Dubai International Airport Passenger Reviews and Customer opinions

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 14 May 2009 : by John Philipps (USA)

Customer Rating :  2/5

The DXB experience is on the whole usually negative, despite the river of cash that the government has poured into it in an effort to create a first-rate airport. The expensive building materials are unfortunately offset by a number of constraints such as insufficient toilets, seating, and walkway size, resulting in scenes resembling a refuge camp at certain times of the day. The inconsistent attitudes of the airport, immigration and security employees range from confrontational and arrogant towards some Southeast Asians to cringing and subservient to some Europeans directly behind them in queue. The T3 facilities are constructed of good building materials, and if the volume of traffic is moderate, require very little walking; however, if the T1 facilities feature in your travel plans or a transfer is required despite Emirates claims that they only use T3, you must steel yourself for the ordeal that is the trek between them.

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 11 May 2009 : by J Dockalek

Customer Rating :  2/5

Terminal 3 - problems with finding way, terribly overpriced shops (much cheaper to shop in Europe) and surprisingly not enough toilets. When all EK flights come down there are a long queues and cleanliness is poor. Poor airport.

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 7 May 2009 : by Dave Stanley

Customer Rating :  2/5

Terminal 3. The problems with transiting have been well documented. This time I was not using the terminal for transit. Getting in and out was OK, with baggage arriving quickly and no queue at check in. I did depart at midnight and the terminal was almost empty at that time. Once in the terminal, things are not so good. It is big and shiny. Really, it is an overpriced shopping mall, which sometimes has aircraft parked near it, but more often they are not that near. I wanted a shower, having just come from Kabul. My first stop was the Marhaba business lounge. Unlike T1, which has excellent shower facilities, there is none here. So a long search of the terminal starts. The information desk can only suggest I ask a cleaner as they do not know if there is a shower anywhere. There are some signs which suggest there are showers, but they cannot be found. In the end, the only shower to be found is in the spa, which is part of the hotel. That costs Dh44 for a distinctly average shower. Overall, I think T1 (and possibly T2) give a better experience to the traveller.

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 28 April 2009 : by Luke Addis

Customer Rating :  4/5

I arrived and left from Terminal 1 with Qatar Airways. Arrival was quick, bags came out rapidly and after an extensive walk, I was greeted by a reasonably helpful Tourist Information Point. Immigration were rude and a bit arrogant. Buses out to the airport are excellent - they run 24 hour and are crazy cheap. I am afraid, after security, that the decadent palm trees, swathes of gold, mirror and silk are very unimpressive for me. Regardless, it has all the facilities required - I needed a post office and there it was. Avoided expensive duty free. Taxi can be quite long and take off often clogged with Emirates. I recommend pre selecting a seat on the left hand side of the aircraft as the normal take off path will give you a view of The Creek, Palm and World if your lucky.

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 23 April 2009 : by Andrew Stuckles

Customer Rating :  4/5

Emirates terminal is large, crowded and modern. It was a bit of a zoo. Signs are well laid out and you will be able to find your gate. Just give yourself adequate time as it will take you 15 minutes or so to walk from end to end, even with the moving platforms. My only complaint is bathrooms. There are not many and the ones that they do have are crowded with lines. Expect to wait 10 minutes in some of them. I had one poor French man with his 4 year old son being told by another passenger to get in the queue like everyone else. Astonishing behaviour! If you can checkin to you gate, there is a bathroom there without the lines! There are many restaurants and stores to browse through, with adequate tables and chairs. If you are a smoker, the only place to smoke is in the expensive dine in restaurants.

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 15 April 2009 : by P Wurzer

