General details
Opening times: 24 hours
Showers: Yes
Bar: No
Wi-Fi: Yes (very slow)
Multi-standard power sockets: Yes
USB charging sockets: Yes
Location
If you’re departing from Terminal 3, you’ll probably be used to turning left once you’ve cleared immigration, then heading up the escalator to the Singapore Airlines, SATS, DBS Treasures and former Dnata lounges.
The Marhaba Lounge is actually in a different location. There are two ways to get there, the easiest is to go up the escalator to Level 3, ahead and slightly to your right if you are coming from the immigration hall.
The escalator is easy to find, just to the right side of the large Louis Vuitton shop.
The lounge is then on your left as you reach the top of the escalator. Just a few steps along is the lounge entrance.
If you’re arriving at Changi T3 on a connecting flight and making your way to the Marhaba Lounge, you can use the ‘Louis Vuitton route’ above or alternatively go up the escalator to Level 3 towards the ‘Singapore Food Street’ eateries, then take a left turn all the way through the corridor leading to the toilets to reach the lounge entrance.
It’s a slightly less glamorous route, but it may save a minute or two especially if you’ve come from the ‘B’ gates or the SkyTrain. The lounge is signposted at either escalator so you won’t get lost.
Who is ‘Marhaba’?
Marhaba is the new name for Dnata lounges worldwide. Dnata is part of the Emirates Group, and previously the Marhaba branding was only used at five lounges, all five third-party ones at Dubai International Airport.
The group is now replacing the Dnata branding to Marhaba at newly opened and re-opened lounges, including this one at Changi.
The lounge has seating capacity for 130 passengers. Opened on 23rd May 2019 to little fanfare, Dnata formally announced the lounge in a press release over three weeks later.
The ‘secret’ lounge?
Strangely, despite opening in May, this lounge remains slightly secret. Changi Airport Group confirmed to us in early June that it had opened the previous month, replacing the Dnata T3 lounge, however it still remains missing from their list of lounges at Changi (we did point this out!).
The Marhaba services website will sell you a pass to this lounge, but still refers to it as the Dnata Lounge T3!
Some lounge access schemes are still showing the old lounge name, location and photos. This should be progressively updated but if you are directed to the Dnata T3 lounge by one of these providers, head for this one instead.
Lounge access
You will be invited to use the Marhaba Lounge if you are flying in Business Class or First Class, or hold sufficient frequent flyer status with the airline or respective alliance, when departing on the following carriers:
- China Airlines
- Garuda Indonesia
- Myanmar National Airlines
- Sri Lankan Airlines
You can also enter the lounge using one of the following lounge access programs:
- Priority Pass
- DragonPass (still lists the old lounge, but is accepted here)
- LoungeKey
- Lounge Club
In all cases when accessing through one of these programs, a maximum 3 hour stay is enforced.
Paid access is possible with at least 24 hours notice through the Marhaba website, at the following rates:
- 3 hours: S$55
- 6 hours: S$109
Note: The price seems to fluctuate slightly day to day due to exchange rates.
Just be aware the website still calls this the ‘dnata Singapore Lounge Terminal 3’.
Another aspect to note regarding the paid access via the Marhaba website is that it will ask for your flight details, and offer you an appropriate lounge based on your departure terminal.
If you are flying from T1 for example but still wish to pay and try this T3 lounge, you will have to falsify your flight details, otherwise your lounge access voucher will only be good for the Dnata T1 lounge.
There is no walk-up paid access to this lounge. This is opposite to what the Marhaba helpline in Dubai informed us on the phone a few hours before our visit when we called to check. We were assured that paid access at the lounge reception was “absolutely” possible if you made last minute plans (since you cannot pay and book online within 24 hours of your visit).
The lounge staff confirmed this is in fact impossible, they have no means to accept walk-up paid access and in Terminal 3 only the Ambassador Transit lounge permits this.
Our visit
We were flying on Vietnam Airlines from Terminal 4, but we wanted to try out the Marhaba Lounge since it’s the newest such facility at Changi. The only snag with that, as ever, is the location of T4 itself.
You’ve probably noticed that none of the T4 airlines participate in the Jewel Early Check-in program. That’s because if you’re flying with an airline from T4 you are not allowed to access the transit area via the T1/T2/T3 departure channels. You must clear immigration and security in T4, then proceed on the airside bus to T2 if you wish to visit the T1/T2/T3 transit area.
Luckily Vietnam Airlines does allow ‘all day’ check-in from 10.30am at its desks in Terminal 4, which remain open until 7.30pm for the last departure, so even though we were taking the evening flight (8.45pm) to Ho Chi Minh on the A350 we could check-in any time during that window.
