Oryx Lounge Doha Review
The Oryx Lounge is the best Business Class alternative at Doha International airport if you don't have access to the excellent Qatar Business Class Lounge Al Mourjan (Review) .
I got access to the lounge because of Etihad Business Class flight that same day. When we arrived at the lounge we just had come off a Qatar Business Class flight and had no boarding passes for the Etihad flight. We had a 4 hour layover and the transfer desk at Doha airport can't issue boarding passes. Only the staff at the gate could but they were able to verify our ticket and convinced the lounge attendants to let us in without a boarding pass - sweet!
The Oryx lounge looks very similar to the Qatar Business Class Lounge Al Mourjan (Review) but it lacks the sheer size, the full service restaurant(s) and the extensive shower and sleeping room facilities.
However it does feature :
- a business center
- a quiet room with lounge chairs
- a game room with game consoles and table soccer
- a smoking room
- two buffets with delicious cold food
- drinks and other snacks aplenty
I was really happy about the hummus and other mezze that was on offer. I also loved the fact that there was a Nespresso coffee maker - it's likely the best 'machine' espresso I know of.
When we entered the lounge a group of passengers was extra loud and continued to annoy but they eventually left 15 minutes later. I was surprised they were not thrown out given the harsh security environment Qatar offers.
The biggest drawback of the lounge is that it does not have a dedicated WiFi and you are stuck with the airport WiFi which is slow - often under 0.5 Mbit - that is 20x slower than would I'd like it to be.
After 2 PM the lounge would become very quiet with almost no other guests. We eventually walked down to gate A7 (which sounds much closer than it actually was) and promptly got our boarding pass with a big TSA Precheck.
This is a good lounge and has many things you need but it really should get some decent WiFi - it's not that hard!