We’re not exactly seeing airlines introduce many positive product innovations at the moment, but All Nippon Airways seems to be the exception.
In this post:
New All Nippon Airways Haneda Airport Lounges
This was supposed to be an exciting year for Japan, as the 2020 Summer Olympics were supposed to be held in Tokyo, and Haneda Airport (which is closest to the city) was supposed to see a huge increase in long haul international capacity.
Unfortunately the Olympics have since been postponed and many airlines are putting off new Haneda flights, though that’s not stopping All Nippon Airways from opening some very nice-looking lounges in a few days, on March 29, 2020. This comes as All Nippon Airways moves international operations to Terminal 2 at the airport.
The airline is opening three new lounges with a total of 1,300 combined seats, making these among the largest lounges in Japan.
What should we expect from All Nippon Airways’ new Haneda lounges?
New ANA Suite First Class Lounge Haneda Airport
The new ANA Suite Lounge Haneda will be located in Terminal 2 and will be open daily from 5AM until the last departure. This lounge will be for Star Alliance first class passengers, and will have 360 seats.
This lounge will feature the following amenities:
- A live kitchen with a chef preparing cooked to order dishes, a sushi bar, a noodle bar, and a restaurant area with a la carte dining
- A bar area with both a bartender and a barista, so they’ll finally have barista made coffee drinks and bartender made cocktails
- A napping area with six beds and five reclining chairs
ANA’s first class lounges have never impressed me, so this actually sounds like an awesome improvement — the food selection sounds much better, barista made coffee and proper cocktails sound great, and that they have real beds is great too.
Oddly the pictures don’t do much to excite me about the new lounge, because they don’t showcase what I would consider to be the key new features…
ANA Suite Lounge Haneda
ANA Suite Lounge Haneda
ANA Suite Lounge Haneda
ANA Suite Lounge Haneda
New ANA Business Class Lounge Haneda Airport
The new ANA Business Class Lounge Haneda will be located in Terminal 2 and will be open daily from 5AM until the last departure. This lounge will be for Star Alliance business class passengers and Star Alliance Gold members, and will have 900 seats.
This lounge will feature the following amenities:
- A live kitchen with a buffet area and a noodle bar
- A bar area featuring a drink menu with over 20 cocktails, wine, sake, and more
- An area with booth seating, featuring 24 semi-private booths
- A kids room
Frankly the new business class lounge doesn’t sound that exciting, though the additional capacity is much needed, as the old lounge got really full. As a point of comparison, here’s a review of ANA’s old business class lounge at Haneda.
ANA Business Lounge Haneda
ANA Business Lounge Haneda
ANA Business Lounge Haneda
ANA Business Lounge Haneda
New ANA Arrivals Lounge Haneda Airport
This is perhaps the most interesting new lounge. The new ANA Arrivals Lounge will be located in Terminal 2, and will be open daily from 4:30AM until 12:30PM. This will be open to those arriving in ANA first and business class on an international flight. Previously Haneda didn’t have an arrivals lounge, but rather only Narita had one (you can find my review of this rather boring lounge here).
The arrivals lounge will feature light meals and beverages, as well as 18 shower rooms for passengers to freshen up in.
The most interesting new amenity, though? The lounge will feature a foot bath area with a view of the ocean beyond the runway, “providing a space where passengers can relax and experience a moment of tranquility at the airport.”
As someone who is a huge fan of clean feet, I love this concept. And to clarify, I’m a huge fan of clean feet not in a foot fetish way, but rather in the sense that I hate dirty feet…
Does anyone get the logistics of the foot bath area, though? Is this just an area where you hose down your feet? Because the picture almost makes it look like it’s a whirlpool of sorts that you place your feet into…
ANA Arrivals Lounge Haneda
ANA Arrivals Lounge Haneda
ANA Arrivals Lounge Haneda
Bottom Line
With Haneda Airport seeing a whole bunch of additional flights, I’m happy to see ANA opening new lounges at the airport as well. Not only does this increase lounge capacity, but some of the lounge features look pretty cool as well.
In particular, the new first class lounge sounds like a great improvement, while it’s nice to see an arrivals lounge brought to Haneda Airport.
What do you make of ANA’s new lounges?
I'll be flying out of Haneda at the end of March (in just a few days) on a domestic flight, so I'll be able to check out the new business class lounge. When I visited the previous ANA Lounge (not first class) at Haneda in January, it offered a nice selection of four regional sakes dispensed from ceramic containers. A couple of them were really good. I tried them all and still made it home....