That gave us plenty time to visit T3 and review the Marhaba Lounge. After checking in at 2.20pm and going through the convoluted terminal transfer process, we arrived at the lounge just before 3pm.
We used our Priority Pass to access the lounge.
Quiet Zone
The first section of the lounge on the left side as you first enter from reception is the ‘Quiet Zone’.
It’s slightly shielded from the rest of the lounge by the entrance corridor and toilets / showers, which can also be found close to reception, and is furthest from the dining and main seating areas which are at the opposite end.
Seating options here include basic chairs and reclined lounge seats more suited to taking a nap.
The quietest section here with the most shielding from the rest of the lounge is against the back wall, where you’ll find two pairs of recliner seats. We’d recommend these for the most peaceful visit especially if you do plan to close your eyes for a while.
Finally this section also features some stool chairs along a high table against the window, with views of the aircraft parked at Terminal 3 and one of the runways.
You can see through the outside ‘sunshade slats’ more clearly than the photo suggests. This is an ideal place to get some (quiet) work done and we sat here for most of our visit. We also found the high tables ideal for eating.
Dining area
As you progress into the lounge you’ll walk through the dining area. This is where you’ll find all the food and beverages offered along one long wall.
Directly opposite there are dining tables each accommodating up to four guests, with window views.
It’s worth mentioning the excellent view from this lounge, quite unlike the Singapore Airlines SilverKris Business Class lounge, which has no external views, this by contrast is a plane spotter’s paradise with floor to ceiling windows across the length of the facility.
Main lounge area
At the far end of the lounge beyond the dining area you’ll find the main lounge seating area. Note that the dining tables along the window side continue all the way to the far end adjacent to this section.
The low armchairs here are set in single / double and double / quad arrangements, with a low side table and small coffee table.
Against the back wall in this section is a large number of high bar-style seating, again these are good for both dining and work. We only saw one person using these during our visit.
Some decorative partitions help break up the main seating area.
Power sockets
Unless you’re Turkish Airlines, when you open a brand new lounge these days you flood it with essentials for the modern traveller, and the most important of those is an ample selection of charging sockets.
This lounge is no exception with an impressive charging selection at almost every single seat, even including the dining tables.
At the high tables along the window in the Quiet Zone, plug sockets are cleverly installed at 90 degrees to accommodate laptop charging blocks, which tend to protrude some distance below the plug.
You certainly don’t need to worry about your personal devices running flat wherever you choose to sit in this lounge.
Wi-Fi speed
Either we were very unlucky on the day in question, or there is something seriously wrong with the Wi-Fi in this lounge.
The lounge was only moderately busy during our visit, so a decent speed would be expected.
The speed was so slow it was basically unusable. This was even slower than the SATS Premier Lounges we’ve reviewed in T3 and T2 (to date the slowest we’ve witnessed at Changi).
I had some work to do on my laptop and had to defer to the perfectly fast Changi Airport public Wi-Fi, though this is limited to 3 hours use.
There was a second Wi-Fi network broadcasting in the lounge ‘Marhaba Lounge 2’, however the regular password did not work. I enquired at reception and they said that one was not for public use.
While I was seated in the Quiet Zone I overheard one other passenger at the reception with the same query about using the second Wi-Fi network and he was advised the same thing, so it seems it wasn’t just me struggling to use the connection.
With the Plaza Premium T1 lounge we reviewed recently boasting around 5 Mbps upload and download speeds we can only assume there must be something wrong here, and we hope future reviewers can report a significant improvement!
Beverages
The Marhaba Lounge has a decent selection of drinks starting with the bean-to-cup coffee machines serving Vittoria coffee, a well known Australian brand.
This machine will prepare you anything from a simple espresso shot through to Cappuccinos and Macchiatos.
Along from there you’ll find a selection of Dilmah teas.
The fridges had a selection of soft drinks, mixers and two varieties of beer; Tiger and Heineken.
The beer fridge also had chilled glasses available.
There is no manned bar in the Marhaba Lounge, however there is a small selection of self-pour wines and sprits available.
Segments of lemon and ice are readily available, and if you’re looking for the white wine choices they can be found in one of the adjacent fridges near the beer and mixers.
Spirits are relatively basic with Smirnoff Vodka, Gordon’s Gin, Bacardi and Johnnie Walker Black Label 12 years whiskey.
