Review: Hugo Junkers Lounge Dusseldorf Airport (DUS)

@Ben, that is also Condors business class lounge. How comes you didn’t have access?

@ben - suggestion: when there is a liquor selection, can you take the picture in a way that it’s easy for readers to see the labels? I totally get it that some people prefer wine or champagne, but others of us prefer liquor. Helps to judge quality.

Very possible this lounge doesn’t have liquor btw but would also be helpful to know that.

Jk. I didn’t read. My bad.

I was just there three days ago and it was awesome.

Visited a few months ago and had the same crowding experience: pretty full on the bottom floor (still a few seats available here and there), meanwhile we had the entire top floor to ourselves.

The key point in your review is that 5:00-ish a.m. entry time. I too visited the lounge about 10 days ago (on what would arguably be the busiest day for this airport this year, maybe even ever?) but with a 12:30 departure and about 11:00-ish a.m. entry time, trust me when I tell you no 2nd floor or 800 sq.ft. could do anything for us to find seats there! Thankfully we didn't have to wait too long, as it was only logical, that when there are so many people there, they would also, naturally, be coming and going at a high rate. However I think the major issue was, that there were solo travelers occupying 4-seater tables (probably because when they arrived, that was the only option available). Then there was a small round table which was unoccupied, but only had a single chair. I asked a staff member if we could move some chairs around to accommodate ourselves and I believe she was going for it, but at the same time a gentleman stood up to leave and freed basically 2 lounge chairs, so I quickly grabbed those instead, which was likely a mistake as I realized a bit later, since the table those lounge chairs sported had such a small surface, that it could barely fit two of the (also very small) plates.

Anyway, I've visited this lounge twice before, let's say "off-season" at around the same time of day and it wasn't crowded at all. That was a much better experience, but the whole point in having lounge access is precisely to relax away from "the crowds" (having said that, I probably wouldn't have preferred it if they'd stopped us at the entrance because it was over-crowded, I think the major issue is, that it's the only accessible lounge at T2! So literally everyone goes there! Someone should open up a second lounge at T2). Also, while it does get decent daylight, there basically nothing to look at through those floor-to-ceiling "windows" (which of course don't open). You get a glimpse at the far end of the taxiway and runway, which see pretty much zero aircraft since most of the time they'd land and begin takeoff roll at the other end and they don't reach that far on the runway for you to see. Don't know if you know this, but DUS has a plane spotting terrace on the roof (it used to be free of charge, then got an entry fee then got closed during the pandemic, no idea if it's open now, it's accessed from the main hall, so before security and I'm sure your next review will agree, that you don't want to arrive late at security these days!), but even that has its view obstructed, so you can't really capture touchdowns. Anyway, a bit off-topic.

One major drawback of the lounge not addressed here is the lack of a disabled / baby's bathroom (something which the Lufthansa lounge at T1 does have and is very roomy). It was an almost impossible task trying to change a diaper in the lady's room (said my wife) and I'll leave it at that.

Food options were still only breakfast stuff even at 12 a.m., and, as stated here, it was nothing to get excited about. In fact I just grabbed a small bread roll and some scrambled eggs with 1-2 pieces of tomato and cucumber and that was all (I don't really like sausages, at least not for breakfast, and in terms of food, not counting some pastry stuff, there wasn't anything else there). Very poor.

On the plus side, even though it's "only" a contract lounge it did give me "+1" benefit of my star alliance gold tier.

I have to say that I have been to that lounge at least a dozen times, and I didn't even know it had a 2nd floor..:/
Thanks to Ben now I know!

Used this lounge quite a few times to mix it up from going to the LH Senators Lounge when flying back and forth between DUS-MUC for work. I seem to remember that sometimes the 2nd floor was roped off and there was no access when I was there a few times (Pre-COVID 2017-19.)

I used this lounge a lot when Air Berlin was still alive, since it was one of their hubs (the other one was TXL). It looks like they have added a second floor. But other than that, the offering seems pretty much the same.

Condor Business intra Europe DOES include Hugo Junkers lounge access (used it last month). But since you had PP, Condor was certainly delighted they didn't have to pay this time 🙂

https://www.condor.com/eu/fly-enjoy/travel-classes/business/short-and-mediumhaul.jsp