Lounge Review: ICN T2 Korean Air Prestige Class Lounge West
Index to Genius1 Trip Reports
Incheon Airport’s Terminal 2 opened in 2018 and is home to the majority of SkyTeam airlines serving the airport, including home-based Korean Air. The check-in concourse is typically expansive, with Korean Air offering their own Premium Check-in area in Zone A for First and Prestige Class passengers and SkyTeam Elite and Elite Plus passengers travelling on KE.
Eligibility is checked by agents at the entrance to the partitioned-off area, which other than offering a smattering of seating and featuring some wood-effect flooring is unremarkable. Separate desks are offered for SkyTeam Elite / Elite Plus and Prestige Class passengers, although I have to admit to not noticing this at the time of travelling, and using the Prestige Class desks despite only travelling in Economy Class. To the right of the entrance is a First Class Check-in lounge for KE’s F passengers.
The Premium Check-in area doesn’t feature direct access to security, so all passengers – whether in F or, like me, in Y but holding SkyTeam Elite Plus status – have to back track to access the security search area opposite Zones C and D (known as Departure Hall 1). There was no Sky Priority lane that I could see.
Korean Air operate four lounges at T2; a First Class lounge for their own F passengers, a Miler Club lounge for their own top tier frequent flyers travelling in Prestige Class, and two Prestige Class lounges for SkyTeam Elite Plus and business class passengers. The main lounges are located one floor above gate level opposite Gate 248 (First Class and Miler Club lounges) and Gate 249 (Prestige Class lounge West). The Prestige Class lounge East is located opposite Gate 253. Both Prestige Class lounges are near identical, although East is generally the quieter of the two despite it being slightly smaller. However, given my flight was departing from the Western end of the terminal, I opted to use the West lounge as it was the closest to my gate – a decision that I instantly regretted upon seeing how busy the lounge was.
Lockers are available at reception for luggage storage along with a news stand featuring a handful of airline magazines, beyond which the lounge opens up into a fairly large rectangle. Aside from some low wooden screens in the main seating area and glazed panels in a vague attempt to screen off the buffet, there is very little subdivision of the space, and consequently very little privacy regardless of seating type. The lighting scheme is in a word ‘bright’ and in two words ‘too bright’. The bland colour scheme of white, grey, beige and light blue only adds to the utilitarian feeling of the space.
Straight ahead from reception is a narrow high-top table designed for working, terribly exposed to the rest of the lounge. A small number of individual seating booths are arranged opposite. Just around the corner from reception is a recessed TV area featuring armchair seating, adjacent to which are the washrooms and showers.
The focal points – if they can be described as such – of the main seating area are two circular high-top tables, featuring bar and banquette seating. You might expect some artwork or another form of eye-catcher to be located here, but no – they are just high-top tables. Surrounding them are low wooden partitions (some featuring more news racks with the same dismal magazine selection as at reception), on the outside of which is dining seating, and inside of which is a mixture of armchair and banquette seating. Additional armchair seating of varying types is lined up in tightly packed regimented rows outside of the circular spaces and along the windows overlooking the gate concourse. I found this arrangement to be quite disconcerting, as many of the seats face the back of another seat such that I constantly had a feeling of ‘who’s behind me’. The wooden side tables and high-top seating all feature power and USB-A sockets (one small saving grace of this lounge), although plenty of seats only have circular coffee tables with no power provision.
A screened-off relaxation area with semi-private day beds is located at the far end of the lounge, which unusually for such a space seemed to be fully occupied during my visit; perhaps because it’s the most private part of the lounge.
The buffet area takes up roughly a third of the lounge, although doesn’t feature much seating at all aside from one communal dining table. Three island buffet stations are complemented on two sides by counters offering additional self-service food and drink. ‘All day’ food options included both Korean and Western cuisine, and although I didn’t eat anything substantial, I’m sure I would’ve found something decent had I needed it. The third side of the buffet area, oddly located adjacent to the washrooms and showers, features a tended bar, at which there was always a queue during my visit. The bar offered beer on tap, and sparkling wine as opposed to champagne.
For a flagship lounge at their home base, I had expected much more from Korean Air’s Prestige Class lounge. The space is too small for the number of passengers eligible to use it, resulting in the seating being badly arranged (too tightly packed and regimented), under lighting that is too harsh and with an interior design totally devoid of character or interest.