The DXB endurance workout. Dubai airport is your very own PT.

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Scott K

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Keen to lose some weight? Feeling you need a little extra activity to help your endurance training for a marathon? Getting connecting flights at DXB is for you!

Dubai's new airport is a beautiful piece of linear tubular construction that is scenic and amazing to visit at any time of day. The wildlife there is also just as astounding. With this in mind, let me tell you my little - and by no means unique - tale of discovering the DXB endurance workout.

I thought we had Dubai nailed. We'd been here before and had an idea of the lay of the land. Our flight from Venice would disembark at C concourse, and we'd catch our next plane also at C concourse. How hard can that be? So close!

Relatively speaking that is. C concourse is only 750 meters long. Everything seemed manageable in two hours. Right? Right!

I glanced at my Apple Watch (no, I am not promoting this product) had clicked over to a new day of activity tracking during the flight and now registered pretty much no steps. It was 2 am. We exited the plane and walked out onto the concourse and headed right to the security screening area about 50 meters away. So close! Yet I find a lengthy line snaking from the gate with the appearance of barely moving. Upon seeing us all approaching security stepped into the doorway and gestured us on.

So we walked on looking for the next point.

And walked.

And walked.

And walked past further bogged security gates or closed gates. We walked and walked. It had been winter in Venice so I had a woollen coat on when I boarded our flight which I now continued to wear to make it easier to carry along with my usual onboard extras - and some of the wife's.

Anxious that we were increasingly sliming down our time until our next flight. We found ourselves twisting into another area off to the side of the building that had broad spaces and lots of screening gates. Finally!

Oh. not so finally. Business and first passengers only here. The rest of us Y plebs had to keep walking. Finally we arrived into a huge area with lots of non-working screening gates. We also seem to have run out of building. It was about this point that I realised that we were on A concourse, and had walked the entire length of the building and were now at the main immigration area.

Upon passing through the gates (my wife had a knitters measuring tape confiscated so we got a lovely little search) we descended the escalators and headed back to C. It was about this point that I started to try and find the train that was featured in the video on the plane. Could we find it? Nah. The signage hinted it was there. But where? Sweat was dripping down my back and my wife was complaining about. Oh, I don't know. Her feet or something.

Carts aggressively aimed at us to run is down, all carrying passengers that fortunately probably couldn't understand the mixed expletives I wanted to deliver. We walked through seemingly endless duty free traps. Looking for the train. I thought I spotted it, only for the site to be closed for construction. We criss-crossed walkways to avoid other construction areas. By the time we arrived at our gate in C - physically one position further along the concourse than where our plane had arrived at, my coat was draped over my bag and my wife was glancing at me with extreme annoyance. And I wished I had lounge access to get a massage on my baggage dragging torn shoulder.

My Apple Watch amusingly informed me that we had just walked nearly 3 kilometres. And yes, we did use the travelators - or at least the ones that worked. I did find the train, but sadly it had been shut down for servicing over that evening.

Oh well. It did mean I racked up some further points while I was using the Qantas Assure app.
 
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I thought Venice had been in a heat wave?
It is a huge airport and I always tell people to get to their gate as soon as they land.
 
Renato1 will agree with your summation!

I read the thread with an awful lot of interest.
I was wondering what on earth would elderly, less fit people do in such a situation, when they weren't aware of what was ahead of them?
Certainly, my wife and I would have been struggling doing this transfer after our back operations of last year.

This thread vindicates my decision of three years ago, where with great regret I decided I'd never fly Emirates and through Dubai again (after they gave us a half hour trip, standing in a hot bus, all around the airport to get to our plane for Venice).
Regards,
Renato
 
I thought Venice had been in a heat wave?
It is a huge airport and I always tell people to get to their gate as soon as they land.
Ahhh this was a few months ago... Oddly middle of spring all I could see was rain and cold.
 
I read the thread with an awful lot of interest.
I was wondering what on earth would elderly, less fit people do in such a situation, when they weren't aware of what was ahead of them?
Certainly, my wife and I would have been struggling doing this transfer after our back operations of last year.

This thread vindicates my decision of three years ago, where with great regret I decided I'd never fly Emirates and through Dubai again (after they gave us a half hour trip, standing in a hot bus, all around the airport to get to our plane for Venice).
Regards,
Renato
Ouch... Ouch... I can't say that would be fun at all.

