Review: Emirates Lounge LAX

Not impressed. Nothing beats The Pier at HKG or the classy JAL First Class lounge in Haneda. One of the reasons my first class tickets are almost always purchased with Oneworld Airlines

@Endre: And your business class tickets are purchased with Star Alliance airlines?

@Leeza1 You sound like a very smart person with your twisted deductions. I fly mostly in first and with Oneworld. Star Alliance and Skyteam airlines service is a joke. When the cabin is not available no other choice than business with oneworld

@Leeza - don’t let the troll get to you... if someone is bragging about flying paid first then they don’t.

@Endre: Bit of an apples to oranges comparison, no? You are comparing an EK lounge in an outstation to CX's lounge at its hub. That's not really fair. A much fairer comparison would be to compare the EK DXB lounge with CX's lounge in HKG or the EK LAX lounge with, let's say, the CX Lounge in CDG/LHR.

That hot food looks very sad and unappealing.

The lack of first class differentiation is also a poor show. They could easily do something. For instance, they could offer a separate super-fast WiFi service to first class visitors, handing out codes on entry, separate first class showers etc. It shows a distinct lack of care.

@Lucky did you take the Westjet flights? No reviews?

DId you take the return LAX-YVR flight?

you seem to be dodging this one since multiple people have asked...

@Lucky did you take the Westjet flights? No reviews?

Did you take the return LAX-YVR flight?

you seem to be dodging this one since multiple people have asked...

@Endre is that really the right comparison to be making? A lounge at an outstation where Emirates have 1/2 flights a day vs other airlines' main hub first class lounges?

You said "Emirates offers chauffeur service for first and business class passengers on paid tickets". Isn't it also on Skyward First and business award tickets too?

Sorry for not really getting this: I am Emirates Gold, but want to collect Alaska miles. Since I am about to fly Dubai-Sydney, when I have them put in my Alaska number, I will not be able to have free Internet, even when flying First Class, correct?

@ Jay Jay -- That's correct.

@ Andrew -- Good point, thank you. Post updated.

@ Surfer -- I took the Vancouver to Los Angeles flight, not the Los Angeles to Vancouver flight. Not reviewing the flight since it was basically the same as the previous WestJet Plus flight I took:
https://onemileatatime.com/westjet-plus-upgrade-worth-it/

Love the Emirates lounges, both at DXB and outstation. I'm especially fond of the Bateel dates they carry.

Love Emirates- best airline in my opinion. Also do you have another post detailing more that "secret" security line or is it basically just that- arrivals level at TBIT on the far left?

Does EK make the chaffeur service available for paid F/J tickets on both ends or is it just offered on the departure end?

@ Ron -- It's offered on both ends.

I attempted to use the same “secret” security checkpoint at TBIT on June 15 as the regular line was very long. I was told by the agent I was not eligible to use it as it’s only for AA passengers. I replied that I thought any ticket can access any checkpoint and she insisted that was not the case. I asked when this policy changed for this specific checkpoint and she said it was within the last week or two that only AA passengers could use it. Is this true that the “secret” checkpoint is dead or is this a case of a misinformed agent?

@Andrew & @Lucky, chauffeur drive is also available for Qantas partner award tickets, if you want to update that too...

I agree that the food offerings in all Emirates Lounges is superior to most with fresh and light options in abundance. My irritation with EK is the lack of consistency as to the champagne offered across the Lounges. Veuve Clicquot offered at LAX in the combined Lounge and yet Moet was offered in the First Lounge at DXB last week! At least the P2 currently being served onboard is worth the wait.

Definitely an excellent place to spend a couple hours, with the decent food and terrace view. Glad I got to check it out as a Virgin Australia passenger

Actually they do share the lounge, don't know about other airlines, but Virgin Australia business class pax have access, and we ended up spending several hours due to a delayed departure. At LAX I've only been to this and Korean which is rather pathetic, so it was a big step up,

Ben, thank you for describing the meal options that were available rather than just reproducing pictures. It is an enormous help to people who are blind such as myself. Please keep it up.

WRT to the first few comments; I’d take JAL’s Haneda or Cathay’s HKG first lounges over Emirates DXB one with the caveat that I’ve only ever been through DXB at some ungodly hour of the morning and what I’m mainly looking for is a nap.

EK definitely does the outstation business lounge consistently and pretty well, though. Pretty good food and drink, plenty of space by and large. Too much beige and brown but you can’t have everything.

