Review: The Club At SJC

Soooo... Is lucky just not bothering with blog posts anymore. I thought this was his blog but there are a LOT of 'guest' posts.

At least nick puts up his trip reports on time

You get priority pass with Prestige too don't you? Not just Amex Plat.

In the photo of the reading material I can see plenty of Chinese literature, not just Japanese. I suppose this caters to the Chinese passengers travelling on Hainan.

@sam- Does it really matter? Are you not you still enjoying the content? I am.

@Mark - I think its just aa..

@AL - This lounge is just upstairs from ANA, there is usually more Japanese travelers then Chinese. But to be fair I love using SJC-NRT-PVG. ANA does there 787 on this route, nice new plane smell. Its my go to for china, the lines are not that long and customs is much better.

The lounge is there because of the ANA flight. What surprises me the most is that they keep it open during the rest of the day. I used to fly from SJC quite a bit, and found the lounge a pleasant enough place to wait for my flight — largely because it was always empty. I'm amazed that they have enough paying visitors (paying out of pocket or via reimbursement from Priority Pass) during the rest of the day to cover the costs of keeping it open.

Al: Those are all japanese. Depending on the subject matter, the majority of japanese written language can be traditional "chinese" script known as "Kanji". You are assuming that the more simplified characters of phoenetic "katakana" and "hiragana" is all japanese is, which it isn't.

I find the Japanese to be far more polite and appropriate than any other culture, americans included. Perhaps the author should take a trip to the local hometown buffett and tell me what he hears.

Since Citi Prestige offers Priority Pass, you do get lounge access with Citi Prestige.

I fly Southwest a lot out of SJC. I'll have to check out the lounge, load up with food, and make new friends on my flight by offering it around :-).

At least Provincial in Venezuela offers priority pass with their platinium status.

There used to be a great coffee place called Espressamente which had Illy coffee. Is it stii in the airport? I have not flown out of SJC in years.

Thanks for the review. I do enjoy the ease of flying in and out of SJC, especially with the car rental center within walking distance. Never visited The Club, though--I've never been at the airport long enough. Moreover, the food options in the terminal are great. @ Rami, Espressamente is still there.

@Mijke - I beg to differ. There is at least one title on the middle shelf, right side, that is in Chinese. Its masthead even has "China" in it. The four rightmost titles on the lower shelf are also all Chinese. You are assuming I don't read Chinese.

There's also a few showers available there, ask up front for towels.

@Al
I wouldn't call one publication "a lot". And being able to read chinese means nothing since nearly all Kanji has the identical meaning in japanese as it does in chinese. The publications are clearly nearly all japanese. actually i'm not sure why this matters to anyone other than japanese people.. but i digress

@ Mark -- You sure do, and with the Citi Prestige Card you even have guesting privileges.

@ Sam -- Over the past nearly eight years I've written 10,000 blog posts. I spend 16 hours a day and seven days a week on the blog and things related to it. Sorry if me taking off part of a Sunday offends you.

@luckey XD great reply! After all, you do need some rest... stay healthy; I think we all want this blog to still be around in ten years!

PS Are you going to EAA Oshkosh? I know your more of a points guy, but didn't you want to be a pilot at some point?

Enjoy the Krug!

Lucky needs a mic drop in that last comment, a la Bryan Cranston: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLEfrulUEcs

@Lucky,

I can only imagine how much time you spend on the blog and I am frankly amazed you have time to do as much as you do. I don't know how its possible but you have never failed to answer my questions on the "ask lucky" page within 48 hours. Having content from other people is fine with me.

On a related note, I'm not sure how you edit posts but I find your blog, whether the content is from you or other contributors, to be amongst the best edited on Boarding Area. Certainly, a standard some other bloggers here should aspire to.

@ Dan -- You're very kind, thanks! 🙂

@ person -- Thanks! Sadly not, have schedule conflict. Would love to go at some point, though.

@Al...the ones you identified are all Japanese. Let's stop arguing this. They are Japanese. If you can truly read Chinese, you would be able to easily identify the characters in most of those that are Japanese-specific.

@ Garrett- I think AI has you there, the ones she identified are Chinese (the magazines). Newspapers are all Japanese though, and also the majority of the other magazines.

@ garrett- take that back, woops! I recognize the bottom magazines, are indeed Japanese. So there is really only 1 Chinese magazine in the picture.

I use that lounge every week, usually late afternoons when it's almost deserted. Loving it. Extremely friendly staff. Mike the bartender has my drink waiting by my usual chair by the time I check in. I used to access it through Amex Plat but I switched to Citi Prestige since I can bring in 2 guests for free.

"the two international flights departing San Jose"

There are at least three flights to GDL and SJD each day in addition to the Peking and Chiba flights. Or has North American Union abolished that border already? Maybe SJC-SJD isn't international anymore because the IATA codes are so neighborly.

Thanks for this review. Saved me $35 rolling the die at 11am today (a Friday)...looked like it was "hotting up" in there from what little I could see when I asked to look in. Took a chance and skipped it.