Review: Tallinn Airport Lounge

Ben Schlappig
September 26, 2018
15

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After a few amazing days in Tallinn, it was time to fly to Riga. We booked a paid ticket on airBaltic from Tallinn to Riga that was departing at 10:45AM. We arrived at the airport at around 9AM. I forgot to print the online boarding passes the night before, so we had to go to the check-in counter to retrieve paper boarding passes. Fortunately the lines at check-in were virtually non-existent.

Tallinn Airport check-in hall

Our flight was departing from gate eight, and we headed to the security checkpoint, which was just a short walk away. There was no wait there, though the security officers were really strict with liquids. I hadn’t packed our liquids into plastic bags since very few airports actually require that nowadays, so it ended up taking us a while to get through.

Tallinn Airport direction to gates

After passing through security we followed the signage towards the airport business class lounge, which was through security and to the left. There was both an elevator and staircase leading up to the lounge, as it’s one level above the main concourse.

Tallinn Airport stairs to lounge

We weren’t flying business class, so didn’t have access to the lounge on account of our tickets, but rather based on my Priority Pass membership, as this is a Priority Pass lounge (in addition to being the contract lounge used by all airlines at the airport, as far as I know).

As a reminder, the following are some of the most popular US credit cards with lounge access (I’ve also listed the respective guesting privileges):

2 guests, plus authorized users $0 per authorized user

Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card

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2 guests, plus authorized users $75 per authorized user

Chase Sapphire Reserve®

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2 guests, plus authorized users $195 per authorized user (Rates & Fees) (Enrollment required)

The Platinum Card® from American Express

Learn More

2 guests, plus authorized users $300 per authorized user (Rates & Fees) (Enrollment required)

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express

Learn More

2 guests No authorized user access

Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card

Learn More

The Tallinn Airport lounge was a good size, and was empty during our time here, so it’s tough to beat a private lounge like this. The lounge consisted primarily of two rectangular rooms.

Near the entrance to the lounge was a room mostly with just chairs arranged around tables. There were also some dining tables, as well as a communal table with high-top seating.

Tallinn Airport lounge seating

Then the far room had a bunch of dining tables and some more chairs along the walls.

Tallinn Airport lounge seating

In addition to some more traditional seating, this area also had a small business center with a printer, a sleeping pod, and a massage chair.

Tallinn Airport lounge sleeping pod

Tallinn Airport lounge massage chair

In the back of this room is the buffet.

Tallinn Airport lounge buffet

There’s a beer tap, as well as a selection of self serve alcoholic drinks.

Tallinn Airport lounge drink selection

There’s also a coffee machine and a water filter.

Tallinn Airport lounge drinks

The lounge had a selection of cold snacks, including some salads, veggies, cereal, fruit, finger sandwiches, and more.

Tallinn Airport lounge food

I only had a couple of glasses of water to drink, though had breakfast in the hotel and was planning on having lunch later on in Riga.

In addition to the two indoor rooms, the lounge also had an outdoor terrace, which is a lovely feature, especially on a nice summer day like what we had.

Tallinn Airport lounge terrace

The lounge had views of the apron, though they were somewhat obstructed, and it was also of the quieter side of the apron, with no runway views.

Tallinn Airport lounge view

We spent about 45 minutes in the lounge, and at around 10AM headed to our departure gate, in anticipation of a 10:15AM boarding time.

Tallinn Airport is cute and quirky, and has all kinds of seemingly random amenities at gates.

Tallinn Airport terminal

For example, one gate just had a bunch of gym equipment, presumably sponsored by MyFitness.

Tallinn Airport terminal gym

Then there was also the below beautiful seating area.

Tallinn Airport seating

Boarding for our flight to Riga was called at 10:15AM, right on time.

Tallinn Airport Lounge bottom line

Tallinn Airport is a lovely little airport that’s quiet, with a spacious executive lounge and a cool terminal that has some surprising amenities. The good news is that you don’t have to arrive very early at the airport, though if you do, at least it’s a cute airport.

The following links will direct you to the rates and fees for mentioned American Express Cards. These include: The Business Platinum® Card from American Express (Rates & Fees), and The Platinum Card® from American Express (Rates & Fees).