I've got nothing against Emirates. Every experience I have had with them has been close to perfect. Dubai airport has the feel of 'lot of money, limited expertise available for design'. The very first time I arrived there, I had a smashing migraine and loved sitting on the reclining benches on B concourse. But as for navigating and organisation, I can't say I have come across a worse airport.
 
Top effort Scott.

Its a bit of a mystery to me: (a) how people actually organise a lift on those golf buggies; and (b) how they actually manage not to seriously injure more people based on how some of them are driven.
 
Last year I left the B First lounge for my gate at the far Eastern end of B ... it took nearly 15 minutes at a brisk pace ... it went on and on ... I was rather breathless when I reached the gate ... compounded by "glow" from the decent f&b I had consumed. :oops:
 
Last year I left the B First lounge for my gate at the far Eastern end of B ... it took nearly 15 minutes at a brisk pace ... it went on and on ... I was rather breathless when I reached the gate ... compounded by "glow" from the decent f&b I had consumed. :oops:

If I'd done that the other way round, from gate to B lounge, a dive into the water fountains would have been on the cards.
 
Ah OK, curious why you posted now? No drama, just a bit random :)
Just read something in here and I was going to post as a reply, but thought it was possibly a bit removed from the topic, so I decided to give it a little list and see what everyone elses’s experiences have been.
 
Last year I left the B First lounge for my gate at the far Eastern end of B ... it took nearly 15 minutes at a brisk pace ... it went on and on ... I was rather breathless when I reached the gate ... compounded by "glow" from the decent f&b I had consumed. :oops:
B is a really odd bit of architecture. I can totally see that.
 
Ouch... Ouch... I can't say that would be fun at all.

I've got nothing against Emirates. Every experience I have had with them has been close to perfect. Dubai airport has the feel of 'lot of money, limited expertise available for design'. The very first time I arrived there, I had a smashing migraine and loved sitting on the reclining benches on B concourse. But as for navigating and organisation, I can't say I have come across a worse airport.
Yes, same thoughts here. Emirates was very good for travel.
But as for the airport - as happened to us - why would you put the plane nearly as far away as possible from the Gate where boarding takes place?

The actual Ouch in that episode was that we both wound up with heavily swollen feet on arrival at Venice, which lasted for the next four days. That was a totally new condition for us, though others here claimed it was just a coincidence.

Though I guess it could have been worse - a huge walk as described by you, followed by the huge bus ride.
Regards.
 
Top effort Scott.

Its a bit of a mystery to me: (a) how people actually organise a lift on those golf buggies; and (b) how they actually manage not to seriously injure more people based on how some of them are driven.
I've yet to figure that out myself. With all the noise n the place you can't even hear them sneaking up on you.
 
I've made it from arrival gate in C to lounge in A, all walking (other then the B-A train), in 20 minutes before.
 
Looking forward to doing this on Friday. Arrive at the A lounges from Mel (EK409) and then onto C gates for the flight to ARN. It’s a 2 hour stop over but I don’t think I’ll get much lounge time...
 
Looking forward to doing this on Friday. Arrive at the A lounges from Mel (EK409) and then onto C gates for the flight to ARN. It’s a 2 hour stop over but I don’t think I’ll get much lounge time...
I think you should be right. From one end to the other it’s roughly 30 minutes walk. If you can find the train and it’s working, you should be okay.
 
I've made it from arrival gate in C to lounge in A, all walking (other then the B-A train), in 20 minutes before.
You must have set a cracking pace! I found it a lot slower moving in the lower deck where the Duty Free stores are, with the heavier crowds blocking walkways. The C to A part along the top took about 20 minutes. But getting through screening and from A to C took much longer.
 
You must have set a cracking pace! I found it a lot slower moving in the lower deck where the Duty Free stores are, with the heavier crowds blocking walkways. The C to A part along the top took about 20 minutes. But getting through screening and from A to C took much longer.
That was my BA-QF connection 5ish years ago when BA screwed me over (late departure from LHR, later arrival to DXB, refused to check through to next flight and every connections counter along the route to A, inc the one with QF signage, refusing to even look at the flight). Turned a 3 hour connection in 85 minutes and by the time I found someone who could help with the connecting boarding pass, it was too late to do anything.
 
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