First Look: Emirates’ New Lounge At Los Angeles LAX Airport

Update: Read my full Emirates Lounge LAX review.

As some of you may remember, I flew Emirates first class from Los Angeles to Dubai last November with my dad.

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Emirates A380 LAX

The flight was amazing, though the one (minor) downside of the experience was that Emirates used the Korean Air Lounge at LAX, which is my least favorite major lounge in Tom Bradley International Terminal. Not only is it a small and boring lounge, but the food and alcohol selection is underwhelming.

The good news is that I knew Emirates was in the process of opening their own lounge at LAX. The Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport had a soft opening in mid-February, though they only had their “grand opening” yesterday, which I was invited to.

Since I had no plans to fly Emirates out of LAX anytime soon, I was happy to attend. Now of course let me say that a grand opening party isn’t a great way to experience the service in the lounge, though it still gives you a good idea of the lounge layout, food, etc.

With that in mind, the Emirates Lounge LAX is located at Tom Bradley International Terminal, as you’d expect. The new Tom Bradley International Terminal is gorgeous, though I’ve already reviewed it.

Tom Bradley International Terminal

The Emirates Lounge is open daily from 12:45PM to 4:45PM during the summer hours.

Once you pass security there’s clear signage towards the Emirates Lounge — it’s accessed via the same elevator as the Qantas First Lounge and Korean Air Lounge.

Tom Bradley International Terminal LAX

Elevator to Emirates Lounge LAX

The Emirates Lounge is located on Level 6, which is two levels up from the main concourse. That’s the same level as the Star Alliance First & Business Lounge, as well as the Los Angeles International Lounge (hands down the trashiest lounge in the terminal).

Emirates Lounge signage LAX

Once out of the elevator you turn right, and then the entrance to the Emirates Lounge is at the far end of the corridor, just past the Los Angeles International Lounge. The exterior is gorgeous.

Emirates Lounge LAX entrance

Once inside there’s a reception desk, and then on the right side of the desk is the hallway into the lounge.

Emirates Lounge LAX reception desk

The long hallway has long newspaper and magazine racks just past the entrance on the left. Past that are the bathrooms and the prayer room, which I’ll have more on later.

Emirates Lounge LAX entry hallway

Emirates Lounge LAX magazines & newspapers

And then you’re let into the lounge itself. The lounge is more or less in a rectangular shape, though there are some partitions which add a sense of privacy.

The first thing I noticed was how contemporary the lounge felt. In my experience most of Emirates’ outstation lounges feature outdated decor that makes you feel like you’re in a cigar bar from 20 years ago. Emirates’ lounges in London and Singapore come to mind.

I loved the decor in this lounge, though. It was classic and contemporary at the same time. It was explained to me that long term some of the other lounges will be renovated to match this lounge’s decor.

Emirates Lounge LAX seating

While the dining area was on the side of the lounge closest to the entrance, the more traditional lounge seating was at the far end of the lounge.

Emirates Lounge LAX seating

Emirates Lounge LAX seating

Emirates did a great job with creating lots of unique seating setups. It’s not just one long row with all the same seats, but rather there are several types of seating options. There were also plenty of plugs everywhere, which is always much appreciated.

Emirates Lounge LAX seating

Emirates Lounge LAX seating

In the back left corner of the lounge was a smaller seating area with a self serve drink station.

Emirates Lounge LAX seating

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport self serve drink station

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport self serve drink station

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport self serve drink station

Emirates Lounge LAX seating

Emirates Lounge LAX seating

Then at the far end of the lounge was a business center with five PCs and a printer.

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport business center

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport business center

Past the business center was an indoor terrace, which overlooks the terminal. I know I’m weird, but I love these terraces which many lounges at TBIT offer. Not only does the terminal have some amazing graphics on the big screens, but there’s some great people watching to be had from the terraces as well.

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport terrace

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport terrace view

In terms of the dining area and food, like I said earlier, the dining area was located near the entrance.

Emirates Lounge LAX dining area

There was a communal table separating the dining area from the “lounging” area, which had a variety of fresh fruit on display.

Emirates Lounge LAX dining area

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport fruit selection

In terms of food, there was the standard “circular” buffet with snacks and appetizers. I find it funny how Emirates has a similar circular food buffet setup in all their lounges.

