Dubai Airport

We do not like this airport at all and especially as the TV programmes recently put it out as a fantastic well run terminal. We had an issue with a "free" stay over that went horribly wrong and no body at the airport tried to solve and didn't seem to care at all. They were dismissive. It is overcrowded as far too many flight seem to arrive in the early morning and disgorge thousands of passengers within a short period. There are huge lengthy queues for immigration if you decide to spend a few days while transiting who are unfriendly, and indeed surly. I had to get a wheel chair (broken ankle two days previously) the last time and this was not pleasant. The guy pushing me didn't seem to notice the thousands of other passengers. Many a time I had to get my cast ankle out of the way of a bang - which would have been seriously painful. The "Duty Free" shops are way overpriced - the business lounges overcrowded and I will avoid this airport in the future.

There is little respect or sympathy shown by the Special Handling Team to a disable person who needs wheelchair assistance unlike other airports I use where Special Assistance takes you from terminal to the cabin door and back in a wheelchair or buggy. In Dubai you are expected to walk from the plane to a buggy at the arrival gate this takes you to the (East) Transfer Desk where you are expected to disembark and walk through the security check, walk to and take a lift to the next floor and then walk to another buggy. This second buggy will take you to the departure gate of your next flight from where you are expected to walk to the cabin entrance. A wheelchair will not be provided of these stages unless you insist in the strong manner and even then you will have to wait 10-15 minutes while they find one. This is unacceptable especially as Dubai is a new airport and should be better organised.

Sorry, but I don't get it. We got off an Emirates plane at Dubai from London. We went through bag screening twice to get to our gate lounge. Then as we got on the plane they were checked again. Lots of people got their water / drinks which they had bought after security confiscated. Ridiculous, annoying, a waste of time, and completely inconsistent with other airports. Added to the poor flight we had from LHR here on Emirates we would not fly from Europe to Auckland via Dubai again.

This is a place you never want to visit again. Terminal 1 is very cramped and staff rude and unprofessional. The immigration area is horror as it welcomes long queues which can take up to an hour to cross. The airport looks old and the laid back attitude of the staff can get really irritating as they are insensitive to passenger needs. The duty-free is a place you can spend some good time.

This is a very average airport. The range of dining and shopping etc. is great but for facilities its terrible. We had a flight from Concourse B and out of the two mens toilets which only had 2 cubicules each, only 1 was open with three A380 flights leaving between 10 mins of each other in that area. The toilets are also very strange in that there is not alot of space between the seat and water aswell as the water being steaming hot in the cubicule. Boarding was also un-organised and there was a lack of staff to talk to. A very average experience.

I had a stopover in Dubai for 3 hrs before continuing to Switzerland. It was quite a modernized airport, the signs were clearly shown, made people feel relaxed. We did not have to wait that long for security check. There was free wifi at the airside but signal was not that strong. I could have my breakfast and enjoy some duty free shopping during stopover.

Really disappointed with Concourse A Terminal 3. Traveling from Australia to UK with a baby and a toddler and had a 2.5 hour stopover to feed, change nappies, eat and regroup. Facilities for families virtually non-existent for regular travellers, even though premium lounges claim to provide them. No dedicated room to breastfeed a baby (in an Arab country where I didn't feel like doing it in Public), staff at information desk acted as if they fielded queries quite regularly regarding this. Ended up sitting on the floor in a baby change room where there was more than enough room for a chair to have been provided ( even the feeding in the toilet option was out with no toilet seats and poor hygiene in bathrooms). No eateries particularly suited to kids, no play areas, no shops selling much of interest to kids (e.g. Toys, books). Supposed to be a new building but really showing it's age already. Negatively affected entire experience for us and will probably revert to traveling via Singapore in the future. Going to try a pay lounge on return trip later this week to make transit a little more comfortable hopefully.

Thinking this airport would be beautiful and easy to use, I was unfortunately wrong. Despite landing at 1am, Dubai airport was overcrowded, and filled with tired travelers. I couldn't find a seat, and couldn't find anyone at the ticket counter to collect my ticket for my next flight. Finally the desk agent at the lounge for Emirates was kind enough to get me my ticket, some goodies, and some directions. Signage was very hard to follow. The directions required walking half an hour, and then taking a train to the third terminal, why the train doesn't run the whole length is beyond me. The terminal also lacked many food options, and was generally an unenjoyable experience. Only good if you want to shop at duty free stores.

Every time I travel through Dubai it gets worse. They don't have Wifi anymore, there is only Boingo, which offers 30 minutes (sometimes 60) of free Wifi but in 9 out of 10 times it breaks after about 5 minutes, telling you you have already used up your minutes. If you purchase more, you frequently have to re-login which requires you to check your email, but you have no internet to do that, so your purchase is useless. The newest invention is a security theater for transit passengers to make sure you didn't purchase a bomb or gun in a duty-free shop on your incoming flight. This leads to long queues where you can spend more than an hour, so if your stopover is less than two hours, don't even bother to go to a lounge or anything.

A transit airport so one would expect a lot of travelers lounging and sleeping. There's too many passengers transiting between Asia and Europe so there's not enough seats to go around. Airport staff were helpful but not friendly (would not go the extra mile and sometimes seem unapproachable). Not many facilities other than some F&B and shopping outlets. Wifi not working - I was kicked out of the service every few minute or so - probably due to overcrowding at the airport.