Review: Cathay Pacific Lounge Shanghai Airport

check shenzhen airlines lounge at shenzhen airport.
it is the best lounge in mainland china.

Big brother wants to spy on you.

"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."

Why does it blow your mind re international transit in China ?? Remind you of somewhere else ? Oh yes .. the USA

Shanghai is getting a new lounge next year I think. Just like the ICN CX lounge being under renovation now. According to the plan PEK and PVG comes after ICN.

I never ever ever have issues with the “Great Firewall” when in China, I swear. Whether I am on my computer or mobile phone at the hotel, airport or out and about, I can always access every so called "blocked" site without issue.

I started to question if this was even a real thing in China. I do not use any VPN (I think that's what its called). But I do trust you and others encounter this issue.

All my friends in China walk through the “Great Firewall” like its not even there.

What a tease, you said in the previous post your connection at PVG was a PITA, i expected at the least you'd be stuck in a locked room for a while , not that you'd have to clear chinese immigration.

Finally! So good to see Ben return to the Cathay Pacific Lounge in PVG.

My parents live in Shanghai and I would usually visit them during vacations. Since direct flight options between PVG and any US airports look really dismal, I would almost always fly with CX because their lounges and premium economy products are top notch. Still I am very disappointed that CX lounge in PVG doesn't even have shower rooms. I could just hop over to the China Eastern Lounge there, pay 200 yuan (approximately $32) and then use its shower rooms. And China Eastern Airline doesn't even operate any flights out of T2. CX really needs to step up its lounge in Shanghai.

Liquor dispenser = soap dispenser = trashy
I see a pattern.

@Icarus I think he has repeatedly pointed out of what a pain in the ass clearing immigration is in North America. He is holding the transit experience to an international level as many international airports do offer sterile international transit, especially in Asia: HKG, ICN, NRT, SIN, TPE just to name a few.

@ Lucky, you should consider getting this. https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/1638/~/apec-business-travel-card-%28abtc%29-for-u.s.-citizens

Didn't check the schedule but I imagine the crew change is because they'll be taking the first morning flight back after a short overnight stopover. Your flight being crewed by the crew arriving late the night before (with the aircraft staying on the ground overnight)

@ Lucky. Whilst I usually agree with your reviews, I truly think that your review doesn’t express how simply terrible the food selection is at this lounge. All the new seating and decor is not going to change this unless the management looks at food and beverage too. It feels more like a priority pass lounge from the 90s than a FIRST & BUSINESS class lounge for an entire alliance! It’s a disgrace! As a CX diamond, I really hate using this lounge.

The one thing that you can rely on at PVG is delays.

Google Fi service should bypass the GFW automatically, btw

Hey a few comments, I travel to PVG all too frequently...

1) For those commenting on the 'great firewall': It only applies if you are using a ML China IP address. So if you are using the lounge wifi, or a mobile with a ML provider, then you're blocked. But if you're roaming on a different sim card, everything should work. Example: I have a HK mobile & pocket wifi device, and all things normally filtered work just fine.

2) For immigration, totally get the APEC business travel card. You'll go through the diplomat line, which is quicker than even if you're Chinese national in this airport. I cannot tell you how many hours it has saved me, especially at PVG.

3) Regarding the lounge, I completely agree. It's the absolute worst in the CX network that I've been to (most of them). In my opinion, the primary reason is that it's open air and it feels like you're still in the terminal, and does not feel all that special unlike a regular CX lounge.

Why did you call it Shanghai Airport rather than Shanghai Pudong throughout the entire article except for one spot? That would be like calling JFK “New York Airport” and completely disregarding LGA. In fact, unlike LGA, Shanghai Hongqiao not only has the vast majority of domestic flights but also international flights to Seoul Gimpo and Tokyo Haneda. This is just sloppy writing on your part.

@Daniel: Good point, although it's worth mentioning that Hongqiao also has flights to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, which, practically (if not politically) speaking, are international, and operate out of the international Terminal 1.

Lucky: PVG T2 was, in fact, designed to handle direct international-to-international transfers in the way it's done in other Asian and European airports; you can even see the unused transfer counters in the middle of the arrivals concourse. I suspect the reason they are not using these facilities has to do with control, as @Debit suggest.

Lucky, I just transited via PVG coming in from HKG on CX J class going to DFW on AA J class. I was reading your article as I was about to deplane upon arriving in PVG... I was fretting about the possibility of having to go through customs as you described. It must’ve been luck or chance, however across from gate 71 in the arrivals area before you go down the escalators to the immigration desks, there is a international transfer desk. I checked with them, they stamped my boarding pass, walked me down to a special immigrations desk, then walked me back up to the international transfers door which then led to the security checkpoint. It took approximately 10 minutes for all of this.

After that, I proceeded to the CX lounge & asked about showers and they pointed me to the China airlines first class lounge that has a full set of showers available as well as great food. At the China lounge entrance (on the sign where all of the welcome airlines are listed) American Airlines was listed at the bottom.

Please share with your readers, and I hope this helps you during your next trip as well.

@ Scott Thisdale -- Fascinating, thanks for the heads up! That's great to hear.

Cathay has renovated the lounge this year and open to public on Jul 18. Time to update your blog!