A few notes on the Pearl lounge at Abu Dhabi

[The real Swiss Tony]

Don’t think this has been covered much but flew back from AUH in BA F the other day.

No fast track security but no queue at that time of day anyway.

Access is to the Pearl lounge, which is well signposted. They have a big tensa barrier queue set up for access but i suspect it is a lot busier overnight. I walked straight up to an agent.

Friendly welcome and was then escorted through the maze of a lounge to a couple of rooms separated by a sliding door to get into a special area reserved just for F&J pax. This must seat 50 people max, has table service and a small buffet/soft drinks at one end. Not the most inviting space but only 4 other pax in there. the menu was very limited.

You are free to help yourself from the main buffet and bar, but the food looked rather underwhelming as I walked past. I’d eaten breakfast at the hotel and knew there was food on the plane, so didn’t feel obliged to eat anything. So the lounge was clean and nice enough to spend some time, but it was generally underwhelming.

Also a silent lounge but a bizarre FIDS display as it only had one page and most of the flights were showing as closed. Only 4 at the bottom were otherwise and these all showed as “fina. call”

[e14]

It is a crap lounge, I’m sure if you moaned at the BA contract ground staff provided by Eithad they would point out there are much better lounges if you fly with a proper airline.

The Pearl lounge also doesn’t like one BA Gold not flying in J or F entering especially if they have a mobile boarding pass and they are well before the ‘you are only allowed three hours’ limit.

A bit of feedback about the lounge is in the Flyertalk AUH-CMB-CGK thread

[The real Swiss Tony]

I think calling it a “crap lounge” suggests either 1) I was extremely lucky or 2) you have lived a charmed life when it comes to the joys of third party lounges. Certainly felt cleaner and less crowded than the BA Galleries lounge I’d been in at T5 a week earlier.

And for what it’s worth, I found the Etihad ground staff very accommodating when I was dropped at the well-signposted “First & Business” entrance, only to find that it was supposed to be just for EY pax…

[e14]

The real Swiss Tony wrote:

I think calling it a “crap lounge” suggests either 1) I was extremely lucky or 2) you have lived a charmed life when it comes to the joys of third party lounges. Certainly felt cleaner and less crowded than the BA Galleries lounge I’d been in at T5 a week earlier.

And for what it’s worth, I found the Etihad ground staff very accommodating when I was dropped at the well-signposted “First & Business” entrance, only to find that it was supposed to be just for EY pax…

I wouldn’t know about the T5 Galleries don’t think I’ve ever been in either the N or S, have been in the T5B one and that didn’t seem too bad.

The issue with the Pearl I found was there is no quiet area and the whole place was either noisy outside of the ‘business first shoebox’ or stuffy in the ‘business first shoebox’.

Other issue was trying to get the golden key for a shower (forget it) and the low number of toilets !

[slidey]

Which lounge is best at auh, pearl or al reem? Does the latter not have alcohol? If so, that answers the original question 😀

[The real Swiss Tony]

I think the Al Reem lounge was in the old terminal complex which is now closed, so it’s the Pearl or sit in the main terminal.

[Gagravarr]

My second visit in a fortnight today was miles better! Lounge wasn’t nearly as busy as last time. Actually got handed the menu when I sat down, along with an offer to fetch drinks from the bar. Chicken Kabsa (~= biriyani) was very tasty. Wine mediocre. Staff kept dropping by to offer more food/drink.

It’s certainly not as good as a “home lounge”, but for a contract outstation lounge it isn’t bad, especially if it isn’t too busy.

[The real Swiss Tony]

Were you there the same time on both occasions?

[Gagravarr]

The real Swiss Tony wrote:

Were you there the same time on both occasions?

Yup, both times 3-5pm (before the QR late-afternoon flight), one on a weekend and one on weekday though

[The real Swiss Tony]

Interesting. I was in there before the BA flight (9am) and the majority of flights were LCCs or Etihad. Only other full service one seemed to be Air France.

They were certainly set up to manage a sizeable queue to get in!

[Gagravarr]

Top tip – there’s actually two queues for the lounge!

There’s one desk on the right with a sign something like “Business and First” for anyone who gets access with their ticket. Then there’s multiple desks on the left, which always seemed to have a queue, for those paying for entry / using priority pass / using credit cards etc

[The real Swiss Tony]

Good to know.

It was so quiet when I got there, only the desks on the left were open, but I was then escorted through some kind of magic door on the right which I guess was a bit of a shortcut to the special F&J area. I think I recall clocking that desk but didn’t see any people or signs on it…