Customer Rating :  2/5

I am a gold member on Emirates and after some annoyment on the frequent bus transfers to terminal instead of using gate docks, the packed situation inside old terminal, people sleeping on the floor all over the terminal in late night etc. I had high hopes on much- anticipated T3. But what a disappointment. It happened to me twice just after opening of T3 that the plane still was parked far off the terminal and transfer was made by bus. Then long waiting time in queue for security screening to enter the transit area. It took more than one hour to get into the first class lounge finally. Old terminal always allowed some escape to another screening area but in new one you are just stuck in the crowds. And better do not have the desire to go to a restroom while waiting. You can go down 1 stairs to a tiny "janitor" which dirty and hard to use for westerner anyway or down 2 stairs to a regular toilet if you have enough time. Once back up the waiting starts again in line. No dedicated lines for First Class available. Why pay for premium price for premium ticket for such service? Situation is better if you are lucky to get in on regular gate docks rather than by bus I must admit. But still so many people everywhere with traffic in no clear direction. Many signs but still hard to find you way. Another huge disappointment is the shower facilities in the T3 first class lounge. The old facilities were far from great but okay and it was relaxing to take a shower on stopover from Germany to Far East. New facilities in T3 first class lounge are a real downturn however and really not appealing to take a shower. No private rooms with sink and toilet as in other airports, but ugly curtains, no place to put your bags, sinks for shaving outside the shower area, toilet facilities on opposite side of hallway. Who planned this? My kids can do better with the lego stones when the play airport. The food selection is excellent, once you find the main restaurant in the huge place. A la carte is offered and served to your table at its best with friendly service. Complimentary foot and back massage is a real treat. Emirates simply could have done much better !

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 6 April 2009 : by Dave Stanley

Customer Rating :  2/5

Nice building, shame about the service/organisation. For transit passengers, expect long queues at security. Signs are not clear - there were passengers in the transit area that just wanted to find the way out of the airport. T3 promised a lot, but is not delivering a good service.

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 26 March 2009 : by Pieter Senekal

Customer Rating :  1/5

Used T3 in December and January, the worst airport I've been in. Security queues long, no proper directions to non-emirates lounges, people sleeping all over the place, couldn't find directions in english. Got lost a few times, no smoking lounges in the new terminal, had to walk back to T1 to smoke, and all smoking lounges are overfilled, everyone seems to be smoking outside the lounge.

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 26 March 2009 : by Jonathan Kelly

Customer Rating :  3/5

Transited through Dubai twice in March with Emirates. Was spared having to use a remote stand but, as with other entries on this site, we too had to use Terminal 1 even though Emirates insist that they only use Terminal 3. One of the odder cases of denial I have across. Terminal 3 is modern and clean but bland, overcrowded and very expensive (perhaps that's just the downtrodden £ in my wallet).

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 26 March 2009 : by J Sander

Customer Rating :  4/5

I used the new terminal 3 on two arrivals and two departures this year. Depending on which gate you arrive, the walk to passport control can be long, but not longer than in other big airports. There are enough moving walkways, which helps. Waiting time at passport control was around 10 minutes. The luggage was on the belt already, when we arrived there. Check in for departure done in few minutes at the business class counters. No big lines at security check. Depending from which gate you depart (terminal 1!) the walk up there can be long. Don't walk in the middle of the concourse where the shops are, walk behind the shops where the gates are. There is less traffic and there are moving walkways which bring you quicker to your gate. Overall impression: nice and clean terminal 3. Why I rate it 4 and not 5? Because of the possibility that you check in at terminal 3, but the departure is from terminal 1, which is a very long way to walk.

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 17 March 2009 : by J Smith

Customer Rating :  2/5

Just used T3 for first time in transit. With such a modern airport why are you always dumped on Tarmac and bussed to Terminal. I have very bad feet and getting down the steps is difficult and then had to walk 3kms to security where I was forced to take off my shoes with no help to walk without shoes. Not impressed with huge queues at security with staff too busy talking instead giving service. All toilets I used in main airport area were dirty with cleaner just outside not interested. No sign posting of security on arrival for Transfers from main concourse.No information on Emirates as to what we had to do for transfer passengers. Not impressed with major international airport.

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 13 March 2009 : by K Iwata

Customer Rating :  2/5

I have been using this airport for almost 3 years mainly for transit. T3 may be clean but not functional. Signs are very confusing. When disembarking at gate 128 (closer to new T3), the sign directs all arrival/transit passengers to T3. On the way, ALL PASSENGERS sign seems to confirm you are in the right direction. If you are connecting to non-emirates flight however, you will find that you have to go back to one of three transfer desks in T1. Getting back to T1 is not easy and it takes your patience and time to find an appropriate transfer desk and get a boarding pass for your connecting flight. No sign shows which transfer desk handles which carriers' flights. Sometimes they cannot issue a boarding pass for onward flights. As it happens, the right transfer desk may be at the farthest end of T1 and travelators moving in the opposite direction only are meaningless. Even if you are connecting to EK flight, still you have to wait in a packed hall for security checks. There are no fast track lanes for first class/business class passengers. This may be happening with your checked-in luggage too. Required connection time is 2 hours. With a shorter connecting time your luggage will not be loaded on your connecting flight.

