OW Lounge in Beijing
 

What is the best OW lounge in PEK for an Emerald, with the departing flight being on AA (to ORD)?

I used the CX lounge when flying Pek-nrt in feb. jal uses a generic airport lounge. CX had hot foods and decent snacks there.

OW Lounge in Beijing
 

The best advice for PEK and PVG for that matter is to get to the airport as late as possible to minimize time spent there.

None of the PEK lounges are particularly good. Last time I was there I used the CX one, the generic airport one used by AY, and CA First Class (via Priority Pass). They were all faitly mediocre. CX was probably the best, followed by CA, then the airport one.

Totally agreed with shefgab. I also used CA's First class lounge (via Priority Pass) last September and took a shower before my flight to HKG. While they offer more variety of food, quality is just mediocre. The shower room is the worst I have ever been - extremely small and dirty (full of hair and dark stain on the floor). Imagine this is supposed to be the best lounge for CA in its homebase, equivalent to the first class lounge for CX in HKG. My suggestion would be to stick with the CX lounge.

Hours of operation? The CX site has until last departure. I arrive AA at 1930 and then depart CX to HKG at 0300. I wonder if they consider this the last departure or the first departure.

Anyone with first hand knowledge of this lounge being open for this flight?

Well, I found out. The last flight out was at 900pm at which time they closed the lounge and it reopened at 1230am for the 300am flight. I arrived the lounge before closing and they let me stay in the lounge during the 3.5 hour closing. Not sure if this is practice or just felt sorry for me having a long layover.

Try using loungebuddy, a really useful app. Load in your FF status and lounge memberships/ credit card access (stored for future use) and details of your trip and it will list all the lounges available, with photos and reviews. One of my favourite travel apps. And no, I don't have any affiliation with them save as a user and occasional unpaid reviewer.

How is the lounge PEK these days?

Considering flying in at 10:30 pm (Friday) with a connection at 6:30 am (Saturday). From what I can tell, the OW lounges are open 24 hours on a Saturday so would not be closed while I would be there?

Any help is appreciated.

Been to the generic airport lounge (AY, BA...) and it was nothing to write home about. The CX lounge was also mediocre, there's a sort-of good view (for PEK) but it's not likely to be anything exciting at that time.

If you have time (and access) you could try all of them, but the honest tip would be avoid spending time at PEK :P Either lengthen the layover to go into the city instead or shorten it so it's less painful.

Recently did a number of MH business class flights to PEK, with the terrible schedule as the KUL-PEK arrives after midnight and the PEK-KUL is scheduled to depart at 01:30. I had 24 hours on the ground and used a hotel each trip, but another FT'er was on the flights and stayed at the airport. She told me the CX lounge closed by the time we arrived and didn't open until the morning. I walked over to the CX lounge when we were waiting to leave, and it was closed at about 11:30pm. She used the CX lounge from the time it opened until later in the day, when she moved to the CA businss class lounge, which she said wouldn't allow her in until closer to the MH flight time.

MH uses the CA business class lounge in T3E, which was OK. Check in gave us an invitation card, but one time I had just printed my own BP and they allowed us in on that. They have sleeping pods that you can reserve there. If they are full, there are comfortable reclining chairs in the tv area, but that open and public. There is also an hourly hotel in the airport near gate E10 or E11, I believe, though we didn't check that out.

Thanks very much. A lot of great information rbAA. Some of the lounges show on the websites that they open 24 hours but only some days. Good to know that there is a few options just in case this is not accurate. Cheers.

Just read all of this. Unfortunately, my work booked my driver to pick me up 3.5 hours before the flight so I will be spending some time at PEK and it's crap lounges.