LGJ

According to OW, the T3 lounge won't be available until August 15th (now mid-late January 2011):

"Kingfisher Lounge*
Location details: Terminal 3 - Airside

Opening hours: Daily 24 hours

Notes: Lounge scheduled to open 15 August 2010 (actually now ~late January 2011)

Operated by a third party on behalf of: American Airlines, Finnair, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Royal Jordanian"

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MODERATOR'S NOTE

The lounge is now open as of Jan 14, 2011.

dstan
AA Forum Co-Moderator

Howgart

Hope you are right...in my experience, IT does not serve alcohol in their lounges or on flights within India. Would imagine that with the new lounge serving so many airlines, this might be different here. Guess we'll see.

JDiver

Not serving Kingfisher (at least) would be a drag!

cover point

Thats for domestic flights and lounges only. International flights and lounges already have free alcohol even in existing crappy lounges. KF lounge should just make the drinking experience better

DFW DL

See my recent trip report in "Airlines of India".

A few more days on the lounge.

Should be possible to do an in-and-out MR without leaving the transit area, but YMMV. I live here so I have no real opportunity, or desire, to try it.

TheBeerHunter

Nice report -- thanks for the update. Do you know what exactly a "few more days" is regarding the lounge? We're scheduled to depart Delhi on the 17th, so a swing on "a few" could matter.

chanp

Great, I ll have a read. Ill be there next fri the 20th, but not using AA on the return, but still departing from T 3 I think . Ill report back later as well.

TheBeerHunter

So we departed T3 on 17th August. AA check in staff, including a supervisor, told us that it was due to open the 15th, but as that coincided with India's Independence Day, and heightened security due to that (they said crews were not allowed into the airport with tools!) the lounge has been delayed again. September 1st is the new guestimate on when it will be operational.

chanp

I was looking forward to using it next week. Thanks for the info.

FINASTORY

I will be arriving in DEL T3 on Sep 3rd evening. Hopefully the lounge will be open and can be used.

TheBeerHunter

Yeah, we were disappointed too. They give you a KingFisher lounge access card which had me all excited until I saw written across the top "Tea Leaf and Coffee Bean" or whatever the name of the place is that they're currently using in place of the lounge. That being said, the Tea Leaf place is actually quite OK despite it really being a coffee shop that serves sweets and sandwiches. The "lounge" area is cordoned off, with comfy chairs for sitting in. Service is very attentive, and you're able to order any food or beverage off the menu. They kept asking us if we wanted more of anything. Note, though not on the menu, you can ask for beer (KingFisher of course) and I presume other alcoholic beverages -- they give them to you gratis as well.

EXP4ME

Any news on the lounge in T3? Leaving DEL on Sept 13th, really hoping I'm not sitting in a coffee lounge.....

fastflyer

Lounge not yet open as of this Monday August 30. Received Kingfisher Lounge invitations, with Kingfisher crossed out and the words Tea Leaf & Coffee Bean written by hand on the top.

This Tea Leaf & Coffee Bean is a departures-level coffee shop with a back area operating as a temporary lounge. A few newspapers and limited drinks from the bar are available.

fastflyer

Someone, I forget if it was the check-in agent or the floating agent, said September 15 would be the Kingfisher Lounge opening date. It did not look at all ready from what I saw from outside however.

This terminal is a huge improvement over the old terminal, although still fairly modest by international standards. Duty free is wildly overpriced.

JDiver

I can only speculate they are working toward having the lounge open before the Commonwealth Games (3 October and 14 October 2010). Yes, that's October, and hopefully they will open prior to that, but it was to open August 15, so...