During our layover in Dubai we took advantage of Emirates’ Dubai Connect program, where you can get a free hotel stay if your transit meets certain conditions.
Who qualifies for Emirates Dubai Connect?
One of the purposes of the Gulf carriers is to promote their home countries, and one of the ways they do that is by offering free stopovers to passengers. While you could potentially stay for a few days, several Gulf carriers go out of their way to make even a quick transit pleasant. In the past I’ve written about my experience booking a free hotel using Qatar Airways’ stopover program, and in this post wanted to share my experience booking one through Emirates.
Emirates offers a free stopover, including accommodation, meals, ground transportation, and visa costs, under the following circumstances (of course terms and conditions apply, this is subject to availability, blah blah blah):
- First and business class passengers “for whom the best connection time is not available and who have a transit of more than six hours and less than 24 hours”
- Economy class passengers “for whom the best connection time is not available and who have a transit of more than eight hours and less than 24 hours”
Only Emirates or Qantas issued tickets qualify, so a partner award ticket wouldn’t qualify for this offer. Emirates’ website says that accommodation is provided at the Copthorne Hotel Dubai, the Le Meridien Airport Hotel Dubai, the Arabian Park Hotel Dubai, or another alternative at their discretion. It’s my understanding that first and business class passengers are typically put up at the Copthorne or Le Meridien.
My experience booking Emirates Dubai Connect
If you are eligible then you should be able to book this directly through Emirates’ website in the “Manage My Booking” section. I’m not totally sure I get what they mean by “for whom the best connection time is not available,” though based on Emirates’ website:
- We were eligible for Dubai Connect for our outbound, where we had a layover of about 14 hours, but intentionally didn’t book the next flight from Dubai to Milan (where you’d think we wouldn’t be eligible, since we chose to have a layover that long)
- Were not eligible for Dubai Connect for our return, where we had a layover of about 11 hours, and booked the next available flight from Dubai to Los Angeles (where you’d think we’d be eligible, since we didn’t choose a layover that long, really)
Anyway, it could be that they would have allowed it if I asked, as websites don’t always provide correct information. Fortunately, it didn’t really matter to me, since I had different plans for the return (I wanted to try out the airside transit hotel on the return to compare it, and that’s not included as part of this).
The process of requesting the hotel is super easy. You just fill out a quick form, and then it confirms that you’re eligible. I figured there would be more to the process, but there wasn’t. The confirmation is instant.
However, you don’t actually find out where you’ll be staying until you check in for your flight at the airport. When you check in you’ll be printed your hotel voucher as well as vouchers confirming that you receive free meals. So upon checking in at LAX we learned that we’d be staying at the Le Meridien Dubai, located near the airport.
Emirates Dubai Connect Hotel review
Upon landing in Dubai we passed through immigration and then turned right to the Emirates chauffeur drive service. We hadn’t reserved a car in advance (there was no option to do so online), but they gladly booked us a car to the Le Meridien, as ground transport is part of the offering.
Emirates chauffeur drive service Dubai
There’s an area in the chauffeur drive area where you can sit, though they have a huge line of cars ready to take you anytime, so there’s really no need to ever wait.
Emirates chauffeur drive service Dubai
You just head straight outside, give someone the receipt that they print for you, and they drive you to the hotel.
Emirates chauffeur drive service Dubai
Emirates chauffeur drive service Dubai
The Le Meridien Dubai has a few different areas. There’s a beautiful club tower, which is a totally separate building. Then there’s the main part of the hotel. And then there’s the Emirates entrance, which is by far the least nice of the areas. It’s interesting to walk into a hotel that’s fully Emirates branded.
Le Meridien Dubai Emirates entrance
Just inside the entrance is the reception desk, again, exclusively for Emirates passengers. The check-in process took a while, not because the ladies working the desk weren’t friendly or efficient, but because there were just a lot of people, and there was also quite a language barrier for some.
Le Meridien Dubai Emirates reception
Le Meridien Dubai Emirates reception
Within a few minutes we were issued a room key — we didn’t even have to provide a credit card! We were even given a meal voucher for both dinner and breakfast.
I was impressed by that. They don’t just force all the passengers to eat at the same buffet, but rather you get a three course meal at your choice of just about all of the hotel’s restaurants, and there are lots to choose from, including a Chinese restaurant, Thai restaurant, Italian restaurant, pub, and more. This aspect of the experience really impressed me.
Emirates transit hotel meal voucher
Emirates transit hotel meal voucher
There was a small lobby off the reception area, though this isn’t the hotel’s main lobby, but rather just the seating area for Emirates passengers who are waiting to arrive and depart.
Le Meridien Dubai Emirates lobby
We were handed keys for room 2204, though finding the room took 20 minutes, and we only eventually found it after a hotel staff member walked us to the door. This hotel has a horrible layout with more wings than a flock of birds. They really should hand you a map with directions when you check-in.
The problem is that none of the signs actually pointed us to our room. Which way would you go for room 2204? We figured maybe the next sign would have our room number, but nope. Maybe we were just jetlagged, but my gosh…
Le Meridien Dubai room signage
It seems to me like this hotel is in about 15 different stages of renovation. I know the club tower is beautiful (I’ve stayed in it before), the main lobby is very nice, but all the other halls of the hotel seem to be different. For example, below is what our hotel room door looked like.
