Update: Cathay Pacific has renovated their lounge in the meantime.
My connection in Shanghai was supposed to be about two hours — I was scheduled to arrive at 12:40PM, and I was scheduled to depart at 2:30PM. I know, planning a 1hr50min connection on separate tickets at Shanghai Airport was probably a bad decision, but the Cathay Dragon flight was the only one that day featuring first class, and I really wanted to review it. I figured worst case scenario if I misconnected I could get onto one of the other Cathay Dragon flights to Hong Kong in business class.
Fortunately as soon as I landed in Shanghai I got a message saying that my flight to Hong Kong had been delayed by just over an hour, with a new departure time of 3:35PM. That worked for me, as it meant I didn’t have to rush.
While some Chinese airports are getting better, it absolutely blows my mind that Shanghai Airport Terminal 2 still doesn’t allow a sterile international-to-international transit. In other words, I had to clear immigration, go through customs, go back through immigration, and then go through security.
Unfortunately in China this process isn’t quick either. I’m fast as hell when it comes to this stuff, and the whole process took me nearly an hour. It’s not just that, but I felt like every step of the process was as complicated as could be.
In total it took me about 30 minutes to clear immigration and customs, including the new fingerprinting that they do for everyone arriving. Then I was in the check-in hall for Terminal 2. Then it took another half hour until I was airside again, due to long lines at immigration.
Shanghai Pudong Airport Terminal 2
I then made my way to the Cathay Pacific Lounge, which is the oneworld lounge in the terminal. The lounge is located near gate 69, though I had a hard time finding the lounge at first. Rather than having signs referring to lounges by their names, signage just refers to lounges by their numbers. Cathay Pacific’s Lounge is #68, which I didn’t know until I got there.
Anyway, the lounge is up one level from the main concourse, and can be reached by escalator or elevator.
Escalator to Cathay Pacific Lounge Shanghai
Compared to some of Cathay Pacific’s other lounges, this one has a modest exterior, and the only thing indicating it belongs to Cathay Pacific is a small sign outside. The lounge is open daily from 6AM until 8:45PM, and can be accessed by all oneworld first class, business class, Emerald, and Sapphire passengers.
Cathay Pacific Lounge Shanghai Airport exterior
I’ve visited this lounge a few times over the past decade or so, though this time around I felt like it was marginally nicer than in the past. They haven’t completely redone the lounge in the new style, but I do feel like some furniture has been replaced.
The lounge is quite large, and wasn’t busy at all. It’s “open air,” in the sense that it doesn’t have a roof, but rather is just part of the terminal. There are pros and cons to that — it makes the lounge feel more spacious, but it also means that the lounge is louder due to noise from the terminal.
Cathay Pacific Lounge view Shanghai Airport
Near the entrance to the lounge are a couple of dozen seats, and then past that is the first buffet area, which has packaged snacks and drinks.
Cathay Pacific Lounge seating Shanghai Airport
That buffet area also has some high-top seating.
Cathay Pacific Lounge seating Shanghai Airport
Past that is another area with more traditional lounge seating.
Cathay Pacific Lounge seating Shanghai Airport
Cathay Pacific Lounge Shanghai Airport
There are also some magazines and newspapers in this area.
Cathay Pacific Lounge newspapers & magazines Shanghai Airport
The lounge then widens quite a bit, and has an area with a bunch more seating, including some more communal seating along the far edge of the lounge.
Cathay Pacific Lounge Shanghai Airport
Cathay Pacific Lounge Shanghai Airport
Cathay Pacific Lounge seating Shanghai Airport
There’s also a business center with individual cubicles, all of which have computers. Personally I love these kinds of cubicles for working, I just wish they didn’t all have computers, because I just want somewhere quiet to sit while using my own laptop.
Cathay Pacific Lounge business center Shanghai Airport
The lounge has two main buffet areas. The smaller one had packaged sandwiches, fresh fruit, chips, cookies, water, soft drinks, a coffee machine, wine, and liquor.
Cathay Pacific Lounge buffet Shanghai Airport
Cathay Pacific Lounge buffet Shanghai Airport
Cathay Pacific Lounge buffet Shanghai Airport
Cathay Pacific Lounge buffet Shanghai Airport
Cathay Pacific Lounge buffet Shanghai Airport
Cathay Pacific Lounge alcohol Shanghai Airport
I don’t know what it is, but there’s something about the upside display of liquor that feels trashy to me.
Cathay Pacific Lounge alcohol Shanghai Airport
The bigger buffet was towards the center of the lounge. It had all of the same stuff as the other buffet, and then some extra things as well, including instant noodles, pastries, muffins, and more.
Cathay Pacific Lounge buffet Shanghai Airport
Cathay Pacific Lounge drinks Shanghai Airport
Cathay Pacific Lounge snacks Shanghai Airport
Cathay Pacific Lounge snacks Shanghai Airport
Cathay Pacific Lounge snacks Shanghai Airport
Cathay Pacific Lounge snacks Shanghai Airport
Cathay Pacific Lounge snacks Shanghai Airport
This section of the lounge also had a couple of hot dishes, including rice, soup, and dim sum.
Cathay Pacific Lounge Shanghai Airport food selection
Cathay Pacific Lounge Shanghai Airport food selection
In theory there was a live cooking station, though best I could tell they were just preparing the few hot dishes there that were then placed on the buffet.
Cathay Pacific Lounge Shanghai Airport cooking station
Cathay Pacific Lounge Shanghai Airport dim sum
Cathay Pacific Lounge Shanghai Airport main course
The lounge had decent enough restrooms, though best I could tell there were no showers.
I spent a bit of time in the lounge catching up on work, though the Wi-Fi was really slow, and I couldn’t get around the “Great Firewall,” which was annoying. At around 2:30PM I decided to leave the lounge and wander around the terminal for a bit.
Shanghai Airport Terminal 2
Shanghai Pudong has lots of great plane spotting, thanks not only to the variety of traffic, but also thanks to the big windows. Hi, Lufthansa A380 and SAS A340!
Lufthansa A380 Shanghai Airport
SAS A340 Shanghai Airport
My inbound flight from Hong Kong only arrived at 2:45PM. The crew for my flight was at the gate. To my surprise, I guess they had a layover in Shanghai — I figured they’d work all of these flights as direct turns. It took a while to deplane, and then at 3PM the crew got onboard.
Cathay Dragon Lounge Shanghai Airport
Boarding was scheduled for 3:15PM for our 3:35PM departure (which seems tight), though in the end boarding only started at 3:20PM, with first class being invited to board first.
Cathay Dragon departure gate Shanghai Airport
Cathay Pacific Lounge Shanghai bottom line
Shanghai is an important market for Cathay Pacific, so it surprises me that they don’t invest more in their lounge here. Cathay Pacific’s new lounge design is stunningly beautiful, design-wise probably my favorite in the world. You’d think a market like Shanghai would be “worthy” of that.
Ultimately Cathay Pacific’s Shanghai Lounge is perfectly alright, but nothing special. The furniture is in decent condition, but the food is really subpar. They mostly have packaged snacks and only a couple of hot options. It’s a far cry from some of the best airport lounges in the world, especially since Cathy tends to set the bar very high.
So I really think Cathay Pacific needs to do better in Shanghai. At the same time, in general lounges in mainland China are lackluster, so I guess they can get away with it. The nicest lounge I’ve been to in mainland China is the China Eastern First Class Lounge Shanghai, and that’s the carrier’s hub, and the lounge is only for international first class passengers.
If you’ve used the Cathay Pacific Lounge PVG, what was your experience like?
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