Dubai Airport

I transited through T3 for Bangkok at the new year. My first impression is that it is full already! The facilities are not improved at all - shopping is uninspiring the bars are not for me toilets not enough. The business class lounge is just a cafe! I took the long walk through to T1 which was a cheerless experience but I did reflect that when it was opened it was a great improvement on its predecessor - which is not repeated in its present incarnation.

Beware of this airport. Travelling Business Class Emirates transiting through Dubai Airport. Security confiscated my laser pointer! This was in my hand baggage. No explanation - and very rude. I requested to see a senior after some discussion he passed me on to some one else - again a rude "not allowed". A lot of people travelling to/from a meeting or conference carry a pointer - clearly passengers travelling to a meeting/conference should avoid going through Dubai if possible.

Had the misfortune to transit through Dubai T3 on a couple of occasions in both instances flying Emirates on all legs. Both transits involved a long bus trip from aircraft to the terminal security checking (whilst necessary) was incredibly slow - far worse than other hubs such as AMS & SIN. Signage is very poor - although the terminal layout is relatively simple Main problems however are overcrowding and poor provision of facilities. As mentioned by other reviewers - the T1 problems were meant to be solved by T3 - maybe now T1 is OK but T3 is chaos. It appears that there are only around 4 sets of WCs for the main transit level with queues for the gents as well as ladies - possibly better to wait until you get through into the gate holding area before using the WC if possible although I'm not sure if there is WC provision in all of these. Very few seats available for the number of people wanting to use them and in general staff were unhelpful. Lots of bling shops if that's your bag but no focus on providing a quality service for passengers just wanting to transit. Had hoped T3 would make the 'Emirates' experience rival SIA etc but no way. Goodness knows what it will be like when load levels get back to full capacity and over the longer term when flight volumes increase. Somewhat amazingly it would appear that the architects have a long track record of airport terminal design - so maybe this was a 'Friday afternoon' terminal. It certainly is a sufficiently grim travelling experience to strongly consider paying a premium to travel with another carrier whenever possible.

Three hour wait in Terminal 3 in the early hours of the morning. Terribly crowded with all sorts of shops wanting to get their hands on your cash. If you're looking for something to eat and think you might find some interesting Middle Eastern food forget it - Macdonalds and Starbucks is about it unless you want to spend lots of money on seafood and champagne. Toilet provision is terrible - maybe about two or three sets of facilities per gender all with long queues and water sloshing around the cubicle floors. I suppose you have to endure it in order to take advantage of Emirates flights but it's not an enjoyable experience.

The new terminal at Dubai is great very modern and easy to find things. The restaurants and bars are a bit on the expensive side but what airport is not. The toilets are clean and the airport did not seem crowded at all. The only problem is the long walk from Terminal three (the new one) to the old terminal. I found the sign posting hard to follow and it is a lot of walking up and down. This would be the drawback for the new terminal as I personally found the old Emirates terminal crowded and unpleasant but this one is much better.

Travelling through Dubai Airport is in my opinion one of the worst experiences of my life. Long aircraft taxi (10 mins+) followed by a long bus ride to the terminal from what feels like the other end of Dubai long queues extremely unfriendly and arrogant staff and a "shopping mall" departure lounge with too few chairs for passengers. My main gripe however is with the security personnel. I have travelled through numerous airports with my laptop bag including Dubai only the week before. On this occasion I was stopped because my laptop bag had a security cable lock packed in the bag. This was confiscated off me because it was deemed to be dangerous. The security personnel left me feeling like a criminal and wondering if I was going to be chucked into jail for this offence. I have travelled through a number of airports with the same device and have never had it questioned as something that is prohibited onboard as hand luggage. I have also done an extensive search on the internet and did not find one single site where this device has been flagged as prohibited. This is one airport (and Emirates as the airline) that I will be avoiding at all costs from now on.

Terminal 1. Arriving from Doha on Qatar Airways at 21.00. Aircraft parked on a remote stand bus took us right to the immigration centre - we didn't have to walk long distances. Immigration busy about 20 desks open and maybe 10 people in each queue but the process was relatively efficient - waited 10-15 minutes. By the time I arrived at luggage reclaim by bag was there. Departure - at the airport at 04.30 for a 06.00 departure. Already checked in online and no queue at Qatar desk. Formalities efficient and a long walk via travelators underground to the departure area. I used the duty free shop - typical choice and prices. I didn't use any other facilities at the airport so I cant comment. Plenty of places to sit and wait.

The new T3 is a huge disappoinment. Handling of transfer passengers (big business in DXB!) is awful - the design of the airport just doesn't work at all in this respect. Nowhere near enough toilets - queues even for the gents! Poor signage. Need to get from T3 to T1? Make sure you pack your gym kit. Long walk and not too many travelators to help you. Immigration staff are much slower compared with any other place I have visited. Why put these locals there when they are not prepared to work! Using Emirates our aircraft was still parked miles away from the terminal for which we had to take a long bus journey to terminal. All glitz and glamour as is always the case with Dubai but no substance. First world on the surface third world thinking underneath.

I transited at DXB twice over the last two months. Every time I was arriving on an Emirates flight and connecting to another carrier's flight (or opposite). The two biggest problems I experienced were a lack of a quick commuting transit system (like the mono rail at HK airport) which allowed me to cross different terminals quickly. Most of the transit desks were not operating and I needed to walk through all to see which one was available. On one occasion I arrived 1.5 hr before my connecting flight was scheduled to depart but the bus journey from parking bay to terminal took me 20min then I had to clear security and walk from T3 to T1 for transit which took me another 20 min. When I arrived at the transit desk at T1 check-in was close and I had to wait for the next flight (another 5 hr wait). This was not a pleasant experience.

Terminal 3 is a chaotic situation due to lack of signage and efficient staff at help desks. Usually help desk staff is disappearing. Situation gets even worse during short transit. A floor plan displayed various location may help passengers to locate themselves and fine their way to appropriate gates.