Originally Posted by
flyhurl
Thanks for all the advice. We did enjoy the lounges on our last RTW. JL Sakura was very nice, we spent a bit of time in the massage chairs. Any other lounges feature those? In HKG, Cathy Pacific's Pier Business Lounge was good for a shower (shower room is full restroom) and nap.
In DOH, visited Al Mourjan for shower which had quite a line and has seperate restrooms a distance away. Line for the waiter service food.
All three very nice to visit between flights.
So now I need advice for ICN, MNL, KUL and OSL again
Also will go thru DOH twice, one short visit and one 5 hour visit. ICN has the oneworld lounge, does it get croweded? Will be leaving MNL on Malaysia Air so Marhaba would be an option but they have a JL and CP lounge as well?? Then KUL has the Malaysia Air and a Qatar lounge?
Regarding OSL, we will arrive on a business class QR ticket but depart on a AA econ award ticket two hours later. Would we have OSL Lounge access? Not sure it really matters for such a short visit but the QR might be a bit early allowing more time.
Again thanks for the help.
I had no idea there was a JL lounge in MNL, but it seems to be very limited hours. I think last time I was leaving there on MH was later in the day, so we used the PAGGS lounge on Priority Pass, but I believe they stopped accepting it and now like you mentioned only the very lackluster Marhaba. CX lounge is in Terminal 3 (where the 'good airlines' arrive and depart from). I have no idea why JL and MH are still in T1, but you can't change terminals airside and can't access T3 without a departing flight from there (QR, CX, WY, etc.)
There's no QR lounge in KUL, their outstation lounges are LHR, BKK, and SIN. But the MH lounge in KUL is quite nice, just be aware that that airport still uses the archaic security at the gate, so you can't have any liquids over 100ml (speaking of I need to buy 5 100 ml bottles for that exact purpose to pour my drink into before going to the gate). The only liquids allowed are sealed duty free and they don't sell stuff like water or cola.
Originally Posted by
littlevoices
The easy one: OSL: Arriving on QR business and connecting to AA economy (2 hours is a bit short, but hey ho) - yes you can use your inbound boarding pass just save it as the lack of ticket linking would mean you need this (there isn't a need to be on the same ticket to get "same day access". Though conceptually after all this business class flying I am surprised you don't have status now? I've no idea on OSL lounges though, that's far from home.
ICN - there is only one oneworld lounge, opposite the Korean Air one. It isn't anything to write home about, but does have a good view of the planes, and if you like hard liquors that will work out well. Food is poor and sparkling wine was from memory from somewhere random and not very nice
MNL - I've not been for a long time, I suspect the CX one is the only nice one, but is going to start to feel a bit "samey" as other outstation lounges (Cathay is consistent, the only variance is the quality of the champagne/sparkling wine, plus minor local food specialities to add to noodles and dim sum). Depending on the time of day you're coming thru there is JAL too (mornings), I've never been tempted to try
KUL - Well, its really just the Malaysian airport lounges. A shame you aren't oneworld Emerald by now, as the first class lounge is excellent with table dining. Don't waste time going back to the domestic terminal, it really isn't worth it - the lounge is much more basic, plus immigration + security, not a good plan.
In both cases above, with MNL and KUL the recommendation is to skip the contract lounges used by MH/QR respectively as they are only very rarely anywhere near as good as a proper airline lounge (that is run less like a contract centre). You could pop by at the end to see what you didn't miss out. Enjoy anyway!
MNL CX lounge is in T3. MH and JL use T1, so the OP doesn't have that option. Plus the MNL CX lounge is one of the worst CX lounges in the system, it's not worth making any extra effort for.
In KUL I think you're referring to the lounge in the regional terminal, not domestic. So there's no immigration, and KUL has security at the gate. But it's certainly not worth taking the train across (yay it's finally open again) to visit, the one in the satellite terminal is the better one. But even if they did go landside for whatever reason, it's only immigration, no security to get back into the terminal. I'm e-gate eligible in Malaysia, so it takes me only seconds to clear in and out, but even for people needing to use the normal manned immigration counters, I've never seen a long queue, especially on exit since most people are e-gate eligible.
That's disapointing to hear about the ICN lounge, I've been wanting to try it, but the last 2 times I departed there was on EY, so was directed to the OZ lounge which is pretty ordinary to put it nicely. Sounds similar.