We know that Air India is currently trying to reinvent itself, including improving every aspect of the passenger experience. We’ve seen the airline roll-out factory fresh wide body planes with new interiors, start to reconfigure existing planes, and even open a new flagship lounge at Delhi Airport (DEL).
Continue reading: New Air India Maharaja Lounge SFO Now Open: Small But Really Nice?!
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Hope so. Would be delicious. Save some palak paneer and garlic naan for the rest of us.
Coincidentally, Singapore Airlines (with 14 flights per week) just moved to the A Terminal and have at the moment no lounge offering for premium passengers. Their morning and evening flights depart at similar times to Air India’s so I assume the lounge can not handle both.
Great timing...I have a long layover in SFO and was planning to visit the Polaris lounge for my TK flight (I've never visited one before), but since it sounds like TK flies out of the A gates, I will hopefully stop by the Maharaja lounge before I depart.
Is there anyone besides you (and maybe bloggers looking to review multiple Air India flights) who does that?
Great timing for me, too - I'm flying out of SFO for the first time today. I'm tempted to try to take in the Maple Leaf, Polaris and Maharajah lounges but it sounds like the distances involved might make this tricky.
This looks thematically in sync with the new DEL lounge. Air India has clearly chosen a design language. The DEL lounge looks super swanky. So hopefully this translates to the SFO lounge.
Which also means not having to trek to the Intl G terminal Polaris lounge.
If you do stop in, report back and let us know if it's worth the visit. I'm flying on Friday so you'd beat me to it.
Well we all know for sure that this lounge will not be offering shower facilities or hand soap. Lol
The internet gave me the impression that the previously excellent Polaris lounge has fallen from grace, and that the Maple Leaf was a fine alternative. This wasn't the impression I got - the former was far less busy than the latter, which, besides being pleasant in its own right, meant I was able to get a table in the restaurant immediately. I thought the food served there was excellent.
The Maharajah has the best ambience and perhaps the best buffet of the three lounges. The staff were also very helpful indeed, including helping me with the buffet when I was short of hands.
A few things are still works in progress - there's no alcohol yet, the coffee machine is out of order, and the bidet in (at least) one of the cubicles appears to have been connected to the hot water.
The mocktails in the Maharajah were decent - I didn't drink in either of the other two lounges.
Interestingly, the TK agent told me to go to Club SFO despite the Maharajah being more convenient. When I told her I was going to go to the Maple Leaf first, she tried to dissuade me from going through the G-gate security, saying I would need to go through TSA twice. This, of course, was not the case, although I understand why she didn't expect me to walk a loop of the whole airport.
This space is the former JAL business class lounge on the 4th floor. The staff were always very nice, but it was kind of priority-pass grade in the past in terms of food and space ("Udon with clear broth! Rice crackers!")
Space wise, it always felt cramped. Hopefully with some good design and furniture from sometime in the last 3 decades, it will be better than before.
@mickyb - I went there last year and it was as you describe. I would prefer the Maple Leaf Lounge due to space and peace. I think the SFO United Polaris lounge has a kind of hardscrabble feel where the entire airports' worth of business class pax need to cram into an admittedly large lounge. Feels like sitting in a crowded classroom where all the seats are routinely taken and/or in disrepair.
I don't throw rocks at UA only. BA over in the A gates is also in a sorry state. I prefer going to the Alaska lounge since it's just such a nicer facility.
The lengths people will go to get some free mediocre buffet food never fail to impress.
I thought there was limit on the age people had to be to comment on this blog. But your juvenile, low hanging fruit of a comment confirmed to me that there could not have been And judging by the “lol” at the end you not only thought it out and typed it, you figured you’d add a lol at the end to soften the blow. Do better.
@mickyb thanks for the impressions. No alcohol at the Maharaja it’s a bit disappointing, as I don’t plan to eat much (I want to save my stomach for the food on the flight). Still may try to stop by. I wasn’t thinking to visit the Maple Leaf, but maybe I’ll do the full tour while I’m there.
To be clear: I found the Polaris to be better (much less crowded) than the Maple Leaf. This was around 1530-1600 - there were several AC flights on the departure boards.