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 16 February 2009 : by Eric Simpson

Customer Rating :  4/5

Two flights in and out of Terminal 3 yielded very similar experiences. Arrival involved a long walk to passport control and the baggage hall. Signage was slightly confusing in places. Queues at passport control were not particularly long but were very slow moving. The time from plane to car was approximately sixty minutes on each occasion. Check in for departure was straightforward with very helpful staff to assist. The garden areas in the terminal were pleasant however the location of some outlets in the middle of the main thoroughfare in the shopping mall and the location of the departure gates on either side made this area feel more congested than it actually was. Both the Emirates first and business class lounges were well appointed with plenty of seating available at the times of my visits. Despite on board announcements indicating that all Emirates flights now arrive and depart from Terminal 3 only one of four actually did. One flight boarded at a gate in Terminal 1 requiring a fairly long walk from the Terminal 3 First Class Lounge. The other two flights involved long bus journeys to and from remote stands. I found Terminal 3 visually impressive, I hope the criticisms raised by other correspondents will be addressed over the coming weeks and months.

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 12 February 2009 : by R Liddle

Customer Rating :  4/5

Transtted Dubai recently outbound and also left the airport on the inbound journey. We arrived at around 11pm, which is a busy time and were through security in about 5 minutes. On the inbound journey immigraiton officer was a charming guy. From landing to baggage reclaim took 10 minutes and our bags arrived quicker that we did. There were not a massive number of seats but no-one was standing. There are not enough toilets in duty free area but there were of clean ones at the gates.

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 2 February 2009 : by J Wouwout

Customer Rating :  2/5

I agree with M Baughman, T3 is such a missed opportunity. Narrow, overcrowded with silly shops and outlets. Why hire the architect who designed CDG, which is an annoying airport to use? 3 out of 4 flight were parked on a remote stand, however I could see so many gates available. They mention the new 'dedicated T3' just after you've landed and then find yourself on a remote stand.

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 2 February 2009 : by N Sutherland

Customer Rating :  3/5

Transited through DXB a few times in the past year. Maybe I've been lucky and not had the Transit Security problems, in T1 and T3, of some of the other posts. The Security is neither professional nor efficient but neither was it too time consuming between say 4 and 8 in the morning. T3 has taken some of the pressure off seating areas, toilets etc, but the Departures Areas could never be considered comfortable or well appointed and the dreadful acoustics in T3 make the place feel more like a factory rather than an Airport. Duty Free shopping is fairly extensive but not especially good on choice. Electronics and Cameras are much cheaper in London. They're still bussing passengers to/from remote stands adding significantly onto Transit Time. Certainly you could not reliably make a connection of less than 2 hours. I was fairly unimpressed the first time I saw T1 and I was hoping things would improve with the opening of T3 - well they have, but not by much. The best part of DXB is it's location - a good spot to break a long-haul flight from Europe to SE Asia or the Far East, and that's about it.

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 24 January 2009 : by K Tunnicliffe

Customer Rating :  2/5

What a great opportunity missed. After the squalor of the old terminal Emirates move to their new premises in T3. Open, airy, no need to climb over rows of sleeping bodies to get to the gate. The only snag is that when you are a transit passenger you have to queue in an extremely badly designed hall to get through security. There are only four screening points and on both occasions we transited recently only two or three were working. Organisation here is like the old terminal - shoddy and staff are spending their time chatting rather than dealing with the problems. Shame Emirates, you have got so much else right here but let down by a really poor transit system.

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 13 January 2009 : by Justin Adams

Customer Rating :  3/5

Dubai Airport Terminal 3 - lack of seating, not enough restaurant, cafe etc for just having a cup of coffee to relax before flight. Not enough toilet facilities, and the toilets are absolutely filthy. Lots of shopping but overpriced.

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 9 January 2009 : by M Handley

Customer Rating :  2/5

T3 - what is this airport about? for such a new airport it certainly is a bit of a shambles. Transit takes forever to get to where you need to go, security always has queues that cant be cleared quick enough. Shops are annoying, no nice passenger areas really (unlike Singapore) - it just all seems a bit stale and old, theres no nice comfy places to sit and watch a bit of tv whilst waiting for your flight or anything that really makes you like the place. Overcrowded and has all the signs that it hasn't been planned out properly at all.

