Trip Report: Emirates Lounge Zurich

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• Emirates Lounge Zurich
• Emirates A380 First Class from Zurich to Dubai
• Emirates Lounge Dubai
• Emirates A380 First Class from Dubai to Houston

Last Tuesday I flew from Zurich to Dubai in First Class on the Emirates A380. As with all premium cabin international tickets, including award tickets, I got lounge access as part of my ticket.

Emirates operates lounges in many of the cities that it serves including Zurich. (In other cities, you’ll have access to another airline’s lounge.)

I love high-end lounges because they have free food, drinks, and comfortable places to work and shower, and Emirates Lounges are high-end lounges. Emirates begins check in in Zurich four hours before the flight, and I got to the lounge more than three hours before my flight.

The Emirates Lounge is just above the normal Emirates gate, E52.

It is open to First and Business Class passengers, but I was the first person into the lounge. The lounge agent welcomed me warmly and asked if I would be using the internet.

Unfortunately the internet situation at the Emirates Lounge in Zurich is terrible. You have to sign into the airport’s wifi with the code given to you by the agent. And then every hour, you have to get a new code.

I imagine this is the Zurich Airport’s fault and not Emirates’ fault, but it is annoying.

After check in, I took a lap around the lounge, and lap really is the right word because the seating sections of the lounge are like the outside of a rectangle with the bathrooms in the middle.

Along the right is the quiet seating area. I would have preferred to work here because the rest of the lounge got annoyingly loud between conversations and phone calls, but I didn’t see the silver towers of outlets, so I couldn’t work here and charge my devices.

The quiet area has this relaxing water feature and floor-to-ceiling windows.

The back section has a business center…

…a seating area…

…the magazine rack…

…a TV tuned to CNN…

… and a bar area with snacks.

I worked in this back section because I found a free tower to charge my devices. The tower has American sockets.

The left side of the lounge has the buffet, dining room, and floor-to-ceiling windows. You might also notice the doors in some of these photos, but unfortunately they cannot be opened to access the open air balconies that surround the lounge.

The bar is stocked with mid-shelf liquors. You’ll get better stuff on the plane in Business Class and even better stuff in First Class.

There are sodas, juices, and beers. I was happy to see pineapple juice to make my favorite cocktail.

The buffet was very impressive for a lounge that serves only one flight at a time. For meat options, Emirates offered chicken schnitzel, beef stroganoff…

…sea bass, and veal sausage.

Vegetable options were also extensive.

The vegetable curries with lentils and the vegetarian lasagna caught my eye.

There was also a cold buffet the featured desserts, fruits, cheese, and arabic mezze.

To another side, there was green pea soup and bread.

I went wild for my first meal of the day.

I actually ate almost all of it. I really loved the chicken schnitzel and Indian-style lentil curry. The vegetable lasagna was skippable, and the potatoes were downright bad, which shocked me because I love potatoes.

I even got seconds of my favorites.

I spent a few hours working, which was interrupted by the aforementioned internet system. A boarding call was made in the lounge, and I stopped by the bathrooms on the way out to get a look at the offering. The shower stalls were modest but clean and contained all the essentials. Of course, First Class passengers get to shower on board, so I had skipped these.

There was a problem with the normal Emirates gate, so we had to walk about five minutes to the other end of the terminal to board.

Bottom Line

The Emirates Lounge in Zurich is a great place to get a delicious meal, have a few drinks, and even take a shower. It is not particularly well designed for work, since you have to get a new internet code every hour and because of the lack of charging towers in the quiet section.

The lounge was nicer than my accommodations in Zurich, so I spent as much time as possible in it. It’s not an iconic lounge though like the Lufthansa First Class Terminal or Emirates Lounge in Dubai, though, so if you’re having a blast in Zurich and aren’t hungry, you can skip it entirely.