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At what point can an airport lounge offer so few amenities that it's better just to wait in the terminal?
I was asking myself this last night while waiting for an Air Astana flight in the "Business Lounge" at ALA (Almaty, Kazakhstan). It's the only lounge at ALA and is basically just a glorified waiting room.
There are toilets and the seats are reasonably comfortable. Here endeth the amenities of this lounge. Well, except perhaps for the five clocks on the wall showing the time in different cities (Almaty, Istanbul, New York, etc.) - but none of these actually showed the correct time.
There is a bar serving food and drinks, but absolutely everything costs extra. There are laminated menus on all the tables with prices listed, and the prices are pretty expensive by local standards.
There's also a 10% service charge added to all orders, and a tip jar on the counter with a sign on it that looks like it says "tips payable" - but I'll give the benefit of the doubt and assume the second word is actually a Kazakh or Russian word that looks like "payable" in English.
Behind the bar, there is actually a small (but rather sad looking) buffet. However, you're only allowed to enter the buffet area if you're flying on Lufthansa, Qatar, Uzbekistan Airways, Flydubai, Asiana or Aeroflot. I was flying Air Astana in J (this is the main operator at the airport), and wasn't permitted to access the buffet.
For some reason, if you enter using Priority Pass, you do get a voucher for the airport café (located outside the lounge). I have Priority Pass so did this.
That's the only outside food or drink that you can bring into the lounge - there are signs on every table advising of this.
Those aren't the only signs around the lounge. There are "no sleeping" signs, as well as one that says "no wifi". That's right, a "business lounge" that doesn't provide wifi.
On the bar counter are two jars with small chocolates in them. These jars are covered by large signs saying "not for free".
To top off the experience, the man sitting at the table behind me was listening to loud music without headphones. The noise became so irritating in my sleep-deprived state that I left the lounge to get some peace and quiet in the main terminal.
It's a shame because Air Astana has its own lounge in Astana (its other hub) that was quite OK. And once on board, the Air Astana J service is great. But the lounge in Almaty needs a bit of work... hopefully the situation will improve when the new terminal opens.
Has anyone come across a worse airport lounge?
I was asking myself this last night while waiting for an Air Astana flight in the "Business Lounge" at ALA (Almaty, Kazakhstan). It's the only lounge at ALA and is basically just a glorified waiting room.
There are toilets and the seats are reasonably comfortable. Here endeth the amenities of this lounge. Well, except perhaps for the five clocks on the wall showing the time in different cities (Almaty, Istanbul, New York, etc.) - but none of these actually showed the correct time.
There is a bar serving food and drinks, but absolutely everything costs extra. There are laminated menus on all the tables with prices listed, and the prices are pretty expensive by local standards.
There's also a 10% service charge added to all orders, and a tip jar on the counter with a sign on it that looks like it says "tips payable" - but I'll give the benefit of the doubt and assume the second word is actually a Kazakh or Russian word that looks like "payable" in English.
Behind the bar, there is actually a small (but rather sad looking) buffet. However, you're only allowed to enter the buffet area if you're flying on Lufthansa, Qatar, Uzbekistan Airways, Flydubai, Asiana or Aeroflot. I was flying Air Astana in J (this is the main operator at the airport), and wasn't permitted to access the buffet.
For some reason, if you enter using Priority Pass, you do get a voucher for the airport café (located outside the lounge). I have Priority Pass so did this.
That's the only outside food or drink that you can bring into the lounge - there are signs on every table advising of this.
Those aren't the only signs around the lounge. There are "no sleeping" signs, as well as one that says "no wifi". That's right, a "business lounge" that doesn't provide wifi.
On the bar counter are two jars with small chocolates in them. These jars are covered by large signs saying "not for free".
To top off the experience, the man sitting at the table behind me was listening to loud music without headphones. The noise became so irritating in my sleep-deprived state that I left the lounge to get some peace and quiet in the main terminal.
It's a shame because Air Astana has its own lounge in Astana (its other hub) that was quite OK. And once on board, the Air Astana J service is great. But the lounge in Almaty needs a bit of work... hopefully the situation will improve when the new terminal opens.
Has anyone come across a worse airport lounge?
