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All posts in this series:
- Review: British Airways First Lounge At London Gatwick
- Review: Sala VIP Lounge In Pisa (Qatar Airways & Priority Pass)
- Review: Qatar Airways A320 Business Class
- Using The Airport Railroad Express (AREX) To Get From Seoul Incheon Airport To Downtown Seoul
- Review: Courtyard Seoul Namdaemun
- Review: Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
- Review: Qatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class (Overnight Flight)
Qatar Airways doesn’t have its own lounge at Seoul Incheon airport (it doesn’t have its own lounge at a lot of European airports either) so it has an agreement in place with Asiana which allows Qatar Airways Business Class flyers to use the Asiana Business Class lounge before their flights. I got a chance to try out this lounge on my recent trip to Seoul.
Seoul Airport has a number of security screening points and the one I used on this trip was checkpoint 4……which is the only one that is open 24 hours a day – the others open at varying times (presumably to ease the load during busier periods).
If you’re flying out of Seoul on Qatar Airways (as I was on this occasion) you’ll be using checkpoint 4 as that is the only checkpoint open past 20:30 (Qatar Airways departure is at 01:20) so, for the purposes of this post, any directions given assume that this is where you clear security and passport control.
The Asiana Business Lounge at Seoul Incheon Airport couldn’t be easier to find. The second you exit immigration (as a foreign passport holder) you’re faced with a sign showing you where to go:
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
And as as soon as you turn right to follow the arrow you can see the entrance to the Lounge:
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
If you happen to be exiting the immigration area from the “domestic passport” side then the lounge entrance is almost directly in front of you….you can’t miss it!
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
To get to the lounge you pass though this entrance, turn right, and then head up one level via the escalator or elevator provided.
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
Once you’re at the top of the escalator the lounge check-in desk is immediately behind you (if you exit via the elevator it will be directly ahead of you):
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
The lounge agent was friendly and asked to see my boarding pass together with the lounge pass that I’d been handed when I checked in.
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
I was quickly checked in to the lounge but not before I had been given a wi-fi password slip……
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
…or before I noticed that Asiana sells access to their First Class lounge:
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
KRW 30,000 is approximately $27 at the current exchange rate and, while that doesn’t seem like that much, I didn’t bother seeing if this offer also applied to Qatar Airways flyers as I wanted to review the Business Class option.
The first thing I noticed as I entered the lounge was how dark it was.
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
There is a lot of dark panelling on either side as you walk in and that helps make the lounge feel dark…but there’s another reason which I’ll come to later on in this review.
The area on the right is a “staff only” area while the area on the immediate left (as you walk in) is made up of a series of work cubicles:
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
Note: I’ve increased the exposure on some of the pictures to make them easier to view – in reality the lounge was darker than some pictures many make it appear.
Past these cubicles the lounge opens up into one very large area with a high angled ceiling:
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
Here, and immediately on the left, are a double row of chairs and tables of which most have no power source close by:
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
To the right is where the lounge dining area and bar are situated:
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
During my visit there were two hot dishes on offer:
- Seafood Stew
- Fried rice with Kimchi
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
The cold options included three types of sandwich:
- Tuna
- Ham & Cheese
- Sweet Pumpkin
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
A small salad selection:
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
Some croissants, an assortment of bread/rolls…..
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
…….and a couple of toasters too:
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
The food wasn’t exactly tempting me into gluttony and the bar didn’t entice me to drink either.
On offer were a couple of hot drinks machines, a paltry selection of wines and spirits…..
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
….a chiller cabinet with a variety of soft drinks and water…..
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
….a couple of bottles of juice…..
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
…and some mini-cookies:
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
If there was a highlight here it was the self-serve draft beer tap which served a reasonable “Cass” draft:
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
Just around the corner from the bar (almost hidden away) was a pot-noodle station:
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
Along from the pot noodle station and next to the dining area is a long table overlooking the airport apron.
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
While the dining area doesn’t appear to have any power outlets, this long table has quite a few….and they’re universal power outlets too so devices from most countries should plug-in ok:
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
Further on inside the lounge Asiana has laid out 4 (and a bit) rows of armchairs all of which face a couple of very large widescreen TVs:
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
In this section, on average, one out of three seats has access to a single power outlet…and this one is of the 2-pin Korean/European variety:
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
Moving on further into the lounge there is yet more seating (this is now approximately the center of the lounge).
There are armchairs set out with small tables in between them (no power outlets that I could see here apart from the ones in the floor powering the table lamps)……
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
…and there are tables and chairs too (no power outlets here either):
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
Looking back at the lounge from here gives a good idea of how dark the lounge can get…..
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
…and I think I’ve figured out why.
One entire side of the lounge is a giant floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the airport apron so, during the daytime, there’s probably an abundance of light flooding into the lounge:
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
But the lights by the windows point upwards and outwards and, as there are no lights in the lounge ceiling…..
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
….only the small and dim table lamps are available to illuminate the lounge.
I guess you could argue that this gives the lounge a bit of atmosphere….but it’s not great for working or reading if you don’t feel like confining yourself to the main business area which I’m coming on to in a moment.
Lastly, in this part of the lounge, there is another long desk facing out over the airport tarmac…..
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
….and, like the similar table near the dining area, this is probably one of the better places to get some work done if you don’t want to bet confined to a cubicle – it’s one of the lighter places in the lounge and there are a good number of multi-region power outlets.
At the far end of the lounge is where the business centre is. This offers individual cubicles with laptops….
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
…as well as printing facilities:
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
Next to the business centre are a couple of shower rooms which I did not have time to check out (sorry!) and a row of what Asiana is calling “relaxation rooms”:
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
There are five of these rooms in total and each holds a single massage chair and table….
…and the massage chairs look like they’ve seen better days!
Asiana Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
I’m not 100% sure but I don’t think these rooms need to be reserved with a lounge agent as there’s a sign in each of them asking guests to limit themselves to 30 minutes in the chair.
Bottom Line
As always these things are very subjective but there were more cons than pros to this lounge for me.
On the positive side the Asiana staff were friendly and polite and, had I wanted to rest up, the darkness of the lounge and the fact that there wasn’t too much noise or commotion would have been positives.
But now come the negatives:
- The food and drink offerings were limited and poor…and this in the Business Class lounge at Asiana’s home airport.
- The relaxation rooms are very dated and either need to be refurbished or, better still, changed for something better – they don’t look particularly relaxing.
- The lounge was too dark.
- While there was a lot of seating (the lounge also has another area on the far side of the check-in desk that can be opened up when it starts getting crowded), most of the seats don’t have power outlets close by – that’s not very helpful if you’ve just come off a flight where you didn’t have power (or the power outlets didn’t work) and you need to charge your devices while you work.
Overall the lounge seemed large but basic…and I was expecting a little more from Asiana in their home town. Is the lounge terrible? No, definitely not….but make sure you set you expectations to “mediocre” before you visit to prevent disappointment.
