drvannostren

During a post in the Air Canada forum I kinda thought, I wonder what the best lounges are in the system...so why not just ask!?

Admittedly I have a small fraction of the experience of you guys, so brand wise (which is more what I'm asking about rather that specific locations) I've used NH/AC/UA/AV/CM.

So what I wanna know from you guys, is WHO has the best lounges, feel free to add in a specific location, but I'm finding out more and more than lounges are pretty much the same across an airline (at least the ones I've seen).

AC - decent lounges, a bit run down, I enjoy the self serve bar, even the manned bar in YYC (haven't been to YUL) is fine. The food is AVERAGE...not terrible, not good. Internet is usually solid and as long as they aren't over crowded, which I find doesn't happen THAT often...I'm satisfied. INTL/TB seem uniformly better than the domestic MLLs.

AV - very nice lounges, all seem to be semi-recently redone. I like the food, they're just little sandwiches, but if AC had these I'd be way happier with AC. Internet is good, seating options are usually pretty plentiful and I've never encountered one with too many people and not enough room to sit, including BOG at peak hours. My complaint is the booze, at MDE it doesn't start until 4pm. At BOG I think it starts at 12pm, but once in a while you get Ley Seca and for some reason that applies to an airport lounge when you're leaving the country, makes no sense to me.

UA - suck. Even with high price of entry for their own members, these places constantly seem to be overrun with people. The food sucks, breakfast is better than the rest of the day, but still not good. The pay booze doesn't bother me because I drink the free stuff anyway. Wifi is usually solid but they seem to be all a little run down. My 1 big plus is the solo desks most feature.

CM - Are there any other than PTY? It's like UA but smaller. If the bartender is on point, it's fine, I like the sit in the business center, but the place gets packed. Was in there during the world cup, it was a scene man.

NH - My favorite. Booze all day, dunno if it's cuz of the time zone, or what I'm told is Japanese alcoholism, either way I'm for it. I didn't like the food options, but I'll give them an A for options at least. Good booze selection, TONS of places to sit (at least in the AM at HND regular lounge, I forget the names, but this was the lower class one). Well decorated, varied places to sit, types of chairs etc. Great view of the ramp from this one. Great service with attentive agents.


I've heard IST from TK is amazing, the Senator lounges are amazing. Haven't tried either yet .

Again, not looking for a specific location necessarily, but which airline in the system provides the best lounge/lounge experience? Thoughts?

starBora

I can confirm that IST is amazing. Their lounge is bigger than some airports and there is tons of food and space. Although it's been crowded at times, the expansion seems to solve that problem.

mahasamatman

Definitely not the case at YVR. The domestic lounge is significantly better than the transborder lounge in both environment and offerings.

I'd say you've heard wrong about the Senator Lounges. They're fine, but certainly not amazing. The First Class Lounges/Terminals on the other hand...

In general, I think NZ and TG offer the best lounges. We haven't tried TK yet, but look forward to layovers in IST in December. SQ is usually overrated (though they are the best option at SFO if they deign to admit you).

drvannostren

I'm hopeful to check out all the brands, it'll take me forever though!

I gotta disagree about YVR. Maybe it's just because I'm there all the time, but I hate the domestic MLL. It gets too hot sometimes during the day, it gets very crowded, little personal space is available when it's busy.

The YVR INTL MLL however, while small, if it's not crowded (the one time I was in there it wasn't) had better food, better seating options and was much more tranquil than the domestic. Still haven't tried the TB one...it eludes me! Whenever I fly to the US it's always like 6am on UA so it's not open yet and it seems I only fly AC returning to Canada. One of these days I'll get in there.

hiima

I'd say that the UA lounge depends on which one you go to. UA in the states are terrible, but LHR is very, very nice.

mahasamatman

If you ever make it there, you'll change your mind about the domestic lounge. (Of course, it's still better than anything United offers in North America.)

bigshooter

Just left an admirals club at DIA... Don't bother and I'm glad I'm canceling my citi exec.

I have yet to find a really good UA club. When I was a member I went for free booze before the downgrade (one day SFO had free 21st amendment, a week later $7). Last time i flew through Narita i went to ANA business like Inge and it was awesome! Decided to try the UA club down the way and while better than domestic still didn't compare to ANA.

drvannostren

bigshooter, do you mean Denver International or Dallas International?

I'm assuming Dallas, but I'm curious as I'll be at DFW next week and I'm thinking of buying a lounge pass. I was fine with the MIA AA club because I was there for a LONG time, same thing here. $50 I can easily recoup in beers.

As far as the UA liquor policy, I don't really drink beers there, I think the free ones are pretty trashy, but as far as the hard liquor goes, I'm more than fine with drinking well rum/vodka, doesn't bother me, maybe I'm just uncouth.

UAPremExecflyer

Already under discussion http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-...ss-lounge.html

pewpew

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BB10; Touch) AppleWebKit/537.35+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/10.2.1.3442 Mobile Safari/537.35+)

AZ = Alitalia? I presume you mean ANZ (NZ)?

mahasamatman

Thanks. I've fixed my OP.

bigshooter

I meant Denver (DIA, Dallas is DFW)

Only free beer was Coors Light. Food options were worse than UA Club, but they did have a lot of options to purchase. There was soup though

steveo

hmmmmm, my top three are probably similar to others:

1. Turkish Airlines lounge at Istanbul, not just for the booze either but the food was among the best I have ever been too. Also when i was there, I was asked to be in the background for a photo for their magazine with some attractive models in front of me - but don't tell my fiance!

2. Air New Zealand Lounge in Sydney - didn't spend much time here, but there was the bad ... pan cake machine, and cheesy hot dog stand.

3. Luftansa in Munich, cause during Oktoberfest they had women passing out pretzels and beers, even though it was about 8 in the morning.

Honorable mentions: Lot lounge in Warsaw, the star alliance / every other airline except gulf lounge in Bahrain, T2 lounge at ORD, AC in Edmonton, and the crappy, cramped lounge in Zagreb where I got royally soused with a bunch of happy russians!

hiima

DFW AA lounge is pretty good. there's like 4 lounges to choose from, forget which one is the best though. Food offerings at all legacy airlines lounges are pretty abysmal.

sbm12

And Denver is DEN, unless you live in Denver where the locals call it DIA.