Dubai Airport

I travelled to DXB in Aug-Sep of 2012 and had a very bad experience. I travelled from JFK-DXB for 13 hrs and had to wait at Dubai Immigration lines for another 2 hours. What are those officers thinking. Then comes the over crowded airport - had to wait more than 15 minutes just to use the toilet. Too much shopping. Next time I will travel through Europe.

One of the worst airports I've ever visited. I was exhausted by the time I arrived here at one in the morning after a decidedly uncomfortable flight and was therefore looking forward to what I had thought would be a swanky modern airport befitting a gulf state famous for the emphasis it places on customer service. I was obviously wrong. With its endless rows of Duty Free shops the airport functions more like a shopping mall than a travel terminal and lacks the sort of facilities other less wealthy places have. Sweated like a pig wandering around trying to find a restaurant or café that wasn't besieged by swarms of equally thirsty passengers. Not only were the crowds nigh impossible to navigate through but throughout my entire four- hour long ordeal here I never managed to find a seat; like many others I was instead forced to squat it out on the floor some distance away from my gate. The inexcusable lack of toilets is further compounded by their filthiness - although there were attendants inside the three which I visited none had any opportunity to actually clean the place due to the queues. As much as I like flying Emirates I'd rather spend my money on Qatar who does transcontinental stopovers at Doha an indisputably nicer place.

Arrived 2am from Australia to be faced with thousands of people in the arrivals hall! Took two hours to get to the immigration control desk to be greeted by the official who's only word was "hotel"? A disgraceful way to treat visitors to the country. The unprofessional conduct of the staff manning the desks had to be seen to be believed as they showed total disinterest with the job at hand and spent most of their time shaking hands and greeting or saying goodbye to fellow workers arriving at or leaving the desks. As a result of the 2hour delay our arranged transfer to the hotel via private vehicle thought we had not arrived and left the airport without us. Finally got to the hotel via taxi at 5.30 am! While I was impressed with the service and standard of food on Emirates the airport experience means I would not fly via Dubai on my next trip. Lift your game DBX or more of us will decide to go via Singapore or other airports where they treat you like a real person.

One of the best airports in the world totally let down by the incompetent system at immigration. 2 hours in line and still only half way. Pathetic.

I am an expatriate resident of UAE and been using DXB International Airport as the gateway to my travels. It is very good to know that the airport has the modern technologies biggest duty free and one of the largest airports in the world. Recently I travelled to Istanbul Turkey via KU and departed and arrived in terminal 1. Unfortunately I am so appalled by the Immigration officers of DXB. Regardless of your nationality or visa status in UAE they will treat you with rudeness impoliteness and arrogance. I highly suggest their quality assurance department to educate and give extensive training to these officers. It is so sad to know that UAE is highly depending on tourism and foreign workers and yet they cannot treat us with respect.

Overcrowding of basic facilities has become a real problem. The last 10 years I've transited or stayed in Dubai over 60 times and the conditions have rapidly deteriorated to the point where I am only using it on my next visit to use the last of my air points. I'd rather face Heathrow and LA now than Dubai. Get rid of some of the shops and put in more of what travellers need - toilet facilities and travelators as the distance from 3 to 1 is horrendous unless young and fit. While we understand the need for security and accept that - at least make it practical and pleasant - and as for everyone having to remove shoes before going through a scanner - buy some decent scanners and check those that come up with a problem - not everyone. I'm sadly disappointed at how bad it has become.

This airport is seriously overcrowded. There are long queues for security checks when transiting once through it is like walking an obstacle course due to sheer number of people in the airport. The ventilation is inadequate making it feel warm most of the time. The furthest gates are 30 minutes walk and there are too many shops to tempt the weary passenger? The number of wash rooms are inadequate resulting in queues for everything!

In short been through Dubai airport 6 times in 4 months and the queues for immigration are ridiculous. If you are a gcc national you get through in ten minutes as for the rest of the world well can wait up to an hour or more to be met by a sour faced officer. Serious training needed here and this from a country that relies so heavily on tourism.

Can only agree with everything said here. I found the airport overcrowded and with little area to get out of everyone's way when you have a long transit time and want to rest: seating is along the walkways and bigger spaces are filled with fast food outlets. Even the gate areas are too small once waiting for boarding. There are insufficient toilet facilities and they are clearly overworked with several urinals and nearly all washbasins out of service in the one I tried. Enormous queues for security check in transit - which is perhaps lucky because signage is very poor and the crowd is about the only way to tell that something probably important is going on here. I could go on - it is very difficult to think of anything good to say about this airport.

I was at the Dubai Airport twice last year on my way to and from London while flying Emirates. Both times I had long transits. On landing I had to face quite a long queue but I didn't have to wait too long to get through. There are lot of shops and restaurants to choose from and overall its quite clean. But the airport is quite crowded and at one time I even had to queue for a long time outside the washroom. Its probably not the ideal airport to take a few hours of rest after a long flight. And the airport Wi-Fi is really poor so using the Internet was difficult.