Here’s how the wines offered rate on Vivino (out of 5):
White:
McGuigan Private Bin Chardonnay 2017 (3.1 out of 5 on Vivino)
Françoise Chauvenet Lajolie Sauvignon Blanc (2.6 out of 5 on Vivino)
Red:
- McGuigan Private Bin Shiraz 2017 (3.8 out of 5 on Vivino)
- Françoise Chauvenet Lajolie Pinot Noir (2.8 out of 5 on Vivino)
If you’re a fan of Australian wine the ratings here are decent for a third-party lounge, especially for the Shiraz which scores well. The French wines unfortunately come up rather poorly in comparison.
On the whole though it’s good to have two choices of each wine type and the ratings aren’t significantly different from those we find at other Priority Pass lounges.
Finally if you prefer something more exciting to bottled water, there is a dispenser with cucumber, mint and lemon water.
Food
The Marhaba lounge has an impressive selection of food choices including western, Asian and a great Satay station.
The first and possibly simplest option (just add hot water!) is a selection of three different flavours of instant noodles.
Two salads were offered, the first was Potato & Gherkin, the second was Pumpkin, Carrot & Sugar bean.
Sandwiches are kept in a chilled drawer to keep them fresh, which you can pull open to pick them out. Selections during our visit were Chicken Mayonnaise and Roasted Peppers & Basil Pesto.
Moving on from there you’ll find the hot food selection.
The main western dish was boneless Chicken Thighs.
The lounge even provides soft slider buns alongside and instructions to create your own Chicken Slider. Quite a nice idea, though we didn’t try one!
Western accompaniments were Braised Vegetables and Roasted Potatoes with Thyme and Parsley.
If the Chicken thighs weren’t too appealing, alternative western main dishes were Penne Pasta and Olive & Lemon Chicken Stew.
Between the western and Asian dishes there is a Satay station, serving Chicken Satay with traditional accompaniments. Beef Fatayers were also available here.
The main Asian dish was Taiwanese Braised Minced Chicken, pictured here alongside some steamed Bok Choy.
Aside from the Bok Choy, other accompaniments in this section were Vegetable Stir Fried Bee Hoon and Fried Hokkien Noodles.
At the far end there was a small dim sum selection of Chicken Pau and Siew Mai.
A soup was also available somewhere along the line, Cream of Mushroom. For dessert the two sweet options were gluten-free Chocolate Brownies and Apricot Cake.
Finally for the ultimate healthy snack, head just round the corner from the main food selection at the far end and you’ll find a selection of fresh fruit.
Overall we thought the food selection was really good, among the best we’ve seen in a third-party airport lounge. We tried some of the main hot dishes plus both of the sandwiches and all were good quality.
Reading materials
Between the Quiet Zone and the dining area there is a selection of reading materials.
Directly above those, you’ll find the flight information screen for Terminal 3 departures. Again there is a little confusion here about which lounge you are in!
Toilets
The toilets in this lounge are arranged as private cubicles, each with their own washbasin and hand dryer.
We can’t think of any lounge we’ve visited where this is the case, except the BA lounges at Heathrow T5, which are private individual cubicles but unfortunately are styled like hospital toilets (even in The Concorde Room).
This is quite a different proposition, immaculately clean, well styled and finished. There is even a plant in each one.
Shower facilities
If you thought the toilets looked impressive, wait until you see the showers.
Effectively the same room again, only much bigger with a large shower across one side. This includes rain head and handheld systems, and features attractive European tiling on the wall.
There are three shower suites in total, and when we visited the lounge in the afternoon all three were immediately available. You’ll have to approach the reception desk first, as they also provide you with a fresh towel.
These are hands down the nicest showers we’ve ever seen in a third-party lounge, even meeting or eclipsing standards widely seen at airline-operated Business Class (and in some cases First Class) lounges.
They are vastly superior to the shower cubicles in the Singapore Airlines SilverKris Business lounge, or even The Private Room, which don’t have their own separate toilet.
We’d go as far to say that if you need a shower between Singapore Airlines flights you should probably consider using up a Priority Pass visit to have one here, even if you have access to the SilverKris lounge.
Lounge decor
This new lounge is tastefully decorated and benefits from an abundance of natural light from the floor to ceiling windows running its length down one side.
Apart from the carpet, which was an interesting choice, we thought the decor was really nice especially in the bathrooms and shower rooms which are very tastefully finished.
Summary
A refreshing new lounge with access via Priority Pass among other schemes is always a welcome addition at Changi’s Terminal 3. This one in fact replaces the Dnata lounge, so there’s no net gain, but we think they have done a nice job with it.