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport buffet

The food on display looked top notch, from mezze to tuna salad to shrimp to fresh fruit to panna cotta to cheesecake.

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport buffet

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport buffet

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport buffet

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport buffet

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport buffet

Then there was a much larger buffet against the wall. In terms of drinks, there was a self serve coffee machine, along with a selection of tea and dates.

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport coffee machine

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport dates

Then there was a bar with self serve booze, wine, etc. It’s worth noting that Emirates serves Veuve Cliquot champagne in the lounge.

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport alcohol selection

The hot food spread was excellent.

There was one soup on offer, which was a cream of zucchini soup.

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport soup

Then there was a buffet with about 10 hot dishes.

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport buffet

These dishes included:

• lobster and mashed potato fishcakes
• gratinated potato gruyere gratin
• rigatoni pasta
• poached Pacific salmon with spinach and sauce vierge
• grilled fillet of beef with bearnaise sauce
• Mediterranean chicken olive and tomato stew
• Mild spiced Indian curry vegetable
• fresh vegetable selection
• palak paneer

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport buffet

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport buffet

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport buffet

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport buffet

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport lunch

In terms of the lounge’s other facilities, as I said earlier, the bathrooms were near the entrance. The showers are actually inside the gender-segregated bathrooms. So the men’s room had a couple of shower stalls and a couple of bathroom stalls.

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport bathroom

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport bathroom

I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t have private shower suites with bathrooms, but rather that they’re all inside the men’s room. That’s not a huge deal, of course, but it is worth noting.

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport shower

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport shower

Then there was a prayer room between the bathrooms.

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport prayer room

There were about 100 media people in attendance. There were speeches from the divisional senior vice president of airport services as well as the regional sales manager. Hands down the coolest guy from Emirates was Paul, who is the station manager for Emirates at LAX — he’s totally awesome.

There was a cake cutting ceremony as well to celebrate the lounge officially opening.

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport cake cutting ceremony

Emirates Lounge Los Angeles Airport cake

I had the chance to ask the Emirates staff in attendance a few questions. A couple answers were especially interesting, I thought:

Will Emirates contract the lounge out to other airlines?

Nope, they’re literally operating it just four hours a day and exclusively for Emirates passengers. They don’t plan on contracting it out to any other airline. Emirates apparently invested over six million dollars in the lounge, so that’s quite a commitment.

Given that LAX has once daily service, what made them decide to build a lounge?

Obviously it makes sense for Emirates to operate their own lounges at outstations like New York and London, where they have several frequencies a day. But what goes into deciding to open a lounge for a once daily destination? For example, Emirates has three lounges in the US, in New York, San Francisco, and now Los Angeles.

Why operate lounges in San Francisco and Los Angeles, but not Houston and Dallas, even though they’re all once daily A380 destinations? Apparently the intent is to open lounges as much as possible in “premium markets,” where they want to make sure they’re managing every aspect of the premium customers’ experience as possible. And I guess at the end of the day the best way to control quality is to run a lounge yourself.

Emirates Lounge LAX bottom line

This is a really nice lounge, and in terms of decor, probably my favorite Emirates lounge ever. Also keep in mind that only Emirates passengers will have access to the lounge, so it won’t ever be overcrowded.

As is the norm at Emirates’ outstations, this is  a shared first & business class facility, so as a first class passenger you might not be as thrilled about the lounge as you’d be as a business class passenger. Either way, this is a huge improvement over the Korean Air Lounge they used to send their passengers to.

How does this rank compared to the other lounges at Tom Bradley International Terminal? In terms of business class lounges, I’d say the Star Alliance Business Class Lounge is still my favorite at LAX. That’s largely just a function of the real estate they have available to them, as well as how big it is due to the volume of passengers they handle. That being said, I think the food selection is better in the Emirates Lounge.

In terms of first class lounges, I think the Qantas First Lounge still has the edge, as it offers an a la carte menu and table service.

All things considered this is a great lounge. Kudos to Emirates for taking control of as many aspects of the customer experience as possible (even if in my head I can’t make the numbers work financially).

What do you think of the Emirates Lounge LAX compared to the other lounges at the airport?

Update: I had a chance to check out this lounge again and provided an updated review in 2018. See here for a full review.