This is a review of my experience at the Al Maha North Lounge in Doha’s Hamad International Airport.
I finally had the chance to visit the Al Maha Lounge in Doha’s International Airport on my recent transglobal flight from Singapore to New York City. Although this is not my first time at the airport, I didn’t get a chance to visit the lounges the previous time as it was during the peak hours and I had a short layover in the city.
Basic Information
The Al Maha Lounge is the only Priority Pass Lounge throughout the entire Doha Hamad Airport.
There are many ways to enter the lounge with airport lounge memberships, with some famous ones such as the Priority Pass, DragonPass and LoungeKey. Each of these memberships offers a different duration of stay within the lounge.
Due to the scarcity of available lounges, the Al Maha Lounge is consistently one of the most packed and busy lounges in the massive airport.
There are actually 2 different Al Maha locations, with the main lounge located at the Duty-Free South Area near Gates A and B and the North Satellite Lounge which is closer to Gate C.
Location
The Al Maha North Lounge is located at the Duty-Free North section of the airport, near the C Gates. Do check your departure gate before deciding which lounge to head to as the airport is pretty big.
The lounge itself is located on Level 2, with the access escalator located at the centre atrium on Level 1, right beside the duty-free pharmacy shop.
Experience
I entered the lounge on an early Sunday morning at 7 am. At this time, the counter was very empty and I was able to enter the lounge within minutes. The check-in process was prompt and I only needed to show my boarding pass and Priority Pass membership card.
As I first entered the lounge, I immediately noticed how small it is. I can literally see the end of the lounge from the entrance of it.
Although the check-in counter was empty, most seats inside the lounge were already taken. There were many guests sleeping in the seats in their make-shift lie-down positions, presumably here after their late-night flight.
There also weren’t many seats in the first place. The lounge decided to go with the concept of having more open spaces that cramp a ton of seats close to each other, which is excellent for personal space but bad when the lounge is really full.
As I was leaving for my flight at around 9 am, a significantly long queue formed at the check-in counter. Because the lounge was full, guests were not allowed into the lounge and had to wait in line for capacity to let up.
Food and Drinks
The Al Maha North Lounge offers light snacks and pastries that are good enough to fill your stomach before your next flight. It’s definitely not in the “premium food” category where there are servings and options to fill up an entire meal.
There is a small selection of beverages, mainly soft drinks, water and coffee. There are no alcoholic options available in this lounge.
Amenities
There aren’t many amenities to talk about in the Al Maha North Lounge in Doha Airport. There are no shower areas, no nap pods, and no massage rooms that are found in more luxurious and fully-fledged lounges.
The relatively small toilet area, at least for the male section, also resulted in a long queue during my visit.
Conclusion
The Doha Airport has a severe lack of lounge options for flyers, especially if you’re not flying in premium cabins and do not have access to the business class lounges. Given the number of people flying through the airport every day, the airport itself is consistently busy and packed with people.
As a result, as the only lounge that offers access to Priority Pass members, the Al Maha lounge suffers badly from overcrowding issues. It also doesn’t help that the amenities in the North Satellite Lounge are severely lacking. If given an option, I’ll visit the main Al Maha Lounge instead which is closer to Gates A and B.