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 31 December 2008 : by D Lee

Customer Rating :  2/5

Emirates new terminal - Security Clearance at the First Floor was annoying to say the least with little crowd control by officials. Transit area no better, full of duty free shops and lack of places for transit passengers, in particular Economy Class customers, to have any other activities other than shopping. Toilets seem to be falling apart. I wanted to take a shower after a night flight and found that both shower rooms in the terminal were out of action! Frustratingly there is nothing much to do except sit around and wait for your flight and if you can imagine how annoying a 3 hour transit already is then you'd probably not be able to take the transit experience here if time between your flights is longer than that. I give this Terminal a thumbs down and hope there's some massive improvement because it's a neatly designed terminal except that some people didn't seem to put much thought into facilities and passenger flow. And would you believe it: it opened in October 2008.

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 28 December 2008 : by P Deen

Customer Rating :  1/5

Recently opened terminal 3 is just as bad as terminal 1, They have some fancy lighting and re- arranged shops thats it, the bad service and facilities are the same. I have been going to Dubai since 1981 and the bus trip from aircraft to terminal still going on and they keep announcing that it is necessary as the airport is expanding to provide a better facility. T3 is open now with many empty gates and why are they still bussing. It took 90 mins from out of aircraft to pass the security as there was a huge queue and still find people sleeping on the floor. By the time you clear the security and walked to the Business class lounge, no time left to relax, and when you try to relax they annoy you with making announcements every 30 seconds. Dubai duty free - forget it, it is so expensive. I dont know if the airport management care to read this website or tour the terminal while it is busy to see what the passengers have to go through. All I can say about Dubai airport is 1st world facility but 3rd world mentality. I will avoid Dubai airport at all cost.

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 15 December 2008 : by Hans Gross

Customer Rating :  3/5

Arrived both in and outbound at around 6 am. The one transfer by bus was a bit clumsy and the bus had no seats. The only real annoyance was having to wait in a longer queue for the security controls. Terminal 3 now offers enough space and seats. However the central walkway seems to be designed according to a souk and is a bit overcrowded.

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 13 December 2008 : by Natasha Permall

Customer Rating :  3/5

We enjoyed the terminal 3 in the limited time we had available before our connecting flight. Getting through was quick. It was spacious, with good options for food and duty free. We were looking forward to shopping more on our return flight. However, despite our plane landing in dubai on time, the length of time it took to get from the remote parking gate to the terminal combined with the scrum to get through security meant we only had time to brush our teeth and grab a bottle of water before having to go to the next gate. I was surprised to see such queues getting through security as it had been so quick outbound. It should be noted also that considering the size of the terminal, the space for the security check was tiny which meant the queues stretched down the stairs and escalators. I was under the impression the new terminal 3 was meant to eliminate the use of remote parking gates, and long security queues - yet at peak times, it seems its just as bad as the old terminal. Cconsidering that a huge part of Emirates business plan revolves around passengers being able to enjoy the facilities at Dubai airport in transit, it is essential that they reduce the time wasted on things such as the bus ride to the terminal. Until they sort this out, Dubai will always be hampered as a transit airport.

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 10 December 2008 : by Jorg Meyer-Stamer

Customer Rating :  2/5

Just arrived at Terminal 3. Sunday morning, peak hour of arrivals of Emirates flights. Signage guides all passengers to a single security check which was so packed that passengers battled to get off the escalator. No crowd management at all, which is ironic since there is indeed another security checkpoint where I was the only passenger. There's no signage that guides passengers there, though, and I had only discovered it accidentally at an earlier trip. Emirates Business Class lounge was fully occupied, but at least so far it is big enough so that nobody has to sit on the floor. Queues in front of the toilets - no improvement there. Free Internet access based on the principle you don't pay - you get no value: transfer speed is about the same as in rural areas in poor developing countries. The silliest part are the little socket towers to connect the charger - very fancy design, but only accept English-style plugs.

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 30 November 2008 : by Robert Harder

Customer Rating :  1/5

As this is Emirates hub you have now choice but to go through. It is by far the worst airport I have been in - the immigration takes an age. We waited nearly an hour to get through, and then the walk to the next gate took forever. On our return we were prepared for the wait in immigration, but not the bus journey from the airplane to the terminal - this took 45 minutes. Coupled with the normal delays we had no time in the airport and had to run to our connecting flight - a long way to gate 119 in the old part, especially when you have to jump over sleeping bodies. Duty free is very expensive. Overall a very bad experience which would make me never fly Emirates again.