Conversations (15)

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Anna Guest
June 21, 2023, 10:53 am

Very rude personnel and humiliating rules.
I have picked up my 3 lost bags today (06/21) and when I checked my parking card at the parking machine on my way back to the car, it returned it without requesting a payment (I was ready to pay, but ok). It took about 15 minutes for me to bring my bags to the car and upload them in the vechicle (they were quite heavy). However, when...
Very rude personnel and humiliating rules.
I have picked up my 3 lost bags today (06/21) and when I checked my parking card at the parking machine on my way back to the car, it returned it without requesting a payment (I was ready to pay, but ok). It took about 15 minutes for me to bring my bags to the car and upload them in the vechicle (they were quite heavy). However, when I tried to drive out of the garage, the gate didn’t open for me after I inserted the card. I got totally stuck there with other cars waiting in line and beeping. I tried to call the number stated on the parking machine and very rude employee told me that according to their rules if getting out of the garage takes more than 10 min, it won’t let me go and I have to return and pay. I explained them politely that my bags were very heavy and I am not so young and that is why it took more than 10 minutes to upload them, and asked them to open the gate as other cars are waiting and it is very hard to turn around and come back to parking machine. The only thing I got in response in very rude and unacceptable manner was “it is our rules, we do not care, it is your problems, you have to return to the parking machine and check out the card again”, after that they just hanged up the phone in the middle of me speaking. I was totally shocked because I thought that Estonia nowadays is quite European country with decent service and I never met such rude attitude in neither European country. It is a shame for Estonia airport to have such rude personnel. Airport is a face of a country. How comes they have such humiliating rules that people have not enough time to even upload bags in the car. It is totally ok to pay for parking, it just didn’t ask me when I checked out, but it is not ok to force people to come back to the parking machine and check out again in case they were not fast and strong enough to get out and upload bags withing 10 min. For eldery people and people with kids it is defenitely not enough. It looks like discrimination. Also being so rude and not flexible when people ask them to fix the problem they created for people by opening the gate in case they got into such situation due to their absurd rules. It is shame that they hire such incompetent and rude personnel.

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Paolo Diamond
October 5, 2018, 7:45 am

Re the suggestion that most , if not all, airports no longer require liquids in plastic bags....absolute nonsense. EVERY airport in Western Europe, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zeand, Asia, Italy, Greece, The ME ( including the Gulf) REQUIRES liquids in bags.
Maybe some airports in North American backwaters no longer require it, but it's simply untrue of the rest of the world

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GaryTheDJ Guest
September 28, 2018, 2:23 am

I had recent flights via GLA, LHR, DUB & CLT in the last couple of weeks, and every security officer was insistent on liquids in bags.

My flights are mostly just intra-UK and there’s no way you’d get away with liquids not in a plastic bag - especially at MAN T3 where they are absolutely paranoid about it (and electronics too - even Kindles were forced to be removed from bags for X-ray)

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joshua Guest
September 27, 2018, 2:26 am

I will say that I haven't bothered to have my liquids in a separate Ziploc bag for about 3 years now. Have never had an issue. Both regular TSA and Precheck. Includes one trip to Tahiti. I can see how I'd easily forget this requirement. I wouldn't go as far as to say I'd be angry if an agent pulled my bag to search it, but it doesn't seem to be the norm anymore.

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Veritas Guest
September 26, 2018, 11:09 pm

Travel blogger who lauds his XXX,XXX "butt in seat" miles flown per year but doesn't start abreast of security policies in place for a number of years.

C'mon. Be an adult and admit it was your own fault you were "delayed."

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Morgan Guest
September 26, 2018, 10:14 pm

https://www.ausbt.com.au/suite-sounds-for-singapore-airlines-a380-first-class-with-bang-olufsen?utm_source=grid

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Robert Schrader Guest
September 26, 2018, 7:56 pm

I ended up spending about five hours in the Tallinn Airport lounge earlier this month due to a hideously delayed Turkish Airlines flight. Definitely not bad! I liked how much healthy, fresh food there was.

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Daniel Guest
September 26, 2018, 6:49 pm

I liked flying out of this airport as well (and did not encounter an issue with liquids earlier this summer). However, the unfortunate thing to note is that the lounge access is prior to accessing the gates for flights outside of Schengen. On my trip, my flight out to Dublin was delayed (on Ryanair), but I could not go back to the lounge because it was already passed the passport control for exiting the country.

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Howard Guest
September 26, 2018, 4:41 pm

@Aaron They're definitely not the same person. Endre is an egotistical prick, and Debit just takes any opportunity to rag on Republicans.

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Bob Guest
September 26, 2018, 4:14 pm

" I hadn’t packed our liquids into plastic bags since very few airports actually require that nowadays, so it ended up taking us a while to get through."

Huh? That's just not true.

The websites of LHR, HKG, AMS, CDG, NRT and the TSA (for all US commercial airports) all say carry-on liquids must be be put in a plastic bag. Heck, at LHR a couple of days ago the screener took my plastic bag...
" I hadn’t packed our liquids into plastic bags since very few airports actually require that nowadays, so it ended up taking us a while to get through."

Huh? That's just not true.

