I arrived at Beijing Airport at around 6AM, plenty early for my 8:35AM flight to Ulaanbaatar. I already had my boarding pass for the flight, so headed straight to the gates. This required taking the train to Terminal 3E, and then going through immigration and security there. The queues for both were crazy, and there…
Continue reading: Review: Air China First Class Lounge Beijing Airport
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Been to this lounges a few times myself, as recently as last week. I the food offerings are pretty decent, especially for the lunch/dinner services (western offerings along with local). Drink selection is weak. One gripe I have I guess is the shower in the First Class lounge are inferior to the ones over at the Business lounge. Business lounge has everything in one private room, whereas the first class lounge, showers and toilets are separate.
which one would you prefer, between Air China First and Cathay (Business) Lounge at PEK?
Yeah, doesn't look like much has changed since I was there a year ago. Food and beverage options were quite sub-par for a first class lounge. I was flying Singapore Airlines Suites on the A380 and could access this lounge or their ground handling agents lounge (which was even worse).
As architecturally cool as Beijing's airport is, I find it to be terribly cold inside. Perhaps the constant overcast and smoggy skies outside has something to do with that. They at least were putting a Boston themed sports bar in the terminal, so hopefully that has now opened.
I got access to this lounge two years ago while flying Air China Business Class given that their Business Class Lounge is in the progress of refurbishments
@Lucky, I have taken the buggy before. It's for anyone and they also have a buggy from the CA premium check in area to the gates where you scan your boarding pass before getting on the train
That buggy is available for all passengers. You shoulda taken it since the walk was long.
I think the space itself is much nicer than say Delta's JFK or SEA lounges. I don't eat Asian food so I can't speak to the quality of the food offerings, but it looked fairly comprehensive. The family style-restaurant coffee was a disappointment, I suppose. I also didn't see any champagne or Coke/Pepsi.
I also used this lounge, the shower was smelly...
Also the staffs were very arrogant, they were reluctant to tell me where is the shower room.
That was just awful.
I think the staff of other lounge that can enter with priority pass was better.
Indeed the lounge was spacious though.
This is my favorite lounge, beating all US lounges with Priority access I have been to. The food was the best part, maybe you were there not the right time or simply the food is not your type.
buggy ride can be arranged if you ask the lounge attendants who do the boarding announcements, next to the lounge reception
if the buggies happen to be parked downstairs, just show your boarding pass. more than often than not, the buggies are parked at the business class lounge coz there are more passengers needing that service there.
You should have tried to see about the buggy ride!
Pet peeve: it's hard to let the food items "speak for themselves" when all the chafing dishes are closed and the signage is too distant/out of focus to read.
I know it's a PITA, but lifting up a lid or two would "speak volumes."
I don't find the decor dated but it's odd that there are visible bar code stickers on the legs of the chairs - kinda ruins the overall look.
A very brief review. Did you check showers? What champagne was on offer? Did the staff speak any English?
@ Ding Ding -- Unfortunately the showers were all occupied, so I wasn't able to get a picture. I didn't see any champagne. As far as the staff go, I didn't interact with them much. At the front desk they scanned me in and didn't say much, and I didn't speak with anyone else.
@Lucky: "At the front desk they scanned me in and didn’t say much, and I didn’t speak with anyone else."
Maybe that's because they don't speak English well enough to be comfortable speaking with a fluent English-speaker. I've encountered this with Japanese. As a country, Japan has horrible rates of English proficiently. Many Japanese are hesitant to speak any English to an American because their English is poor or they think it's worse than it is. In my experience, Japanese girls, for example, are very shy around American guys because of the language barrier.
Shower rooms may not have been occupied. When we were there last year (for several hours it turned out, since our AA flight was on a rolling delay for 4 hours, then cancelled), there was 6 of us and we all needed showers as we had just come back from hiking the Great Wall. They told us that all of the shower rooms were occupied but they would let us know when any came available. We waited about 45 minutes seated right outside the entrance to the shower rooms and no one went in or out, so we asked again and they told us the same thing, but about ten minutes later, again without anyone going in or out, there were suddenly two available. It looked like there were actually at least 4 rooms, but they never let us use the other two, we eventually all got done using just two and, unless a couple of people took 2 hour showers, the others never got used. And they are pretty tiny little shower rooms. With the number of priority pass lounges that are available in Beijing, we would definitely try a different one next time or one that our AA business class tickets would have gotten us into.
I had the exact same experience as FAnorthtrader. For some reason, they are hesitant to let guests use the showers. Eventually, I just pressured the shower attendant into opening one. Just demand it.
The buffet is available only at limited hours - you have to stick to instant noodles after 9am till noon.
The Cathay lounge is far superior to this lounge - with its noodle bar after 9am and more spacious seating. The best lounge in PEK is the secret domestic F lounge in B1 (not the al fresco F lounge similar to this international one reviewed by Lucky). This airport is not exactly known for its lounges.
