International Lounges

Last Friday we stopped at the AC in CCA traveling on business class tickets to MIA. Small clean and comfortable. WIFI and business center as well as pleasant continental breakfast (toaster oven for pastries) (5:30 AM). The staff was helpful and truly bilingual. Lounge closes from midnight to 4:30 am.

Sitting in the FL at LHR on my way home. Both directions T3 - T3 xfer was under 5 minutes (6:35 am outbound, 10:25 am return), very few people going through security.

Lounges - tried all three and would rank BA>CX>FL. The tie breaker between CX and Fl would be adult beverages (CX far better than FL) Both had meh food (eta: was there at breakfast time) but the atmosphere wasn't too different (CX a bit smaller). Agents were great in both clubs.

Ok, time to wander to the gate.

Thanks for the update. I considered going down the hall to the CX, but have been fine here in the BA lounge as suggested above. I stopped in the AA lounge on the way out as I was not continuing on OW so had no access other than being a member. Definitely like the BA lounge in T3LHR better than the AC.

GIG- Admirals club is packed almost all the time with BA, AA and IB all stuffed in. The snacks are basic and the drinks are below par. There are showers and they are not sued too much so that is a plus.

GRU- Admirals Club is often so full there are no seats at all. the drinks and snacks are often unavailable because the service is so slow. I usually don't even bother to go there.

Is there beef curry at JAL's lounge in HND? And is it as good as NRT?? That beef curry in JAL's F Lounge in NRT is exactly as good as posted as here! Call me crazy, but that beef curry is so good I'm on the phone w/ an EXP agent about changing a routing for NRT vs. HND. Pathetic, I know.....

Yes, T4 of course, thanks!

Depends on departure time. No curry in the morning

What time were you at CX--the breakfast isn't great, but after 10 or 11 (whatever time they start with the main food), the food is miles ahead of FL, I think.

What sorta food they do after 11am? Im always there in the am too, but head over to BA.

They have a waiter-service noodle bar with 3 or so different options, some dim sum, etc...

Cool, will try some if I do a later flight in the future. For now, I'm on 137 back to lax and leaves at 1110am, at least for the next few months.

Well I was there for breakfast, thank you for asking. . By about 11:30 am or so (when I left) there still was breakfast sitting out - so no chance at the lunch. Updated first post to reflect the breakfast timeframe.

Quick stop in the BA lounge at Brussels Airport yesterday before my AA flight BRU-ORD. Had some OJ and an apple and custard pastry. Came over on Aer Lingus from DUB.

Late evening. Arriving on AA from JFK 10:15pm, then onward to SIN 11:50p.
Hopefully there's still some curry love to go 'round.

You won't get curry at NRT for your morning SIN flight. Only breakfast items like scrabble egg, sausages, etc. No curry. HND serves curry during dinner but I am not 100% sure about late night departure but I would say yes, go with HND-SIN if you want curry

Sampled AA's third party lounge at ZRH Monday. The lounge is the Skyview lounge operated by Dnata. Reasonable self-serve bar, decent coffee. Food is all packaged snacks, you would have to be pretty hungry. Location of the lounge is odd - it isn't really airside or landside. Just past the check-in counters, there is a checkpoint where you have to show a boarding pass to get through, but no check of bags or person. Then you come to the lounge. After leaving the lounge, you have a fairly long walk plus a train to get to the gate for AA flights, and you clear security in this stretch. It took us about 30 minutes to get from the lounge to the gate, and we moved along fairly smartly. Boarding starts 45 minutes before departure, so unless you run into a delayed flight, your time in the lounge will be pretty minimal.

I tried the CX Wing (first class side) and the new Cabin lounge in HKG this morning for breakfast. Other than the fact there is waiter service for drinks in the Wing the food was much better in the Cabin. The Cabin had smoked salmon and more types of dim sum then the Wing and generally just more choices. The atmosphere is a little more casual and as my companion said it would make a pretty cool night club.

I was there about two weeks ago. No hot foods in the morning, but good croissants and pain au chocolat. Did you encounter the "extremely-efficient" dragon (brunette hair) who very methodologically doles out the 1-hour wi-fi code slips?

Only had a 20 minute visit so didn't break out the netbook to even check for a signal. Had wi-fi included at my hotel the night before outside DUB which held me until arrival at ORD.

The WiFi at BRU is a bit slow, but otherwise usable. Note that, in my experience, the lounge agent, while pleasant and friendly, is unable to handle any airline services (e.g., print boarding passes) and is not knowledgeable about LHR -- this was my first time connecting within T5 (instead of the usual shuffle between terminals) and I asked if I would need to reclear security at LHR. She assured me I wouldn't, so I took out eye drops and some other liquids I'd need, and put my liquid bags in my rolling suitcase, leaving my computer backpack more easily accessible. Of course, LHR does require everyone to reclear security at every step, so I had to scramble in line to get everything sorted.

Hi everyone...Hope to share my little travel experiences here...
I'm from Brazil....I arrived form a trip last week...I used CDG Admirals club and MIA Admirals. Nothing comparing to my home city Admirals Club (GIG). The"food" they provide in CDG is nothing comparing to what they offer here in GIG and in MIA....what a deception...BUT, a met there for the third or four time in a row an Admirals Employee a Trisha, very very kindly, sweet and lovely. This was a big difference for me...
Regards!
cameti2
Greetings form Rio de Janeiro!

Flew on QF JNB-SYD a few days ago, and was invited to use either the BA lounge or the Shongolola lounge (at which most of the patrons were on paid entrance). Neither had much in the way of food (sandwiches and light snacks), but the BA one was fairly quiet and pleasant. It's divided into business and first sections, but both had identical food and (from what I could tell) beverages.

The Shongolola lounge has an interesting African design theme, but on our visit was rather loud and a bit crowded:





The Shongolola lounge food was pre-packaged grab-and-go from cases, with two microwaves provided for heating up stuff that's supposed to be hot.

The BA lounge had South African chips, cold pre-packaged sandwiches, and hot buffet items which we had to leave before were set out.


One thing I really liked was a display of three old advertisements on a wall at the BA lounge.

(What is with the no-more-than-five-pictures thing? Very annoying since I spent 45 minutes putting links to a picture underneath the relevant text.)

More Shongolola pictures:





The Shongolola lounge food was pre-packaged grab-and-go from cases, with two microwaves provided for heating up stuff that's supposed to be hot:

The BA lounge had South African chips, cold pre-packaged sandwiches, and hot buffet items which we had to leave before were set out:




One thing I really liked was a display of three old advertisements on a wall at the BA lounge:

The OneWorld first class lounge at Shanghai international terminal has drinks, light snacks, and a noodle chef: