Originally Posted by
sfoeuroflyer
I last flew SFO-HND in Nov and used the JAL Sakura lounge in SFO. In a word, it is a dump. Slim selection of bad food; crowded; basically depressing. I thought UA set the standard for underperforming airline lounges, but this lounge managed to be even worse than UA. What is strange is that the JAL lounges in Haneda were the opposite. Lovely, great food, nice showers, great wifi. In a word excellent.
Has there been any improvement in what was a dismal SFO lounge. I would go to the other One World Cathay lounge at SFO but it is not open late enough to really work for the JAL flight.
Hi, OP! Thanks for starting this thread. SIX YEARS and 12 days later, your description still is accurate. What I find cute are the replies to your post from also six year ago (!) that hopefully propose that JAL will remodel, or just close this place and funnel pax to CX/BA lounges; but no. Purposefully didn't arrive early and planned to skip the lounge but flight was delayed!
Possibly it's worse since nothing is self service, and the "food" is a sad cold bento box with cello-wrapped white bread sandwiches as the feature. Some karraage (fried chicken pieces) and a couple eda mame. Staff super friendly and welcoming but they are given nothing to work with. Entire lounge features two tiny windows; otherwise just boring beige walls.
Usually it's not lucky to be delayed but this JAL flight was delayed 90 min today so I'm typing this at the excellent BA Galleries Lounge, which opens at 13:30, too late for the normal JAL departure time of 13:40. Ordered a bacon cheeseburger (other options were impossible burger and a vegetarian cheesy pasta) along with a nice strawberry-rhubarb shortcake with vanilla ice cream. Made to order. Lovely drinks options. Nothing fancy but a very pleasant atmosphere with huge windows and super friendly staff.