

Emirates lounges are spread over three concourses at Dubai Airport.

The airline plans to extend payper-visit access to lounges outside Dubai.

It has about 350,000 Skywards members in New Zealand alone.

Dubai is the hub for all five daily New Zealand Emirates A380 services — four from Auckland (one non-stop; the others via Australia) and one from Christchurch — with passengers stopping over or flying on the same morning to 38 destinations in Europe, 22 in Africa and 16 in the Middle East.

The Emirates business-class lounge in Concourse B recently underwent an US$11 million ($14.9m) makeover.

The first-class lounges in Dubai offer a premium cigar lounge in Concourse A, a la carte dining and shoeshining services.