In Dec-15 we flew CA Biz from IAD to PEK to SIN to PEK to IAD. On the outbound we used the Biz lounge which had fantastic private shower facilities + sink + toilet. Clean, no line, perfect after a long flight, and before connecting to SIN. On the inbound we were told the Biz bathrooms were out of order and we were directed to the First lounge. Teeny, tiny, and just a shower/sink. Very disappointing, especially after our experience earlier in the week.
Candidly, the PEK security line/lounge/pollution experience is reason enough to not fly CA from the States to Asia (assuming PEK not final destination). Going through NRT offers a far superior experience.
Brazilian blogger Fabio Vilela from Passageiro de Primeira was there today and I got to see it all from his Instagram stories- looks beautiful but its so crappy, barely any food or drinks...so sad, theres so much potential
@[email protected], that is true, we, Japanese people(apart from me), are too shy to speak English, not only women but also men.
That is because they try to a grammatically perfect English and think themselves too much.
It leads to a horrible rates of English, even in Tokyo.
Of course some exception exists like me 😛
I have used this lounge dozens of times and agree it is nothing too special. However, your wait at immigration can be cut dramatically if you have the APEC Business Travel card available as an option with your Global Entry. Upon arrival in China there is an APEC fast lane next to the diplomatic channel. On departure there is usually an APEC lane too and if not they let you use the diplomatic lane. I have never waited more than a few minutes if at all using the APEC card. Same for Japan and several other countries.
Last time I used this lounge I was waiting for an early morning flight to Doha and since there were few staff remaining on duty, the bar was self service. A couple of very glamorous (Russian speaking) ladies were hanging around - not looking for company or conversation - but surreptitiously decanting hard spirits into empty containers in their handbags....bizarre!
The food selection is great for breakfast or a light meal before the actual flight meal. I admit that there's no A La Carte, which you shouldn't expect based on CA's "International First" standard hehe. I admit that there's no caviar or lobsters or steaks, but I'm afraid there's never going to be those things
@FNT Delta Diamond lI don’t eat Asian food so I can’t speak to the quality of the food offerings..."
What planet are you from?
Fab article! Sure do wish you would do an article on the best ways to connect to the internet (with or without VPN) from the Beijing/Xian area. I am planning on going within the next two years and would NEED access in order to communicate with family and in case issues arise, with vendors. Also would love a report on the Xian airport as well. Thanks for all you do!
Wow. It really is a clone of the Business lounge. Had to check a few times to make sure this was the First class lounge getting reviewed.
The CA Business Lounge at PEK isn't the worst in the world, but it's nothing special either. I was pretty impressed with the new CA International Lounge at PVG and hope that they look to that as a model whenever they get around to doing up the lounge at PEK. Much better/more variety of food and better setup for dining at PVG.
In every aspect other than alcohol offering this lounge beats any American, Delta, or United lounges in the U.S. out of water. Period.
Wait, should we compare CA with SQ, CX, and so on? Hahaha, that's the actual complement to the Chinese carrier.
Actually, i find the cues much shorter on international part of T2 on PEK. T3 is usually busier. Even the lounge selection (and quality!) on T2 has improved since the opening of the new Skyteam lounge. Lounges on domestic terminal are usually just appaling and not worthy of a visit.
@brad... if you want to access social networks (FB, Twitter, IG), any of the google services (including mail and maps) or cloud services (Dropbox) you need to have a VPN. Just google best VPNs for China for latest (latest update as possible). Install and test all VPN services/apps before coming to China (their websites are not available, google play is not working, apple app store works fine). To access non-chinese pages via VPN (or without) expect relatively slow speeds. Also, some VPN providers work faster in some cities than in others. Of course, monitor the situation as the chinese government plans a crackdown on VPN services. Oh, almost forgot. Internet through VPN gets painfully slow in the evenings and during some national events (like Party meetings) it stops for a prolonged hours. Yahoo/Hotmail and Skype do work. Though, when calling, i prefer using Skype via VPN. Whatsapp worked flawlessly until a month ago. It still works, but sometimes there are outages.
Sometimes its useful to install and log in into WeChat (chinese alternative to facebook messanger, skype,...). Many times you can access some wifi networks just by using this app.
Had the "pleasure" of beeing there (and the BC Lounge) quite a few times, last time in May.
I might be a bit jaded with the other flagship lounges in Asia, Europe and Ocenaia but this one really disappoints (In PVG the CA lunge is much better).
Entry into the FC lounge is a bit haphazard - traveling in C and as a *G they sometimes let you in, other times they refer you to the BC lounge.
Showers are much better in the BC lounge (the ones in the FC lounge smelled horribly and were cramped).
Food is really best described as MEH, none of the fridges are at anything remotely resembling a "cold" setting.
Sleep cabine:
I used this lounge yesterday evening. I saw the sleep cabines with either busy or closed mention.
I asked at the lounge reception if I could use one and they nicely opened it for me. It was great! A real bed with linens etc. I recommend it.
What a nice lounge, the Air China Lounge that AA pax's use is pathic, AA-US lounges are much better...