The websites of LHR, HKG, AMS, CDG, NRT and the TSA (for all US commercial airports) all say carry-on liquids must be be put in a plastic bag. Heck, at LHR a couple of days ago the screener took my plastic bag of liquids, and put it in a second bag. I am sure if I looked up more airports, I'd find more plastic bags.

I mean maybe if your TSA PreCheck and all you fly is domestic airports, then you might get away with no plastic bag, but that's not policy.

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Aaron Diamond
September 26, 2018, 3:44 pm

You best post yet, Debit/Endre.

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Endre Guest
September 26, 2018, 3:09 pm

Tried it a few times waiting for a flight to Helsinki. Although I almost always travel in paid first class, it was economy this time because the plane taking to Helsinki was a propeller. Cheers to the many haters/losers posting with my name. While I flew in Paid first twice last week, these losers were busing posting little value pretending to me. Ahahahahaah...

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Tennen Gold
September 26, 2018, 3:07 pm

"There was no wait there, though the security officers were really strict with liquids. I hadn’t packed our liquids into plastic bags since very few airports actually require that nowadays, so it ended up taking us a while to get through."

I don't know if I'd call them "really strict" about following the liquids rule that's been in place for quite a while... If there have been actual changes to the policy, wouldn't you have...
"There was no wait there, though the security officers were really strict with liquids. I hadn’t packed our liquids into plastic bags since very few airports actually require that nowadays, so it ended up taking us a while to get through."

I don't know if I'd call them "really strict" about following the liquids rule that's been in place for quite a while... If there have been actual changes to the policy, wouldn't you have posted about it at some point? Also, I can't remember if it was OMAAT or a different blog, but someone posted recently about their full size bottles of something (cologne?) being confiscated. It seems like you all should know better, being travel experts and all. :-p

In any case, it seems as though the lounge is perfectly fine. I do question the gym in the airport, though. Unless there are showers and changing rooms nearby, I'm not sure how practical it is... :-o

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NWE Guest
September 26, 2018, 3:02 pm

SAS not paying anymore for lounge access in Tallinn and BA never did. So, you cannot enter with airline FF status card when flying with those two airlines.

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Terence Gold
September 26, 2018, 2:38 pm

The massage chair is actually quite comfortable. You'll need to ask for a token at the reception desk tho

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Most helpful comments ( as chosen by the OMAAT community ).

Anna Guest

June 21, 2023, 10:53 am

Very rude personnel and humiliating rules. I have picked up my 3 lost bags today (06/21) and when I checked my parking card at the parking machine on my way back to the car, it returned it without requesting a payment (I was ready to pay, but ok). It took about 15 minutes for me to bring my bags to the car and upload them in the vechicle (they were quite heavy). However, when I tried to drive out of the garage, the gate didn’t open for me after I inserted the card. I got totally stuck there with other cars waiting in line and beeping. I tried to call the number stated on the parking machine and very rude employee told me that according to their rules if getting out of the garage takes more than 10 min, it won’t let me go and I have to return and pay. I explained them politely that my bags were very heavy and I am not so young and that is why it took more than 10 minutes to upload them, and asked them to open the gate as other cars are waiting and it is very hard to turn around and come back to parking machine. The only thing I got in response in very rude and unacceptable manner was “it is our rules, we do not care, it is your problems, you have to return to the parking machine and check out the card again”, after that they just hanged up the phone in the middle of me speaking. I was totally shocked because I thought that Estonia nowadays is quite European country with decent service and I never met such rude attitude in neither European country. It is a shame for Estonia airport to have such rude personnel. Airport is a face of a country. How comes they have such humiliating rules that people have not enough time to even upload bags in the car. It is totally ok to pay for parking, it just didn’t ask me when I checked out, but it is not ok to force people to come back to the parking machine and check out again in case they were not fast and strong enough to get out and upload bags withing 10 min. For eldery people and people with kids it is defenitely not enough. It looks like discrimination. Also being so rude and not flexible when people ask them to fix the problem they created for people by opening the gate in case they got into such situation due to their absurd rules. It is shame that they hire such incompetent and rude personnel.

Paolo Diamond

October 5, 2018, 7:45 am

Re the suggestion that most , if not all, airports no longer require liquids in plastic bags....absolute nonsense. EVERY airport in Western Europe, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zeand, Asia, Italy, Greece, The ME ( including the Gulf) REQUIRES liquids in bags. Maybe some airports in North American backwaters no longer require it, but it's simply untrue of the rest of the world

GaryTheDJ Guest

September 28, 2018, 2:23 am

I had recent flights via GLA, LHR, DUB & CLT in the last couple of weeks, and every security officer was insistent on liquids in bags. My flights are mostly just intra-UK and there’s no way you’d get away with liquids not in a plastic bag - especially at MAN T3 where they are absolutely paranoid about it (and electronics too - even Kindles were forced to be removed from bags for X-ray)