Review: ANA Lounge Sapporo Airport (CTS)

To kick off the return portion of our winter trip to Tokyo & Niseko, I flew ANA’s Boeing 737-800 Premium Class on the short domestic flight from Sapporo (CTS) to Tokyo Narita (NRT), prior to connecting to ANA’s Airbus A380 first class to Honolulu (HNL).

Prior to my flight, I had the chance to check out the ANA Lounge at New Chitose Airport, in Sapporo. ANA has two types of lounges for domestic flights — the ANA Lounge and the ANA Suite Lounge, and I had access to the former, which is what I’ll be reviewing.

To be honest, I found the lounge to be pretty bare bones, but I suppose still better than waiting in the terminal. One thing that stands out to me is that JAL gives domestic first class passengers access to its most premium domestic lounges, while ANA only gives its Premium Class passengers (the equivalent of domestic first class on JAL) access to the less premium domestic lounges, so that’s kind of disappointing.

ANA Lounge Sapporo location

Upon arriving at New Chitose Airport in Sapporo, I found the ANA check-in area, which had several different zones.

At many domestic airports, ANA and JAL both have dedicated premium check-in areas, which feel pretty exclusive. Since I was flying in Premium Class, I could use the special check-in facility, located behind a set of double doors.

This special facility has check-in desks for premium passengers, but also gives access to a private security checkpoint, which is a lovely feature (not that security in Japan is ever that unpleasant of an experience).

Once through security, I could either turn left toward the lounges, or right toward the gates. Of course I turned left, which brought me up to the second floor, via an escalator.

If you happen to be coming from inside the airside portion of the terminal, for whatever reason, just look for gate seven, and you’ll see the below door, which will bring you to this very space.

ANA Lounge Sapporo hours

Currently, the ANA Lounge Sapporo is open daily from 6:30AM, until the last departure of the day. So if you’re flying on ANA, you should find that the lounge is open prior to your flight departure. Of course lounge hours may vary seasonally, based on flight schedules.

ANA Lounge Sapporo entry requirements

As mentioned above, there are two parts to ANA’s lounge facility at the airport:

• The ANA Lounge is open to Premium Class passengers and Star Alliance Gold members
• The ANA Suite Lounge is open to same day connecting international first class passengers and ANA Mileage Club Diamond members

The two lounges share an entrance, so when I arrived at the lounge, I tried to see if I could get access to the more exclusive ANA Suite Lounge, since I was connecting same day to ANA first class to Honolulu. However, it was one of those “computer says no” situations, as the boarding pass scanner rejected me, and the agents didn’t intervene. Presumably the issue is that my domestic flight was on a separate ticket from the international flight, even though I already had both boarding passes.

ANA Lounge Sapporo seating & layout

The ANA Lounge Sapporo consists of one huge room overlooking the apron. Below you can find the map of the lounge.

As you enter the lounge, you first walk down a long hallway, and then turn right, and then you’ll find yourself in the main part of the lounge.

You can see basically the entirety of the lounge in the two pictures below. There are a variety of seating options, ranging from chairs at communal tables, to individual chairs for lounging.

Below are several more pictures of the seating options, which give you a sense of all the seating options. The lounge doesn’t exactly have a very modern feel, but the use of wood feels Japanese. On the plus side, there’s plenty of charging throughout the lounge, and Wi-Fi was fast and free.

In terms of additional amenities, the lounge has a few private phone booths, for travelers to take phone calls (my fellow Miamians will be shocked to learn that simply picking up a call on speakerphone isn’t the correct lounge etiquette in Japan!).

The lounge also has a small business center area, with printing services.

Then there’s a smoking room, separated from the rest of the lounge by a couple of double doors.

Without a doubt, the best part of the lounge is the views, as you have amazing apron, taxiway, and runway views. Japanese aviation is endlessly fascinating, so what a treat this is!

ANA Lounge Sapporo food & drinks

The ANA Lounge Sapporo has a decent selection of drinks, though don’t expect much in the way of food. Everything is available at a self-serve counter.

Drink options included coffee, tea, soda, juice, a beer machine, and a basic selection of liquor.

There’s basically no food, with the extent of the options being tiny packaged chocolate and snack mix.

ANA Lounge Sapporo bathrooms

The ANA Lounge Sapporo has gender segregated bathrooms. The men’s room had a few sinks, stalls, and urinals, which did the trick, but weren’t the shiniest I’ve seen in an airport lounge.

The lounge doesn’t have showers, not that you’d expect for there to be showers in a domestic lounge in Japan.

Bottom line

The ANA Lounge Sapporo is a basic facility with comfortable seating, nice views, and an okay selection of drinks. It’s not a bad place to kill some time, but then again, the gate area at Japanese airports is pretty civilized as well.

What’s most disappointing — and what I think is worth calling out — is how both ANA and JAL have two tiers of domestic lounges. While JAL lets passengers traveling in the forward-most cabin access the better lounge, ANA doesn’t. That’s despite the fact that ANA even often has higher pricing than JAL.

So this was certainly disappointing compared to my recent visit to the JAL Diamond Premier Lounge Sapporo, which I had access to on a similar JAL ticket. It’s one of the many reasons I’m on #teamJAL rather than #teamANA (though they’re both great).

What’s your take on the ANA Lounge Sapporo?