British Airways Opens New Lounge In Dubai

British Airways has opened its new lounge and First Class Concorde Bar in Dubai Airport’s new Concourse D.

Some are categorising the British Airways offering in Dubai as two lounges…but that’s not what it is. British Airways has one new lounge in Dubai and within that lounge is a separate room/area that’s been called the Concorde Bar.

The Concorde Bar is intended to be a haven for those flying British Airways First Class or for British Airways Flyers holding Concorde Room or Premier Cards. This is one of those First Class enclaves where top-tier OneWorld status doesn’t do you any good – it won’t get you in.

To be honest, as a OneWorld Emerald, I don’t think I’m going to be missing out too much by not having access to the Concorde Bar in Dubai. British Airways opened their first Concorde Bar in Singapore last year and, from what I’ve heard, the experience there has been quite underwhelming….and I don’t see any reason why things should be any different in Dubai.

The promotional pictures of the new lounge, released by British Airways, look nice….

British Airways Lounge Dubai

British Airways Lounge Dubai

…and the lounge designers appear to have paid attention to a few important details…..like power and USB sockets at every seat.

According to British Airways:

The food and beverage area offers a choice of banquette seating or a high communal dining table and features a newly designed Island Bar. The menu features modern British dishes as well as favourites from the local region, and guests can help themselves to a generous selection of wines, beers, spirits, soft drinks, teas, coffees and snacks.

British Airways Lounge Dubai

British Airways Lounge Dubai

The self-serve bar is reminiscent of the bars British Airways offers in the Galleries First lounges at Heathrow Terminals 3 & 5:

British Airways Lounge Dubai

British Airways Lounge Dubai

The image British Airways has released for the Concorde Bar itself either doesn’t do the new exclusive part of the lounge justice or the Concorde Bar is set to be a fine example of the Emperor’s new clothes:

British Airways Concorde Bar Dubai

I know that minimalist decor can be nice/cool/clever etc… but if you’re going to have a lounge that’s as exclusive as the Concorde Bar you really need to make it a bit more special. The bar in that picture could be a bar from any number of lounges around the globe and doesn’t do anything to make me think that BA is getting to grips with what will make their top-end product feel like a good idea to those who can afford it.

Yes, that’s just one picture and the rest of the Concorde Bar may well be fantastic but, as that’s the one picture British Airways has chosen to showcase their new exclusive lounge area, I’ve got to assume they’ve gone for the picture they think best sums up the experience. And that looks very disappointing to me.

Bottom Line

On a positive note the main lounge area looks nice and will be a big improvement over the last lounge that British Airways offered in Dubai. It will be interesting to see what food selection will be on offer and, as I haven’t yet seen any figures for how many people the lounge can hold, it will be interesting to see if the lounge will be able to cope with the high volume of British Airways and OneWorld elites that pass through Dubai Airport. That’s something we’ll have to wait and see but, overall, it’s great to have a nice-looking British Airways lounge to use in Dubai.

As for the new Concorde Bar, I’m not at all convinced it’s going to be anything worth getting excited about. Just because a lounge (or an area of a lounge) is hard to get in to doesn’t make it good or worthwhile – what’s inside needs to be above and beyond what top-dollar passengers can get elsewhere and I’m not sure BA gets that….but I guess time and the early reviews will tell us soon enough.