dera

This morning it was porridge, blueberry crepes, sausages and those egg things.

on22cz

In Schengen lounge they had a celebratory cake today in the morning, which was quite a nice idea. I guess/hope it will be there the whole month.

Alec84

Does either of the lounges ever open early or close late for the poor .......s who leave to Gazipasa or similar destinations at 5am?

miamiflyer8

They certainly close early. Got refused entry at 11:20PM when they close at midnight.

I believe they open exactly at 6AM.

Courmisch

In principles, they do. They certainly were not open before 6AM the one time I tried.

(I avoid early morning flights like a plague, and lounge access is not even the main demotivator.)

Alec84

Thanks guys, that's what I thought too. I think my 5h in the lounge prior to an non-Schengen flight last month compensates for the loss of lounge this time

TTL

This morning there were fried wieners, small egg-omelettes, oatmeal porridge, plain cold cuts and cheese, bread and butter, youghurt, müsli. Not very premium at all, about which I mentioned to one the waitresses. They promised to convey my complaint. Next time Almost Home!

haapalainen

Now this afternoon there is pasta carbonara or mushroom soup available as warm dishes and the usual cold cuts. Also, the lounge is absolutely packed. Hard to even find a place to stand.

ZKOKA

I wish Japan Airlines still allowed access to the almost @ home lounge. I've been to the premium lounge a number of times and never found it was overly premium in comparison to other "flagship" lounges, e.g. BA or IB, let alone CX or JL. The design is nice, the sauna is nice, but in terms of food options and space it is really lacking, sadly. With the recent developments documented here I can't say I'm really looking forward to my layover in early June. I did usually enjoy the cold items. Hot items were however, if at all available, not replenished steadily. Crowding was always an issue, as one would expect for a 5pm departure. My only hope is that it will be less busy on a Sunday. I'll try to report back on the status of the offerings.

mogumogu

BTW every time I use the Premium Lounge at HEL I'm surprised what a lot of Japanese passengers there are. Most of them seem to have JMB Diamond and/or JGC Premier statuses and to fly with JL414. JAL should invest in improving the environment of premium lounge

CPH-Flyer

I was there on Sunday the 21st of May for JL414, it was a zoo of people. My guess is around 20 people standing or wandering around looking for seats. And quite a lot like me, coming in taking a quick look around and leaving at once again. AY already shoehorned the seating fairly densly, so I guess it is time to find some more space if they want to keep expanding their long haul operations.


Apart from the JL flight, AY also has some Japan bound flights at roughly the same time lifting the number Japanese passengers. That being said, I am also kind of surprised how many JL emerald members there seem to be on all my JL flights.

ZKOKA

Wow, that certainly sounds unpleasant. At what time did you get there? We'll spend the night before our flight in Helsinki, so we are rather flexible with our arrival time at the airport. I'd rather arrive an hour early and find a seat.

CPH-Flyer

I arrived just before 4pm. The front desk was proudly declaring it to be a busy time of day, like it was a good sign to be overcrowded. No 'I am sorry but,' or any attempt to pretend it was an undesirable situation.
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RiotPelaaja

I agree the Premium lounge can be cramped for space, but in my experience its never a situation that lasts for hours, but of course if you got an hour to spend and its full of people, that's not great. I still think the old version of the regular non-schengen lounge was comfier and better than the current premium lounge.

I flew out for Seoul on the 5:30 AY flight and about an hour before the flight, the premium lounge got really fully, but it was rather empty the previous three hours which I had/got to spend there.

lkrt

There was less room?