I asked the Maharajah if they'd have alcohol by Friday, but they didn't seem to have any idea.
I can't see it becoming a PP lounge - given the size and the quality it would be absolutely rammed.
@mickyb sounds like my original plan will work: spend most of my time at the Polaris lounge during my layover, then fly by the Maharaja before boarding my flight (assuming it is at the A gates, I never know reading online about TK). Maybe make a visit to the Maple Leaf if I get a little bored.
For what it's worth, the same catering contractor operates all of the lounges at SFO. Set your expectations.
I stopped by this lounge right after it opened after visiting the Polaris lounge on the other side, it was very quiet at the time (being so new and likely the lack of AI flights around noon). I tried a little bit of the buffet and it was good, but no cocktails (they hadn't gotten their liquor license yet). Would certainly stop by again if I had another *A departure from the A gates.
Dave........you are correct.
The sinks are there so passengers will be able to wash their clothes and vegetables before the flight, which will hopefully limit the toilet clogging incidents.
Better than paying 500$ for a stale sandwich and a beer at one of the airport outlets, no?
For those who have PP with the restaurant benefit, there are two in United's neck of the woods at SFO.
There are still a lot of things wrong about Air India's SFO ops, but a welcome addition.
The design language is consistent with the newly opened lounge in DEL.
Now DEL had some really decent quality of spirits and a very unique list of spceicality cocktails. Hopefully SFO offerings are more along that line.
With United orphaning some Star Alliance partners of Polaris lounge access, think the list included SQ, BR, TK and maybe one more airline, these airlines now have an option. Won't be surprised if the International A Star Alliance carriers end up in the AI lounge. Don't think this will be a complimentary PP lounge.
I don’t understand this lounge being “finally open”? I visited this lounge 2-3 weeks ago
Anything Air India is not officially open until the golden shower blessing from a Wells Fargo executive.
"The sodexofication of American catering is an insidious blight on the country"
The bigger insidious blight is the corrupt child-rapist in the White House, LuftstaNazi.
Because US airport food standards were just so great before Sodexo came along? You’re talking about the country that believes if you can make it ultraprocessed and extend the life of the ingredient, you should, I think you’re very much misdiagnosing the problem…
Dave's joke is actually very funny and I wish we had more of it on this blog, the limit on age should be for decrepit old fossils like you that have ruined this country.
@Aaron, interesting how you conflate smelling Indian food with something negative enough, as to incur hate. Perhaps you should self-reflect
Given its somewhat shaky reputation I would only fly them for its non stop routes to DEL, BLR, BOM. But all non stopes I believe have been curtailed due to closure of airspace over Pakistan. In any case I have not flown to India from the US in over two decades and if I had to would rather take the one stopper SQ
Ok, so it's improved from last year, but still quite bad (some outside their control because of supply chain and Pakistan airspace, some inside their control).
The three main things are: the legacy 777s, refueling stops and OTP (improved from last year).
BLR and BOM were scrapped because people stopped flying them (above 3 reasons). It should all be sorted out in 2027, when they have A35Ks and Pakistan airspace, surely has to be open.
This doesn't necessarily mean the quality will be similar - the same contractor provides catering for TK and BA.
This is from 6th April. When Ben edits articles, they seem to reappear at the top of the page. It would be preferable if this didn't happen, or, failing that, if edits were marked.
In this case, I think the edit was to mention that AI passengers can no longer attend the Polaris lounge, but I may be mistaken.
Ben: The airline's Press Release announcing the opening says "The lounge is available to Air India’s First and Business Class guests, and Platinum and Gold members of the airline’s Maharaja Club loyalty program." No mention of *G. Oversight or conscious choice limiting access to all others, given the recent rule changes where certain SA passengers/airlines can’t actually use Polaris Lounges anymore?
Also, can anyone share more details on why more *A carriers are now using the A terminal vs. G where United is? It's almost easier to just cut across the check-in lobby and enter security again for a 2nd time instead of walking all the way around airside. It's like walking from one tip of the horseshoe to the other (for those that haven't been there). Has United taken up all the gate space?