Dubai Airport

Was in transit with Emirates and exclusively in Terminal 3. OK so it looks impressive from outside and it is impressive inside but when your inbound flight is delayed and you have to get to your outbound connection in 20 mins it is not easy. The airport is too large and there should have been more thought put into how passengers get around in transit. We had to go from our gate to security then all the way back out to the gates. There were large queues at security and there was no allowance for the large group of passengers who were rushing for the connecting flight. There were very long queues at security. The duty free areas were OK but the stalls in the middle of the corridor/walkway meant that with passengers going in different directions along the narrower walkways it became congested at times. The airport could do with more seating and perhaps reclining/flatbed seats at the gates. The airport toilets could do with being cleaned more often as there was always a lot of water/fluid on the floor.

Arrived at Dubai International and it was a complete chaos! It was around midnight and was not ready for the marathon to get my baggage. The queue at immigration was slow. As my next flight with Emirates has a transit of more than 8hrs I was given the complimentary hotel stay at the Millenium airport hotel which was excellent. Few minutes drive from the airport. Check in not so chaotic as I anticipated. Lots of self check in and multiple baggage drop counters. The duty free area is another experience . The bathrooms were not as bad as posted here before plenty of place to sit and relax and free wifi is not bad.

I transit via Dubai 4 to 6 times a month and have to say it works. Of course the interminable bus transfers across the apron are a pain. Security is reasonable in terms of waiting time. My main gripe is the noise level: an almost constant stream of boarding calls - ridiculous at an airport this size with dozens of information screens littered around the concourse. They even have separate calls in the EK lounges which make it impossible to sleep.

I agree the terminal 3 is uninspiring overcrowded and not easy to transit since the design puts everything in a line and not in a square shape - so going from one side to the other is a painful journey. There is no good restaurants at all and facilities not the best. Staff is rude and many of them seem not to know where do they work. The duty free is more expensive than Dubai itself. It's going to be 2 years old and it looks already overused. And the design - what to say about a building made with no taste and cheap materials.

Used T1 flying LH from DXB to MUC. Airport was very quiet around 6AM on Friday check-in and security with no lines. Terminal showing its age already. Enough shops and food courts. Main problem is the very long walks to the gates (terminal is a long array no hub-and-spokes) and the hundreds of people spending the night sleeping in the hallways. Not a terminal where one wants to spend a long lay-over.

What a terrible airport Shops in abundance but the emirates terminal was so packed both times I have passed through it has been deeply unpleasant. Food and drink wise it's horrendous mass queuing at small outlets with few staff. I waited 20 mins for just an ice tea. The seating facilities are little more than pathetic people sat everywhere on railings all over the floor at a major airport . From travelling from Bangkok airport which is very smart with good facilities to Dubai you wouldn't believe the investment that has been put into the Dubai airport. Even transit from the plane took mirrored a journey travelling down the m6 slow moving traffic for about 30mins after a long flight is extremely poor. The airport very much mirrors Emirates very big and flash on the outside but in reality it's vastly disappointing lacking any class real investment and far too over crowded.

They need to increase the number of toilets showers seating. It is unbelievable that a major transit airport like Dubai does not have enough toilets and showers - there are actually long lines flowing out into the terminal seating areas and duty free shops. The seating is poor - its a transit airport with people coming from all over the world connecting to flights to the other side of the world and there are not enough seats. The food selection is quite poor and nothing great. The internet facilities are beyond a joke. There's a long long walk to get to a tiny booth with old computers to use the internet. The pay phones are just silly as well. The cleaning people are always helping people use the phones as the dialing system in just crazy. The staff at immigration are really just plain rude. Not a single smile or hello and quite serious looking faces and grins. Dubai International have got a long way to go to begin coming close to Singapore's Changi Airport

What a shambles! Long bus trips around the airport long long queues at the very lax security inadequate and very misleading signage Lounges in Terminal 3 more akin to a railway station in rush-hour. Overpriced shops blocking passenger flow through the airport and possibly a fire hazard.

Transited this airport twice this month and they have improved the lines for security. The fact that I did not bother to remove the liquids from by carry on or take of my belt and no- one even glanced at either the scanner or the body x-ray makes the security screening a bit of a joke. Like all other comments I dislike the T3 Business lounge. It is open to all the noise from the main concourse because of the open plan design grossly overcrowded especially in the morning and the shower and toilet facilities are a joke.

I used to think T1 was a mess (and it was) until now a year into operation T3 is actually worse. The other posts say it all - shopping toilets noise crowding - just generally a very poor experience for passengers who have to use the place - and a bad advertisement for Emirates. The only good thing is that they seem to be bussing fewer flights from remote stands than a year ago but a 2-hour connection is as tight as you'd want to get. I prefer the Emirates Business Lounge in T1 to that awful place in T3. Also Emirates have a bad habit of going from Gate Open to Boarding and onto Final Call - all in the space of 10 minutes some 40 or 50 minutes before scheduled flight departure time - and having passengers all dashing across this very large terminal only to have to wait 20 minutes before they can actually board. I'm sure the architect's sketches of T3 look fantastic - sadly the reality is less so.