Review: Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge Kansai Osaka Airport (KIX)

After an amazing time in Japan, it was time to start our pretty direct journey home, as we flew Japan Airlines’ 787 business class from Kansai-Osaka to Los Angeles, and American’s 787 business class from Los Angeles to Miami.

Our first stop for the return journey was the Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge at Kansai-Osaka Airport (KIX). Honestly, this isn’t a very good lounge. It was crowded and it felt like it could use a refresh. Nonetheless, the staff were friendly (as you’d expect in Japan), and the food and drink selection was reasonably decent. Let’s get into the review…

Japan Airlines Lounge Kansai-Osaka location

We had checked in online for our flight, so upon arriving at the airport we headed straight through security and then immigration. Even though the airport was busy, we managed to get through all those formalities in no time.

Once in the airside area of the terminal, Japan Airlines’ international lounge is located in the South Wing of the airport, which requires taking a train. So we turned right, and followed the signage in the direction of gates 27-37.

The trains between different parts of the terminal run frequently, so within a few minutes we were in the South Wing.

Once in the South Wing, we headed in the direction of gate 37, which is where the entrance to the Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge is.

Japan Airlines Lounge Kansai-Osaka hours

The Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge in the international terminal of Kansai-Osaka Airport is currently open daily from 7:30AM until 12:30AM. The hours may vary over time based on flight schedules. Since this is also used as a contract lounge, you can assume that the hours aren’t just adjusted based on Japan Airlines’ schedule, but also based on the schedule of other airlines.

Japan Airlines Lounge Kansai-Osaka entry requirements

The Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge follows standard oneworld lounge access rules, meaning it’s open to all oneworld Emerald and Sapphire members, as well as all oneworld first and business class passengers. For those curious, Japan Airlines’ international destinations out of Kansai-Osaka include Los Angeles, Honolulu, Bangkok, Shanghai, and Taipei.

However, beyond Japan Airlines, the Sakura Lounge is used as the contract lounge for all airlines departing from the satellite portion of this terminal. That includes everything from China Eastern, to China Southern, to Juneyao Air, to Philippine Airlines, to Starlux Airlines, to Xiamen Air.

By the way, I couldn’t help but laugh at the lounge signage, with the logos of other airlines. Not only has American not flown to Osaka for a (very) long time, but it has also been quite some time since that was American’s logo.

Japan Airlines Lounge Kansai-Osaka seating & layout

The Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge would be a good size if it were just used by Japan Airlines and oneworld partners, but it’s a lot less generously sized when you consider how many premium passengers have access to the space.

The lounge consists of four main areas. When you enter the lounge, there’s the biggest room of all, which features mostly communal seating, and is quite nice design-wise.

I did appreciate how the lounge had great apron views, including of the two gates right by the lounge.

Then when you’re facing the windows and looking right, there’s a small room to the side, with a bunch of chairs arranged in rows, facing one another.

Then when you face the windows and look left, there’s a huge smoking room. This seems like way too big of a space for the smoking room, given that the rest of the lounge was largely at capacity, while the smoking room always had one or two people in it at most.

Then the second biggest area of the lounge was to the very left and back a little when facing the windows, and it was a room with tightly packed chairs that didn’t have any natural light.

The lounge also had a small business center, with a few cubicles, a couple of phone booths, and a printer.

There were also a couple of massage chairs, which I kind of love in theory, but without cleaning, I’ll pass.

Lastly, there were some luggage storage lockers.

The lounge was just consistently very busy throughout our visit. The other thing I should mention is that while the design maybe doesn’t look so bad in pictures, it felt really tired in person, and everything just needed a little TLC. For example, I sat in one of the rolling chairs at the workstations, and the seat felt so worn, and it would loudly squeak if I moved at all.

After some time, we ended up just choosing to sit in the terminal, because to me it’s much more pleasant to be in an empty gate area than a full lounge.

Japan Airlines Lounge Kansai-Osaka food & drinks

The Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge has a reasonably good selection of food and drinks, all from a self-serve buffet. The buffet consists of one counter, plus an island. One part of the buffet has drinks, which includes a coffee machine, a selection of tea, a soda fountain, a beer machine, several types of liquor, and one type of white wine, red wine, sparkling wine, and sake.

There’s also a fridge with several kinds of juice, milk, and water. I didn’t love how the only way to get water was out of a pitcher in the fridge. I wanted to hydrate, but I felt like every time I poured myself a glass of water, my hands were sticky after, since a lot of people touch these surfaces.

The food selection was average — it was better than what you’d find in most US lounges, but not as good as most international airline-run lounges. It consisted of several types of bread, finger sandwiches, soup, salad, a few types of vegetables, fried potatoes, pork sausage, fried noodles, and rice with some accompaniments.

Japan Airlines Lounge Kansai-Osaka bathrooms

The Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge has bathrooms just inside the entrance. They’re very basic. The men’s room had two stalls, two urinals, and one sink.

Unfortunately the lounge doesn’t have any showers.

Bottom line

The Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge Kansai-Osaka International Airport is very basic. I’d say the lounge would be pretty decent, except for the fact that it’s used as a contract lounge by virtually all airlines departing from this part of the terminal, and therefore the lounge gets crowded. The food and drink selection is fine, while the lounge lacks amenities, and could definitely use a refresh.

Personally I wouldn’t spend more time here than I had to, and we preferred spending most of our time just sitting in the terminal.

What do you make of the Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge KIX?