Excellent Plaza Premium airport lounge opens in the Emirates terminal at Dubai

For anyone with a flight on Emirates in the diary, Plaza Premium has opened a new lounge in Terminal 3 (Concourse A) of Dubai International Airport.

This is the first Plaza Premium lounge in the airport.

It is a whopping 1,260 square metres and, as you can see from the image above, looks very spacious.  Interestingly, there are ‘private 10 sq m suites’ with butler service available for family groups for an additional fee, plus a playroom.

The lounge costs a reassuringly expensive Dhs 199 (£41) on the door.  Luckily, you can also get access via a Priority Pass (buy one here, or free with Amex Platinum) or Lounge Club (two free passes with the ‘free for a year’ Amex Gold credit card).

You can also book in advance via this page of the Plaza Premium website here.

PS.  If you are on Dubai Concourse D in Terminal 1, which British Airways uses, there is a spectacular lounge deal available.  DragonPass – but not Priority Pass – gets you into the Ahlan First Class Lounge, used by various airlines for their First Class passengers.  Food and drink is, as you would expect, suitably first class as we covered here.

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How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (April 2024)

Here are the four options to get FREE airport lounge access via a UK credit card.

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with two free Priority Pass cards, one for you and one for a supplementary cardholder. Each card admits two so a family of four gets in free. You get access to all 1,300 lounges in the Priority Pass network – search it here.

You also get access to Eurostar, Lufthansa and Delta Air Lines lounges.  Our American Express Platinum review is here. You can apply here.

If you have a small business, consider American Express Business Platinum instead.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for the first year. It comes with a Priority Pass card loaded with four free visits to any Priority Pass lounge – see the list here.

Additional lounge visits are charged at £24.  You get four more free visits for every year you keep the card.  

There is no annual fee for Amex Gold in Year 1 and you get a 20,000 points sign-up bonus.  Full details are in our American Express Preferred Rewards Gold review here.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard gets you get a free Priority Pass card, allowing you access to the Priority Pass network.  Guests are charged at £24 although it may be cheaper to pay £60 for a supplementary credit card for your partner.

The card has a fee of £195 and there are strict financial requirements to become a HSBC Premier customer.  Full details are in my HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard review.

PS. You can find all of HfP’s UK airport lounge reviews – and we’ve been to most of them – indexed here.