Oddly Emirates actually do contract out the LAX lounge to Virgin Australia. This started maybe 18 months ago when Virgin lost access to the Star Alliance lounge in LAX

@Endre
I wouldn't think someone who lived on a trailer park could even afford a bus ticket, never mind First Class...keep dreaming

If only Delta could have the food and wine selection that Emirates has in Los Angeles. Delta could save a ton with on-board catering by offering good, proper food in the lounge, at least for international business-class. Delta desperately needs an exclusive international business-class lounge at its JFK, DTW, LAX, and ATL hubs.

It looks like the the bottle of 2014 Hypothesis cabernet sauvignon in the picture sells for between $23 and $40-ish. Not bad at all.

@ wadacash – Can't confirm anything with official statements, but I was there on June 16th flying Austrian and no one even paid any attention to me the whole way through, so it seems you may have just run into a misinformed agent.

Emirates lounge provision is a consistent and quality product - Qatar herds it's "Privilege" premium travelling passengers into any old airport lounge - witness the tired "Escape" lounge in Manchester International or the places that you are privileged to use at Beijing Capital or Colombo Bandaranaike. Didn't Qatar used to describe themselves as "The World's First 5 Star Airline"? Oh how times change - has excitedly chattering Mr Al Bakr been dumped yet and left for his retirement in Australia with Mr Hogan?

I had access using my VA Platinum status whilst flying economy to MLB. Could only get me plus one guest in but I can confirm the champagne was cold and the prawns delicious....... they seem to have changed the bottle water from Voss when I was there

@Lilly Ming

I remember the lounge at Beijing Capital where they labelled Oranges as being reassuringly 'meat-free' lol

Same, I love this lounge. Also, if you get the chance, you NEED to fly Air Mauritius' New A350 Business Class! They only have 2 routes so far, MRU to JNB and CDG but it's so good! Also, wish me luck on my trip to Bahrain!

@Andrew N: I really enjoy when Endre coomment something here.
He's a troll, but at least he sticks with his "Paid FC tickets only".
I was worried because a few weeks ago, he was talking about his paid business class tickets.
So sad that a fellow reader was declining economically.
Good to see that he's back on his FC.

@wadacash I was in contact with LAX who confirm ALL TICKETED passengers may use the security screening in the lower level of TBIT and they have reminded all TSA staff of the protocol 🙂

The Emirates First Class lounge at JFK is fabulous - boarding right from the lounge to the plane. Private car service to and from hotel in both classes feels decadent. The Emirates First Class lounge in Dubai is almost too quiet, but the champagne bar is a delight! (I think it is Moet & Chandon with both vintage and NV offerings) The Business Class lounge at Dubai is huge and had an unbelievable assortment of buffet offerings.

Years ago, before I ever flew Emirates, I was crazy about the Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Lounge at Heathrow. Spa services, cool decor, just a great ground experience. Not sure what it is like now.

Ben, I'm flying Air France La Premiere from LAX-CDG in September. Never been to LAX -Besides Korean Air lounge is there any other lounge option you would recommend before the flight?

Flew "F" on EK back in February from LAX on Alaska Air redemption (ouch). It was on our bucket list and quite nice. No chauffeur service for first and business class passengers on redemption tickets. As our final destination was SGN, we were given a free room at the DXB Le Meridien, which was quite nice and a wonderful buffet breakfast the next morning. The layover must be for at least 12 hours for the room. Anything less didn't qualify. The “secret” security checkpoint at TBIT was open in February, and we breezed through in less than five minutes, no stress take your time. The place was empty! Ya, you can't compare EK lounge at LAX to DXB. We usually fly F or J on redemptions to Asia on Cathay, and the Cathay lounge in HKG makes LAX Cathay lounge look like a busted taco stand.

You should have titled the report as “a long wait between updates”!

Are you ever going to post the next segment?? It’s been over a week!

Agree with the two comments above! @Lucky don't keep us waiting this long!

"They don’t contract the lounge out to other airlines, so the lounges only ever have Emirates passengers"

Lucky, this is not correct. I used the Emirates LAX lounge as a VA J customer LAX-MEL. I agree with most of your points re this lounge, and found it irritating that there was no toilet in with the smallish shower room offered. The food options you show were almost identical to what was on offer when I was in this lounge some 3 months ago, and found the vast majority of it to be bland and unappealing. The soup was the lone standout for me.

Nice write up and photo's, but missing a very important piece of information, what are the hours of the lounge??? Emirates web site indicates it is from 12:40 PM to 4:40 PM which seems very short. Any review of an airport lounge should include the hours of operation.