Originally Posted by A_Lee

I recently did two international-to-international transits at NGO, traveling together with a friend. Trip was ICN-NGO-GUM and then return. ICN-NGO and NGO-ICN were CO flights on OZ metal, and NGO-GUM / GUM-NGO were CO flights on CO/UA metal.

Outbound we had 3 hours between flights. We arrived on-time at 17:45 and went to the international transfer desk and were processed very quickly by a CO agent, and I was given an invitation to the JAL Sakura Lounge, but only one invitation for myself and none for my traveling companion, even though I'm Star Alliance Gold. There was no queue whatsoever at security so breezed right through.

After going up the escalator, there was a sign just across the corridor indicating the JAL and Star Alliance lounges were downstairs. Given I had a JAL invitation, went to that lounge first, thinking I'd try the *A lounge later. At first the lounge dragon refused to allow my traveling companion in. So I said we'd just go to use the *A lounge instead, but she said it was already closed for the night. I showed her my Gold card (all three of them actually), but she said only I could enter, but to please wait a moment. She made a few phone calls and after a good 5 minutes finally said it was fine and we both could enter, after recording the number of one of my *A Gold cards and our boarding pass information. The lounge was just mediocre, about what I expected from a small to mid-size airport in Japan, but was fine to pass the next 2+ hours away. Spent a bit of time at the massage chair, which was quite good compared to massage chairs I'd tried in other places.

Arrived at the gate at the scheduled boarding time, but had to wait at least 20 minutes for boarding to begin. Boarding went fast and we departed only 10 minutes late or so.

For the return trip, we checked in at GUM, but for some strange reason my friend was given both GUM-NGO and NGO-ICN boarding passes, while I was only given GUM-NGO. The CO/UA agent had no explanation as to why, but only said that sort of thing happens frequently. Visited the UA lounge and had no problems getting the two of us in.

The plane arrived a few minutes late into NGO behind the scheduled 10:30 arrival time, but then just sat at the gate for more than 20 minutes, being there was some problem with the airbridge. The connection time was only 90 minutes, but at this point we only had 65 minutes remaining. We hurried up, being I wanted to spend some time in the *A lounge. Saw a very long queue from some other flight that arrived just before ours, and figured it was the queue for passport control. There was an OZ agent who met us and directed us to the transfer desk while she waited for other passengers also making the same connection. We were processed fairly efficiently, and I got my NGO-ICN boarding pass, but then needed to wait for the other passengers who were transiting. While waiting, I noticed the huge queue I saw was not for passport control, but for international transit security. I began to worry and asked the OZ agent about it, but she said not to worry and just wait next to the transit desk. Finally with just 40 minutes before our departure time, and 10 minutes before boarding time, we were escorted by OZ staff through to the front of the security queue, and quickly processed.

This time the *A lounge was open, and we had 5 minutes to spend there before our boarding time. While I'd say it was similar to the JAL Sakura Lounge, in as much as most of these smaller lounges in Japan seem similar, I did prefer the *A lounge to the JAL lounge. Just wished I could have stayed there a bit longer. The announcement came that our flight was boarding and we stayed there a few more minutes before leaving, then to the boarding gate, where our plane left on time.

Anyways, a word of warning to anyone transiting in NGO, the security queue apparently can get quite long at times. I believe most in the queue I saw were transiting to a Delta flight, which left after ours, so I'm guessing there was no issue for those passengers. I'd estimate the queue took at least 30 minutes, perhaps as much as 45 minutes. But with staff able to have passengers jump the queue who's flight is leaving sooner, it wasn't really a problem that I could see. But if you're transiting with limited time and already have your onward boarding pass, it would probably pay to go to the transit desk and see if you need to wait in the queue or not.