jamesteroh

The KE Lounge hours are pretty limited Noon to 8 p.m. according to the priority pass site

ty97

I think those are just the hours that PP card holders can come in, but that the overall lounge hours are longer than that. Tomorrow, KE has flights leaving LAX at 12:40pm and 11:50pm. So presumably, their own fliers will be filling up the lounge prior to noon and after 8pm, thus no PP access.

urww

KAL Lounge (which is the name of KE lounge) is already go to options for all the SkyTeam departures from TBIT (AF, KL, SU, KE, MU, CZ) which is quite sad state of things alone. The lounge is simply pathetic in comparison with OneWorld joint lounge or Star Alliance joint lounge. It's huge and always easy to find a space - the only advantage. All the rest is terrible - ugly furniture, lack of partioning, pathetic food offerings (finger sandwiches, wraps, nachos and instant noodles), pathetic alcohol offerings (1 red wine, 1 white wine in the $6-10 price range at Safeway, 2-3 spirits).

flyerCO

Agreed. I wish they'd simply put an a actual SkyTeam lounge in there and close the KE one down.

ianmanka

The only advantage to the KE lounge is that it is self-pour liquor. The disadvantages you mentioned before are all true. They recently downsized the glasses even further to approximately 3 or 4 oz tumblers.

jamesteroh

Makes sense. They don't want the lounges overcrowded at peak times for their own flyers. I wish Delta would do the same thing when the lounges are full, only allow access to sky club members that are on domestic tickets and J cabin and elites on International tickets and not allow Am Ex swipes when the SCs are becoming too crowded.

pvn

without that Amex $$$ there wouldn't be as many skyclubs and the ones that remain would be dumpier.

exwannabe

In comparison to *A they do not even have that, *A is self serve (or use a bartender if you wish),

Also, with the *A lounge you can sit out on the balcony overlooking the atrium which has none of that "airline club" feel to it. Kind of like being in a real establishment. Or walk outdoors by the firepit. Really a great lounge.

I would be happy if they could rebuild the KAL lounge to be even a distant second place to the *A lounge.

hiima

If they upgraded the KE lounge, I don't think it would stay as a PP lounge, even though it barely is one currently.

flyerCO

The PP lounge in Gaborone Botswana in more of a lounge then KE.

urww

So do I. Who doesn't? I see 2 possible sides of the story. First, and I want to believe that to be a main reason, is a space limitation. KE won't give up its space in favour of a SkyTeam joint lounge (and it won't be enough to build anything on par with *A or OW anyway). I'm not seeing 2000 sq m (22,000 sq ft) hanging around empty at TBIT that could be taken over by SkyTeam either. If this is the case a midfield concourse would definitely solve the issue. Let's see. As I said I really want to believe.
Second, it's SkyTeam. We're the folks who fly them the most and we know they are not famous for their superior service, especially on the ground. I can't recall a single Sky Team member operated lounge that could be compared to Cathay HKG lounges, ANA international HND/NRT lounges or Turkish IST/IAD/VKO lounges. Sometimes they are nice at best, mostly just meh (even flagship lounges like dreaded "Crown" lounge @ AMS). So it might be AFKL&co bosses are simply pretty comfortable with paying KE $10-15 per pax instead of operating a very expensive facility in a very expensive airport under a good excuse of space limitation.

I don't see that happing. KAL lounge looks pretty new and no way dated or well worn. It's just it was build that ugly. Intentionally. KE in general is a pretty weird airline. I think it must be cultural. They're do their business like they are really a premium airline. In fact they are not (except maybe for economy): product inconsistency (you can get nicest possible seat in longhaul business as well as 20 y.o. slippery slope), pathetic lounges across the board (ICN, JFK, LAX, HKG, when I got to F lounge @ ICN I couldn't believe it was F lounge), below average f&b onboard in business (their entrées served in smaller plates look more like Y meals on SQ or EK), new trick of F and J having the same hard product and so on.

jdrtravel

Extending the hours and doing at least minor upgrades to the KL lounge (such as new furniture, carpet and paint) are easy and relatively cheap fixes.

hiima

I think better food offering can go a long way. The furniture is still comfy enough.

jamesteroh

The United Club at ORD is a lot nicer than the ORD Skyclub and they don't allow American express swipes and neither does the American Lounges. I don't care if they allow Am Ex cardholders in when the SC isn't busy but when the SC is packed and there are no seats they should restrict credit card entries just like the PP lounges do during peak hours

flyerCO

ORD may not have the newest renovated club. However overall the SCs wouldn't be where they're at without the AMEX agreement. They'd be much closers to the stall offerings of an AA AC.

Also as a note ORD has had some of the more lackluster clubs, even for international airlines. Ill spend more time at the SC then tje loinges in the intwrnational terminal. The recent renovations of the AA Flagship lounges have improved the ORD offerings. However even the new UA Polaris lounge at ORD isn't up there.