We know that Air India is currently trying to reinvent itself, including improving every aspect of the passenger experience (admittedly the crash of AI171 is a major setback with all of this, and shifts the focus at the carrier a bit).
Anyway, here’s something that’s news to me, as flagged by Live from a Lounge — Air India is expected to open its own lounge at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), and it looks like it could be really nice!
In this post:
What we know about the Air India Lounge SFO
While nothing has been formally announced, Air India appears to be building a lounge at SFO. Specifically, the lounge will be located in the lounge complex at the A Gates, on the fourth floor, between the China Airlines Lounge and Golden Gate Lounge.
The general contractor for the lounge, Build Group, has the below page posted online, which shows a rendering of the lounge space. This suggests that the lounge will be roughly 3,413 square feet. While an opening date hasn’t been announced, it appears that construction is pretty far along, so I’d expect the lounge to open in late 2025 or early 2026.
I’ve gotta say, the lounge looks super elegant, so this should be a nice facility. However, at just over 3,400 square feet, this will be one of the smaller outstation lounges out there, and I imagine it’ll get quite busy prior to Air India departures. At least Air India has a staggered schedule at the airport, so there’s never more than one Air India flight departing at a time.
Now, I’ve gotta say, the lounge’s design almost looks like something you’d expect if a la carte dining were offered. However, you can also see the buffet in the background, which suggests to me that this isn’t the case. Who knows, though. The challenge with this kind of a setup is that it doesn’t really maximize capacity, which might be needed with such a small space.
Air India has massively grown its presence at SFO since starting service to the airport roughly a decade ago. The airline now operates 14 weekly flights to the airport, with flights to Bangalore (BLR), Delhi (DEL), Kolkata (CCU), and Mumbai (BOM).
This will be Air India’s second lounge location in the United States, with the other lounge being in New York (JFK). That lounge is undergoing a major and overdue renovation, so maybe it’ll have a similar design template to the SFO lounge.
Why is Air India opening its own lounge at SFO?
Some people might point out that there’s a United Polaris Lounge at SFO, and wonder why Air India is bothering to build its own lounge at the airport. It’s important to note that the United Polaris Lounge is in the G Gates, while Air India departs from the A Gates.
While these terminals are technically connected airside, it’s a really long walk between them, so for a majority of passengers, it’s not practical to use the United Polaris Lounge when flying Air India. Instead, Air India sends its premium passengers to the Air France Lounge. 
Given the number of flights Air India operates from SFO per week, having the airline operate its own lounge makes sense. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see the lounge monetized outside of those hours, and open to Priority Pass, as is the case at the carrier’s JFK lounge.
Bottom line
Air India plans to open a lounge at SFO in the near future. The roughly 3,400 square foot lounge will be located in the A Gates. We even have a rendering of the lounge, which gives us a sense of the new lounge design concept that the Star Alliance airline is going for. I’m looking forward to learning more details, particularly about the soft product.
What do you make of the planned Air India Lounge SFO?
The "new" design language can be seen at the Air India Domestic Lounge at BLR airport Terminal 2,
Also AI eventually will have atleast 4 flights a day into SFO (2x, from DEL, and 1x each from BOM and BLR)...all on 35Ks...
So good chance the night bank to BLR BOM DEL will all leave at once
I fully expect that the lounge will be slammed with *A passengers from AV, CM, BR, TP and TK (I think that’s all the *A carriers in A. Of course the carriers are moving around at a frenetic pass the last 12 months
Air India does not use the Air France Lounge at SFO, but rather the (vastly inferior) Golden Gate Lounge, which is also operated by Air France (and open to Priority Pass members when it's not busy.)
Just a heads up that at least as of this summer, both SAS and Air India customers are being sent to the Golden Gate lounge NOT the Air France lounge
why doesn't AI just depart from the G gates then? I thought all Star Alliance carriers departed from G gates while OW/ST departed from A?
EVA also departs out of the A gates. Not sure they rhyme or reason there.
I could have be off, but I think that it’s just United, Singapore, Lufthansa, SWISS, and ANA using the G gates at this point. Everything else Star Alliance seems to be using the A gates.
Air New Zealand uses the G gates still too.
Sounds like it'll be open before I fly TK business in April, will definitely have to check it out as my original plan was to hike to the Polaris Lounge in Terminal A.
Though that'll depend on if I depart out of A or G, because a Google search is confusing on which one it is.
Is no one gonna ask if they will have roaches in the lounge or just on their flights from SFO?
Roaches must be pre-ordered at least 24 hours in advance !
Rodents are always available for your enjoyment.....
Definitely looks nice than the JFK lounge…we’ll see how the renovations in that lounge end up looking.
My apt after a party of muddy German shepherds looks nicer than the one at jfk.
Hoping it follows Star Alliance Gold access rules, I wouldn't mind making the trek over during a longer layover
The lounge is probably useful it their attempt to retain high yield Indian passengers heading between SFO-BLR. I guess there must be a worry around United (or maybe Singapore) taking business on this route?
Air India's lounge (newish) at Bengaluru is one of the nicest lounges of its size that I have been into anywhere in the world. Great food. Gorgeous design.
I just visited the Air India lounge at JFK and it was fine. Food was tasty, you could pour your own wine and liquor and it has views of the apron. Decor wasn’t cutting edge but who cares?
@ rrapynot -- I respect your opinion, but I'll raise my hand as someone who does care about lounge decor. :p
If I'm hungry coming off an international flight and waiting 4-hours for a domestic connection at JFK, I'm heading to AI lounge first for food & liquor vs. going to Virgin clubhouse for a cookie, hummus dip and a coke. Food isn't restaurant quality but IF you need to eat, better food > decor any day.
@ Trey -- Oh, I agree with that, but ideally it's nice to have both!
Don’t AI J class passengers end up in United Polaris. ? or has that changed ?
@ BBT -- As mentioned in the post, they can visit the United Polaris Lounge, but it's at the G Gates, while Air India departs from the A Gates. That's why Air India guests aren't sent to the Polaris Lounge as a standard.
The airside connection was only completed recently, so many travelers may not be aware. However with the construction in terminal 3 and the temporary walkways it is indeed quite a treck. It may be quicker just to walk though the international terminal and clear security again at terminal A.
Definitely quicker to walk through the international terminal check-in area (A to G and vice versa) and re-clear security - about a five-minute walk
Wait, since when did AI start flying SFO-CCU? That would be the first flight outside of Asia out of CCU ever since LH and BA pulled out in the aughts.
@ Rob -- It's a one-way flight, as the rotation for the BOM flight is BOM-SFO-CCU-BOM.
June of this year. They didn't make a big deal out of it, because it's not meant to capture traffic, but is being used as a remedy to avoid Pakistani airspace.
The SFO-BOM segment usually went nonstop, and primarily eastbound in both directions. But with tensions with Pakistan escalating, the airline now flies to BOM westbound.... which requires them to either decrease seat capacity by moving to...
June of this year. They didn't make a big deal out of it, because it's not meant to capture traffic, but is being used as a remedy to avoid Pakistani airspace.
The SFO-BOM segment usually went nonstop, and primarily eastbound in both directions. But with tensions with Pakistan escalating, the airline now flies to BOM westbound.... which requires them to either decrease seat capacity by moving to the longer-ranged 777-200LR; or maintain seat capacity with the 777-300ER, but add an interim stop due to range limitation.
They've chosen the latter, via CCU.
Hopefully there will be no cockroaches in the lounge, unlike what they just had on their SFO to BOM flight!
Any place that serves large amounts of food, is going to have roaches and/or rats, whether it's Waffle House or a penthouse fine dining restaurant.
The only question is how well do they keep them under control and out of sight.
Just as long as roaches n' rats have equal opportunity to achieve 'elite' status, then no problem !