After arriving on my flight from Melbourne, I quickly passed security thanks to the new E-gates which played up the first time but worked the second time I tried. Anyway, I walked through baggage claim and made it to customs, if you are not declaring things, you walk straight ahead, and you will find the arrivals lounge to the left in Terminal 3.

All Residence, First, Business passengers, as well as Gold and Platinum members, can access the lounge after a flight.

There will be an agent at the desk when you first work in who can help organize your chauffeur or assist with any lounge questions. As I didn’t know what I would be doing during my all day transit in Abu Dhabi, I decided to go to a mall to kill a few hours; the agents organized a car to drive me there whenever I needed.

The arrivals lounge isn’t that big at all, but It doesn’t need to be. When I first visited there were probably three people max in the lounge, after my shower I was the only one in there.

Even though the lounge is small, it’s still spacious and comfortable.

The lounge has a buffet with fresh food available. The staff would top it up every time something would get taken.

 

 

They also have a coffee machine which was used a lot, understandably because of the 6 am arrival.

There are fridges below the counter which offer water and soft drinks.

 

As you can see, the lounge was empty.

 

 

There is one computer for passengers to use.

 

The lounge also has showers which are fantastic after a long flight.

They also have a Style and Shave area, which has been newly renovated to reflect their new first lounge.

 

The size of the shower is great, I’m hardly a tall person, but if you are, you’ll be pleased to know that the head is quite high.

 

The rooms are cleaned after every use; the cleaners do a great job as they were spotless.

 

 

The unique thing about the rooms is that you can put your clothes in the closet space and the staff with press them for free and they are done within minutes, perfect if you need neat clothes for a meeting.

The closet area also includes a few amenities, shown above and below:

 

Bottom Line

Having a shower and haircut on arrival is pretty fantastic. The internet is pretty good, (40mb per second) and the staff are friendly. If you have no rush to get to somewhere, it’s a great place to sit and relax and grab something to eat or just a coffee.