Last week I decided to head across to Auckland for a quick getaway. I had previously flown Emirates First Class on the Trans-Tasman flights before but hadn’t reviewed it so I thought it would be worthwhile to do. I decided to leave from Brisbane and for this flight and I used a Qantas voucher I previously had.
Emirates have their own lounge in Brisbane and it’s open for the flight to Auckland, Dubai and Singapore. During that time, the lounge will remain closed. The lounge is located at Gate 75 which is where the A380 is always parked. This gives the lounge the unique ability to board passengers directly from the lounge.
As you walk in, on the left, you’ll find the Business Center. There are PC’s and printers available to use.
Just in front of the Business Center is a self-serve beverage section. There’s coffee, tea, juices, soft drinks and liquors available.
The range of liquor is pretty reasonable and standard for an Emirates lounge.
There’s also a few wines and champagnes to choose from. Moët is found in Emirates lounges, and they even have a dedicated bar in one of the Business lounges in Dubai.
There’s a decent selection of soft drinks, juices, and beers available.
EK434 departs Brisbane at 8:10 am, and at that time, the lounge was pretty quiet. The lounge curves around and is quite spacious.
The lounge has a large selection of reading materials and newspapers.
The lounge also has a nice water feature in the centre of the first section.
All of the seating in the lounge is exactly the same. The comfortable beige leather chairs are a nice place to sit and relax before your flight.
If you keep walking straight from the entrance, the second part of the lounge you’ll find is the dining area. It was wasn’t too busy in the morning but this is where the majority of passengers were seated.
The lounge is buffet styles and there is quite a decent selection of hot and cold food available.
There’s also fresh fruits, cereals and various other cold items on the little stand in the dining area.
The dining area is the biggest part of the lounge and I imagine it’d get pretty busy on the Dubai or Singapore hops as those flight go out full all the time in Business and First.
There’s a heap of seating and all different sizes of tables for different sizes of groups.
Directly past the dining area is where the gate is found. This area is identical to the first section, just a little smaller.
Emirates lounges all around the world have the exact same decor and styling; it’s quite easy to tell theirs and Etihad’ apart.
The coolest part of the lounge has to be direct boarding. The Sydney lounge doesn’t even have this so Brisbane have something over them regarding lounges for once 😉
It also offers a good view of the A380!
The gate leads to the upper deck as that’s where Business and First Class are located. If you were a Gold or Platinum member with Qantas or Emirates and were seated in Economy, I assume you’d have to go out of the lounge and board in the Economy line.
Overall
The Emirates lounge in Brisbane is perfectly fine for what it is. It’s spacious, has a good selection of food, the staff are brilliant and the direct boarding is pretty awesome. Would I spend hours on end in the lounge? No, but 4-3 hours is perfectly fine.
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