Le Meridien Dubai room exterior
And then below is what the door across from our room looked like. Presumably these aren’t intentionally mismatched, but rather the sides of the hallway are at different phases of renovation? That’s sort of concerning, because it seemed to me like our entrance was fresher-looking, meaning maybe our room was actually renovated?
Le Meridien Dubai room exterior
Anyway, the room itself was… fine. I don’t want to complain about something that was ostensibly “free,” but this wasn’t luxurious… at all. The room had an entryway with the bathroom to the right, and then some of the most mismatched and outdated furniture I’ve had in a hotel in quite a while.
Le Meridien Dubai room entrance
Le Meridien Dubai room
Le Meridien Dubai room
Le Meridien Dubai room
Le Meridien Dubai room
Le Meridien Dubai desk
I’m not trying to be shady here, but was the couch designed to have this sort of color coordination? It looked coordinated enough so that it didn’t seem like they were using totally random pieces of different furniture, but that’s about all I can say.
Le Meridien Dubai couch
The room had a coffee machine, three bottles of water (one next to the coffee machine and two in the bathroom), and a minibar.
Le Meridien Dubai in-room coffee & water
Le Meridien Dubai minibar
The bathroom featured a sink, a walk-in shower, a shower/tub combo, a toilet, and a bidet.
Le Meridien Dubai bathroom
Le Meridien Dubai bathroom
Le Meridien Dubai shower
Le Meridien Dubai toilet & bidet
Toiletries were the brand standard ones from Malin+Goetz, which were probably the nicest aspect of the room.
Le Meridien Dubai Malin & Goetz amenities
While the Emirates lobby wasn’t very nice, the main lobby of the hotel was very nice. If only the rest of the hotel had decor this nice.
Le Meridien Dubai lobby
Le Meridien Dubai lobby
Le Meridien Dubai lobby
Le Meridien Dubai lobby
Our layover was short and just overnight, so I didn’t have much time to check out the facilities. The hotel does have multiple pools.
Le Meridien Dubai pool
This should give you a general sense of the layout of the hotel:
Le Meridien Dubai map
We had a lot of options to choose from for dinner, and ended up eating at Long Yin, the Chinese restaurant.
Le Meridien Dubai Long Yin Restaurant
The restaurant was cute and empty.
Le Meridien Dubai Long Yin Restaurant
We presented our vouchers, and were then offered a set three course menu (branded as a “travelers set menu”), which read as follows:
All soft drinks are included, though we just had water to drink. As soon as we sat down we were brought some nuts and veggies.
Emirates transit hotel dinner
We both had the hot and sour soup with chicken to start.
Emirates transit hotel dinner
Then we had the stir fried diced chicken with black bean sauce, served with fried noodles with mixed vegetables.
Emirates transit hotel dinner
For dessert we had the chilled mango pudding, and ordered a coffee to go along with it.
Emirates transit hotel dinner
Emirates transit hotel dinner
We were offered fortune cookies upon the conclusion of the meal.
Emirates transit hotel dinner
The meal was good and filling.
We got an alright night of sleep, and ended up heading to the airport early to have breakfast at the lounge, so we missed the breakfast at the hotel. While we had a private chauffeur from the airport to the Le Meridien, on the way back we shared a van with other passenger.
Emirates van back to the airport
It was one of those Mercedes vans where the seats face one another. I absolutely love these, but only if there are no more than three people in the back. With six people seated in the back, legroom is worse than on Spirit.
Emirates van back to the airport
Emirates Dubai Transit Hotel bottom line
On the plus side, it’s nice that the Gulf carriers offer this service for their passengers. With other airlines you’re on your own if you have a long layover, while Emirates gives you a place to sleep, feeds you, and even transports you. The dining options also exceeded my expectations, given that you could choose where you wanted to eat, and for most restaurants it was a la carte rather than just a buffet.
That being said, the Le Meridien Dubai has seen better days. It’s not a bad hotel, though at the same time if you are going to put first and business class passengers up somewhere, it seems you’d want to do so at a hotel that’s actually nice and that they enjoy.
Please don’t get me wrong, it’s nice that they offer it at all, and maybe I should just say “it’s free, so I shouldn’t judge it.”
But personally I don’t think I would use this again. Why? Because Dubai has so many luxury hotels that can be booked for cheap, especially in summer. Like really, really cheap. For our night in Dubai a stay at the Park Hyatt Dubai or St. Regis Dubai would have been about $150, I would have earned an elite qualifying night and points, and I could have received a $100 property credit by booking through Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts® or Virtuoso. So for me personally I’d pay that for a luxury hotel rather than staying here for free, but that’s just me.
Or maybe I would have booked my own room at the hotel for $70, and as an SPG Platinum member I would have gotten a room in the club wing (which is much nicer), and would have received points and elite credit. Then I could have still used the meal vouchers that Emirates provided.
Again, it’s nice that they offer this benefit, I just thought the Le Meridien was really dated.
Am I being unreasonable for critiquing the stay at all, given that it was “free,” or…?
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