The Wi-Fi was painfully slow, effectively unusable, and we can only hope this is a temporary issue since it’s such an essential feature of an airport lounge, especially for overseas travellers. Thankfully the Changi Airport network is there to fall back on.
Aside from that there’s very little to criticise, and lots to applaud. The decor is nice, natural light is abundant, the food and drink selection is very good and the showers are excellent.
The reception staff were friendly and welcoming, even with all our silly questions about the access policy! Service staff were keeping the place immaculate, with food refreshed regularly and empty plates cleared quickly.
If you’re flying with Singapore Airlines from T2 or T3 in Economy or Premium Economy and have a Priority Pass membership or a similar lounge access card, this is an excellent lounge to head to prior to your flight, certainly the best alternative in T3.
Remember the Plaza Premium Lounge in T1 (at the end of the T3-T1 SkyTrain by the ‘C’ gates, and indeed closer than this particular lounge to many of T3’s ‘B’ gates) is also an option we rate highly.
| Review Summary | ||
| 4 / 5 among third-party lounges |
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Marhaba Lounge Singapore Changi T3 A very nice new lounge, replacing the former Dnata facility in T3. We were particularly impressed by the food choices and the excellent showers. The only downside, surprisingly, was unusably slow Wi-Fi. |
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| Visited: June 2019 |
See also:
Sats Premier Lounge Singapore Changi T3
Plaza Premium Lounge Singapore Changi T1
(Cover Photo: MainlyMiles)
Hi Andrew, I think you may have mistakenly referred to “B” gates as “A” gates in your articles. The Marhaba Lounge is closer to the “B” gates. Thus, the article should read: “It’s a slightly less glamorous route, but it may save a minute or two especially if you’ve come from the ‘B’ gates or the SkyTrain.” and “Remember the Plaza Premium Lounge in T1 (at the end of the T3-T1 SkyTrain by the ‘C’ gates, and indeed closer than this particular lounge to many of T3’s ‘B’ gates) is also an option we rate highly.”
You’re right David – I got my ‘A’ and ‘B’ mixed up! Will amend.
A-PPALLING!!!! This is an economy lounge only Despite the name. I’d recommend you fly someone else Cheaper and forego this lounge. Cos the flight and lounge are substandard:
– This Changi margaba lounge is grossly overcrowded.
– Critically, the aircon is broken and it’s a sweat box. HOT!!! The outside common area is at least 10 degrees cooler (my thermometer read 11 degrees!). We had to leave after an hour to sit in the common Singapore food area to get cool. Just bad. The above review sugar coats it.
Give it a MISS.
And while I’m at it give Singapore airlines a miss unless travelling business. The economy seats are designed for sub 5’6” people. I’m 5’10” and couldnt even sit without having to splay knees wide to fit in there just isnt enough leg room. And the drop down table lands on your knees and is too low to drop fully. The food is also appalling – quite atrocious- and they run out of choices by the time they get half way through the plane.
If you want a choice make sure you designate your diet before flight or you might end up getting just fish. And very limited servings of drinks during flight. You get one or two half glasses – only. Nothing to purchase.
Shockingly … average
Crowded yes, food choices so so & no pork
“Lu rou fan” with chicken is just so wrong.
Chicken satay OK lor
ShOwer is great!
Staff mostly awesome except for an uncle on the SQ side.
@ 9am & 7pm dep. / the lounge is packed to the gills
Let’s see how it is for 12-2pm block on Wed. Am
Still heads & shoulders above T2 Gold lounge
P/s – 6’1” _ no issues with SQ Y seats. Fed & watered very well to & from SEA last week.
This is an excellent lounge, but of course is now suffering from capacity issues due to SQ also using it as its temp Krisflyer Gold lounge while renovating. The best buffet food options of any lounge I have ever seen. Decent beverage choices. Really nice showers, except you have to sit on the closed toilet seat (no separate stool).
As a VA Plat who flies SQ economy sometimes, this is a massive step up from the KF Gold lounge in T2, and still a big step up from the T3 version (because it has showers, and also the excellent food options). Let’s hope SQ has listened, and includes showers in its new KF Gold lounge.
A meal and a few drinks, a shower, then straight to sleep on the 7-hour overnighter back to Australia. Couldn’t ask for more (except for more seating capacity!).
Thanks for the update Stan. Capacity and crowding is definitely an issue now in the Marhaba lounge compared to our review when it was newly opened!
Good news though – the new KF Gold lounge in T3 will indeed have showers. Bad news – it’s mid-2021 before you’ll get to use it, since the space will ‘cycle’ through as the temporary lounge for Business, First and TPR during their respective refits.