ppp909

I've tried searching but to no avail and this should arguably be in the QR forum, but here goes.

I'm flying on QR out of JNB this evening. Seems that I have a choice of lounge access:

Mashonza Lounge - Menzies - flying on QR will get me in here.
Shongololo Lounge - Menzies - ditto
GF and GC - I'm BA Gold

My first time flying out of JNB so would any of you with more experience of this have recommendations please? I'm not hugely interested in booze this evening as I want a decent kip on the plane but I'd like some decent food if possible.

Thanks.

EuropeanPete

I'd probably go with the Shongolo lounge which has some adequate food options, including some which you can microwave yourself, if memory is correct. The BA lounges (J, F) both have very limited food options - when I was hungry I'd go to the canteen type thing downstairs which is going to be preferable to any of the lounges.

I'm not familiar with the Mashonza lounge, but I remember it being the weakest of the three - someone will come correct me if I'm wrong on that one.

ppp909

Great. Thanks.

Stewie Mac

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 8_1_3 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/600.1.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/8.0 Mobile/12B466 Safari/600.1.4)

Seconded on shongololo being the best of a not great bunch - slow is really the best but they are strict at allowing only regional (comair) BA access

Steve_ZA

The SLOW lounge is probably the best lounge at JNB but I don't think you will have access ... you could always try though.

Filthy Monkey

The BA lounge is pretty poor, to be honest, but I guess it depends when you're leaving. It's a popular business route, so the F lounge is always full of GCH, which, with an A380 to fill, is rather a lot. To make things worse, it's also used by Quantas so it can be very difficult to even find a seat, even in GC, before the hordes leave for the early flight. If you go in later, after the BA56 has departed, it's not too bad. The food is okay, but it's not the most pleasant environment to eat it in. In saying that, it's a lot nicer than wandering around the airport and they do have a reasonable selection of drinks.

chspw1

For info QR has changed lounges. I flew Tuesday to doh and was redirected to the bidvest lounge even though the website has not been updated.

ppp909

Yep just discovered that. Heading there now. I've been put off gf :-)

Thanks all.

ppp909

So, in case anyone's interested, I went to the Bidvest lounge and it was quite unremarkable. The wifi didn't work, which was also true for the SAA lounge at Durban where I used the SLOW* wifi as I knew the password.
There was a small selection of food which didn't look appealing at all. From memory, a potato curry was the only hot option. There was a cheese board which had some blue cheese and sticks of bright orange, cheddar-like substance which were individually sealed and had the shine of cheese that had been sitting around at room temperature for many hours.
However, there were well-stocked drinks fridges including a fairly large range of beers and soft drinks. There seemed to be a decent selection of spirits but I rarely drink those before flying, especially long-haul.

Not the greatest review, I know, and I didn't stay long. I don't recommend people set aside time to be there.

*For those who don't know that's the stupid name for the lounge. The wifi wasn't that slow.

Guvner067

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other...t-lounges.html