Dubai International Airport

I was travelling on the BA108 morning flight from Dubai International Terminal 1 to London, which departs at 1005. I arrived at the airport early at around 0745 because I wanted to see the new(ish) BA lounge, including the Concorde Bar. It’s a few years since I last flew back from Dubai with BA (though I’ve flown through many times with Emirates). BA uses Terminal 1, Concourse D, which means taking the shuttle train which can add a little time to an airport that gets very busy. This isn’t a problem for this departure though, since the airport is quieter at this time.

On the upper level of this concourse. To reach it directly, turn left after going through security and you’ll see a giant McDonald’s sign. Head for that, up the escalator and you are there. If you turn right towards the matching KFC sign you have to walk past all the other lounges accessed from this upper level (Lufthansa, Skyteam etc).

The business class lounge is very smart, has a lovely design, but is small. In fact, walking into the main lounge I imagined I was already in the Concorde Bar for a moment. Instead, towards the rear of the lounge and accessed by a pass card (like a hotel key card) is the door to the Concorde Bar. The lady at reception keeps hold of your boarding pass to stop you wandering off with it. Neither of the lounges have toilets/washrooms. These are back outside and round the corner, and are small and crowded. Both lounges have only internal windows which look back down to the concourse. On entering, there are two booths to the right (with plugs under the table if you want to change devices). There is a flatscreen TV on the wall, and then along the far side of the room is the drinks and buffet food area.

Although the buffet is help yourself, at all times there was an attendant ready to help (and standing there attentively), so for drinks I gave him something to do by requesting coffee and water, while for the food I helped myself. I spent about 90 minutes in the lounge (the flight was slightly delayed boarding because of early morning fog delaying the incoming flight). During that time I used my laptop at one of the booth tables, and at its busiest the Concorde Bar (which I keep calling the Concorde Room, partly because of the Heathrow Concorde Room, and partly because this place is not a bar) had a maximum of six people in it. This was in contrast to the lounge area outside, which was quite busy. I imagine in the evenings it gets very busy; I’d heard the lounge (and the Concorde Bar) is open 24 hours a day, and although there must be periods when it is very quiet between flights, that does seem to be the case.

For this morning flight, obviously the food offering was breakfast, with hot and cold options. Outside in the main lounge there is a toaster but here we were offered the choice of toast and they went off and made it (maybe in the other lounge). It was too early to drink but there was a wide range of spirits on offer, though only a few on display (more in the main lounge). Compared with the other lounge, it is quieter, though it wouldn’t take many in here to fill it up. I’d read somewhere that the champagne was Taittinger, but on my visit it was Henriot. Tom Otley