British Airways changes the access rules for its Dubai airport lounge

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• John G says:

  4 Nov4 November 08:34

  Surely you shouldn’t all have even been let into the BA lounge, let alone “The bar”? If you are Gold you can guest your son but your daughter only qualifies for the other lounge as Silver if they are enforcing the one guest rule.

  A double lounge upgrade. Anyone would think they knew you were doing a review!

• James says:

  4 Nov4 November 08:53

  I think these lounge access rules have been in place for most of the year at Dubai. I flew out in F on the A380 and back overnight in J on an A350 in March and was Silver at the time having only started flying BA a few months before COVID hit. I saw the access rules on the OW lounge finder ahead of the outbound and queried them with You First given the A350 doesn’t have an F cabin and it was the only BA flight scheduled within hours of the departure time so assumed that CW/ Silver would be admitted. They replied confirming the published access rules and ‘invited me to use’ the Marhaba lounge. I was a bit surprised given the above and that the overnight flight is a sleeper service with the idea you dine before boarding as they only serve a snack onboard (a Panini if I recall). As you walk past the BA lounge on the way to Marhaba I tried my luck and was admitted without any fuss, as had most of the CW cabin it seemed.

  As others have said though it’s not a particularly impressive lounge. I remember a miserable Arabic Meze and Chicken Chasseur (with McCain style wedges!) most of which went back uneaten although the Cheese Board was decent. Champagne was available via the QR code which I imagine isn’t the case in the Marhaba lounge. Golds were also being admitted to the BAR area back then too which made sense given the lack of space in the main lounge and no F cabin. I don’t think GGL/ CCR are supposed to get access to the BARs or Concorde dining at outstations ordinarily (other than JFK for now) although I’ll be trying my luck when I turn GGL at the end of the month.

  This was my first long haul trip since COVID and to be honest the flight back was dire. I did however receive much better service recovery than Joan mentioned above although I had a lot of future business booked with BA in F&J at the time (not that I sense any consistently to how service recovery is applied).

  • Joan says:

    4 Nov4 November 09:20

    James – it was only Prosecco in the Marhaba lounge

• Lady London says:

  4 Nov4 November 10:02

  With all the other lounge withdrawals around Europe that we’re hearing British Airways has done, alongside the reshaping of the avios program : Has BA decided it’s not going to offer lounges to status flyers who aren’t flying in a class that would give them access to lounges even without status?

  @BJ will be pleased

  • Jack says:

    4 Nov4 November 22:44

    they could not do that as it would be against one world policy . a BA lounge is not a guarantee any status holder has lounge access that is the point of such schemes

• PJJ says:

  4 Nov4 November 10:13

  With regards to the Ambassador offer, not having ever been a member

  Do I have to take the 2 night BOGOF before the end of January to get the bonus 20000 points or can I leave it a little later ?

  Presumably I could take the offer later in the year but not get the bonus points

  • Rob says:

    4 Nov4 November 10:15

    No rush to use the BOGOF, unless you want to use it at a Regent or Kimpton.

• Harry T says:

  4 Nov4 November 10:46

  Agree that BA are awful. The DXB lounge is very small though, it would be absolutely feral if they let in everyone in CW on an A380 in. The bottom line is that they need a bigger and better lounge.

• Adam says:

  4 Nov4 November 11:19

  I went through Dubai last week and was given access to the lounge (BA Silver travelling in Economy) I wonder if it depends how full they are?

• Chris says:

  4 Nov4 November 14:45

  Congratulations on your nomination! This is the only site I visit every day without fail. I appreciate the volume of articles and the concise content. Best of luck!

• Andrew O says:

  4 Nov4 November 20:45

  I was in the lounge on the 5th October and it was crowded. I was on the 777 back to LHR flying club.

  With all the recent changes I think I’m going to stick with Virgin and try and use the KLM/Air France alliance.

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