Etihad Airways Etihad Guest - SAS Lounge in Chicago for Etihad J passengers

I am flying from DFW to DEL today via ORD and AUH. My domestic flights are on AA while ORD-AUH and AUH-DEL are on EY in business class.

Right now I'm sitting here in the SAS Lounge in Chicago's Terminal 5 which Etihad J passengers have access to.

I can honestly say I'm not impressed. The club is quite small, when I walked in a half hour ago it was one third full and now it's quite full with people standing. There is a cooler with sodas and three types of beer but it's barely cold. There is a jug of water and another of orange juice in there too. There is a coffee machine that also does hot chocolate and espresso, there is sugar and artificial sweetener available but no creamer.

Next is a tin of cookies. It's just a tin of cookies that was opened up and put on the counter.

To the left of the cookies there is a tray with cherry tomatos, sliced green bell peppers, chopped black olives, one type of cheese and then sliced ham which looks like your typical lunch meat variety. Then there is a basket with bread slices (1 type) and then a small basket of crackers with about four types. And finally there is a basket with plain potato chips, corn chips and Doritos (not in individual bags but emptied into basket from larger bags.

Oh, I forgot, there is a small selection of wine and hard stuff which consists of one type each of rum, vodka, gin and two or three other items.

On the plus side the worn and dirty seats are actually quite comfortable and the lady working the front desk is friendly. There is also free wifi in the lounge but it is veyr very slow. Not much faster than my dial up at home.

Overall it's nice to get out from the busy international terminal but on the other hand it's the least appealing lounge I've ever visited.


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Just some other notes for those flying out of Chicago's Terminal 5. I walked the length of the terminal and there are no sit down restaurants, only the typical airport kiosks selling prepackaged food. And no sit down bars though drinks are available from kiosks as well. Very limited shopping, mostly duty free type kiosks.

I did see some money exchange booths but before you go through security, none after security.

Check in with Etihad was very pleasant and very quick.

If you are arrive and are hungry your best bet is to eat before you get to Terminal 5 as the offerings are very limited.

Agreed about EY ORD lounge. Until recently, EY used the JAL lounge. It was, if you can imagine it, even grimmer than the SAS lounge. No exterior view, no fresh food at all, etc. JAL apparently closed the lounge and is using the (much nicer) AA facilities in Terminal 3. Thus the EY move. EY appears to do it on the cheap......

All ORD T5 lounges are quite bad and SK is actually one of the nicest...