I arrived at Dubai airport around 4:30am and walked into the First Class entrance. The new First Class check-in area was still under construction at the time, although it opened about a week after I went through.

I didn’t need to check in anyway as I already had my boarding pass. I walked through the very quick exit immigration e-gate and quickly got through the First Class security area. As on arrival, there was no escort or special ground services, but I followed the signs to the airport train for Concourse A.

Once in Concourse A, I took the escalator up to the First Class Lounge. The concourse essentially has the gates and general shopping/dining area on the main floor, the First Class Lounge on the middle floor and the Business Class Lounge on the upper floor. Both lounges allow for direct boarding to all the gates in Concourse A from 1-24, hence they span the entire concourse.

I showed my boarding pass to the desk agent and they welcomed me into the lounge. It felt like I was the only one there for a while. There were lots of seating and bar/dining areas.

I found one of the main dining rooms. There were some hot and cold dishes on a buffet plus a full breakfast menu. Emirates also provides an all day dining menu for those who may be on a different time zone and want something other than breakfast. Here’s the menu:

On the buffet, they had eggs, sausage, beef bacon, beans and other breakfast staples. They also had salmon, cold cuts, cheese, fruit and other dishes. Here are some pictures of the buffet offerings:

I was in the mood for sushi (don’t ask me why) so I ordered that plus an iced Americano. I also grabbed some salmon from the buffet while I waited for my order. The sushi was a pre-plated selection of sashimi and nigiri/rolls.

There were also some daily newspapers available near the dining area. After I ate, I wandered around the almost empty lounge and took a few more pictures. There were more buffets set up with small dishes, different wine bottles scattered around at the various bars, and a kids play area.

I decided to get a free massage while there was obviously no wait. At this point, it was around 5:30am. I was directed to the business class level to book my massage at the Timeless Spa.

I decided on a head and neck massage. Here’s the menu. As you can see, you can upgrade your free 15-minute massage for a cost. They took me back right away.

The massage was good and the room was nice and quiet at that hour of the day. I headed back up to the lounge afterwards, but got a bit bored after I did the full circuit of the lounge. There were some relaxation/resting rooms in the lounge as well, but they weren’t super private.

There’s also a full duty-free shopping area within the lounge, including high-end liquor and other goods. I was just starting my trip, so I wasn’t interested in doing any shopping that morning. At that point, I decided to head over to the Concourse B First Class Lounge as my flight was departing from that concourse.

Overall, the Concourse A First Class Lounge was impressive in scope, but a bit cold and sterile. The furniture also seems a bit mismatched and weird throughout the lounge. I get why it’s so huge because Emirates offers lounge boarding from every gate, but it makes the whole thing very impersonal and not somewhere you’d want to spend a lot of time before boarding. The food was good, but as you’ll see, I think the Concourse B lounge has a better dining situation.

Up Next: Emirates First Class Lounge DXB Concourse B Review

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