I had the pleasure to visit the renovated & extended AF/KL lounge in IAD last week. And as I was flying on the late flight to CDG (AF027), I could use the night service for in-lounge dining as it is done in JFK. They did a great job and the staff seems to be very happy and proud to work there. And as Ultimate, I was very well treated with plenty of extra attentions.
The room at terminal level is globally the same size as before but it has been rearranged. Basically, the former P room is now the dining room. The bar has been slightly moved in order to create a new P room behind the bar, along the window. The bar is still attended, as I believe this is a VA law. There is a reserved space for Ultimate at the back of the lounge. IMO, they could have done better for it location-wise, but still an appreciable perk.
New modern furnitures with fresh colors. Much more comfortable seating than before (it was not difficult). In-lounge dining (night service) starts around 6:30 pm, after the departure of AF055 (A380 flight). Before that time, the dining room is used as extra seating. From 6:30, tables are dressed.
This lounge is very busy and can be very full. I arrived in the lounge after the departure of the KL flight and just before boarding of the A380 flight and as you can see on the pictures, the lounge was crowded. The very nice AF agent (I certainly don't want to call her a lounge dragon
) who welcomed me and my colleague at the lounge told me that the Ultimate reserved space was occupied, so she proposed me to go in the new area downstairs which was very quiet. I very much welcomed that and indeed it was very quiet (only a group of 4 pax + my colleague and I). The downstairs part is only accessible by a lift close to the welcome desk (no stairs). Unfortunately, the lower level room is blind (no windows), while the upper level room has very nice views on the apron as you know if you visited this lounge before. There is a simplified buffet downstairs + 4 wines (2 red / 2 white) + Champagne. There is a dedicated person downstairs to take care of the buffet, cleaning tables, serving you drinks, etc ^
My personal lounge dragon
came after boarding of AF055 to advise us that the Ultimate area was now free and so we could move upstairs if we wished. But we were very well downstairs so we stayed there. She asked us if we wanted to benefit from the night service, in order to book us a table. Answer was yes of course and so she asked at what time we wanted to have dinner ^. When she finished her service, she came to introduce us 2 of her colleagues who would now take care of us.
The P room has also a few tables for dining and there is a specific menu. I asked to see the P room to take pictures for this review. As there were some P pax in flying on AF055, I saw the room after boarding of this flight.
The service for dinner was very attentive and the 2 wines I had with my meal were excellent. For those who don't know the principle of the night service, you have in the lounge the meal you would have had on-board, so you can maximize sleeping time on short flights like IAD-CDG. The IAD lounge is the 2nd AF lounge with JFK T1 proposing this in the USA. You can see the menu on a picture below.
After dinner, the lift leading to the downstairs part was cordoned. The staff told me that we could go back there if we wished but they removed the buffet to concentrate on the upstairs one. We decided to go to the Ultimate area instead.
Overall, a very nice renovation, extension and introduction of the night service + great staff caring ++ for Ultimate pax. I now only wish they could extend the in-lounge dining to the earlier AF055 flight and also to AF023 & AF007 in JFK and introduce this service in BOS and YUL.
Now it's time to look at the pictures
The upper level room, bar and buffet
On the 4th picture, you can see the Ultimate reserved space at the back
The Ultimate corner (upper level)
The dining room at upper level
Used as extra seating place before night service
Tables dressed for in-lounge dining
The new lower level room
The P-class dedicated room