I'll be flying out of Haneda at the end of March (in just a few days) on a domestic flight, so I'll be able to check out the new business class lounge. When I visited the previous ANA Lounge (not first class) at Haneda in January, it offered a nice selection of four regional sakes dispensed from ceramic containers. A couple of them were really good. I tried them all and still made it home.
As others have commented here, the onsen foot bath is a common public outdoor fixture at onsen towns all over Japan, except the one at Haneda probably won't have natural spring water, just heated tap water since there is probably no hot spring source at the airport.
It's funny how the models in the publicity images have the exact opposite appearance of the typical guests I run into whenever at the ANA lounges ;)
My last visits to ANA's lounges last month: Narita - two hour layover but no showers avialable. Walked way out to United's lounge and was immediately accommodated. Haneda - no food other than cheese & crackers due to the China Virus.
Is this for the growing population of Muslims in Japan?
Now is it me, or the mock up for a lounge in Tokyo is awfully full of Caucasians and very little Asian (and one missing?). That is not all, they conveniently (stereotype) give every Asians a Rimowa looking bag.
For getting wet in airports, there is nothing that can top the PUJ pool. I have to bring a float on my next trip there.
Never experienced a foot bath in my one trip to Japan (one trip so far). But here in New Mexico, outside Santa Fe, there is a Japanese bath and massage place called Ten Thousand Waves. They have a foot bath outside running along a lengthy bench. Hot, clean water, no whirlpool, but boy does it feel good. As you sit there, especially on a crisp, cool day, you look at the Koi pond and relax.
@Chad G. - I've often seen that arrival lounges are open only in the morning hours for those who are likely going to be continuing on their day after their flight. There is less of a need for these in the evening hours (from an airlines point of view).
Maybe they'll have those little fish that eat the dead skin off your toes!!
There’s a Shinkansen train that runs between Yamagata and Sendai which has a carriage with footbaths. I’ve been on it it’s a lot of fun. (Tatami style seating in other carriages too)
As others have said it’s such a japanese thing, you find them all over japan, a traditional amenity provided for weary travellers. As well a son this Shinkansen I’ve seen them by the roadside, in temples, in train stations, along hiking trails all...
There’s a Shinkansen train that runs between Yamagata and Sendai which has a carriage with footbaths. I’ve been on it it’s a lot of fun. (Tatami style seating in other carriages too)
As others have said it’s such a japanese thing, you find them all over japan, a traditional amenity provided for weary travellers. As well a son this Shinkansen I’ve seen them by the roadside, in temples, in train stations, along hiking trails all over. Many have a souvenir towel you can purchase for a few hundred yen, I hope there’s an ANA towel, I already have a few of these and I guess it’s starting to become a collection.
I think it's normal for Arrivals lounges just to be open in the morning. Arrivals lounges in Europe for example are meant for showering and freshening up, for people who come off red-eye flights and have a full day ahead of them. If you arrive in the afternoon you most likely don't have a full day of meetings ahead of you so you could just go to your hotel instead of an arrivals lounge.
@flyingrohit @Chuck Sullivan - correct but IAD, IAH, JFK, ORD, SEA, second LAX flight all land in the afternoon or evening. I'm evening seeing one FRA flight and the LHR flight landing later in the day. Not a major issue and I'm (selfishly) only inquiring because I'm booked on the IAH flight which lands at 17:00.
@Chad G like Chuck’s flight, ANA’s LAX-HND flight also arrives just short of 5am into HND.
@ Chad G. I'm booked on a SFO-HND redeye that lands at 0440.
The first image of the Business Lounge Haneda reminds me of the Ikea food court
There is one in the public area of Kagoshima Airport. It is very common in onsen towns in Japan and part of onsen culture. Japanese people will not be surprised it is a very common thing and non unusual.
The foot bath isn't about getting your feet clean, but rather about relaxing and easing stress from being on your feet. Like in Japanese onsen, you don't get clean by taking the bath- in onsen you clean yourself first BEFORE getting into the bath. These public foot baths are reasonably common tourist features in hot spring towns.
Are the operating hours for the Arrivals Lounge accurate? Or will it be 4:30am-12:30am? Most flights originating in the US on ANA arrive later in the day.
That FC lounge is huge given *A doesn’t let top flyers in unlike OW. Is ANA opening it up to some of their frequent fliers? I can’t imagine there are even 200 FC seats in a day (25 flights) out of HND given recent industry trends.
Actually, it probably IS a whirlpool-like tub you soak your feet in. I've used a similar thing in Japan before, except it was outside and ran the length of the boardwalk.