Booking the Trip: A Southeast Asian Path to India
Review: American Airlines Admiral’s Club LAX
Review: American Airlines Flagship Lounge LAX
Review: American Airlines 787-9 Main Cabin Extra Los Angeles to Tokyo Narita
Review: Japan Airlines Sakura Business Class Lounge Tokyo Narita
Review: Japan Airlines 777-200ER Economy Class Tokyo Narita to Singapore
Review: Singapore Airlines SilverKris Business Class Lounge Terminal 3 Singapore
Review: Thai Airways Royal Silk Lounge Singapore
Review: Singapore Airlines SilverKris Business Class Lounge Terminal 2 Singapore
Review: Thai Airways A350-900 Royal Silk Business Class Singapore to Bangkok
Review: Thai Airways Royal Silk Lounge Concourse E Bangkok
Review: Eva Air Infinity Lounge Bangkok
Review: Thai Airways 747-400 Royal Silk Business Class Bangkok to Mumbai
Review: GVK Domestic Lounge Mumbai
Review: Jet Airways 737-800 Economy Class Mumbai to Pune
Review: GVK International Business Class Lounge East Wing Mumbai
Review: Thai Airways 747-400 Royal Silk Business Class Mumbai to Bangkok
Review: Thai Airways Royal Silk Lounge Concourse D Bangkok
Review: Thai Airways Royal Silk Lounge Concourse C gate C1 Bangkok
Review: Thai Airways Royal Silk Lounge Concourse C gate C2 Bangkok
Review: Singapore SilverKris Business Class Lounge Bangkok
Review: Thai Airways A350-900 Royal Silk Business Class Bangkok to Singapore
Review: Qantas Business Class Lounge Singapore
Review: Qantas A330-200 Economy Class Singapore to Sydney
Review: Qantas International Business Class Lounge Sydney
Review: American Airlines 787-9 Main Cabin Extra Sydney to Los Angeles
YOUTUBE: American Airlines: Los Angeles to Tokyo
YOUTUBE: Japan Airlines: Tokyo to Singapore
YOUTUBE: Thai Airways: Singapore to Bangkok
YOUTUBE: Thai Airways: Bangkok to Mumbai
YOUTUBE: Thai Airways: Mumbai to Bangkok
YOUTUBE: Thai Airways: Bangkok to Singapore
YOUTUBE: Qantas Airways: Singapore to Sydney
YOUTUBE: American Airlines: Sydney to Los Angeles
After coming off an 11 hour flight from Los Angeles, I headed straight to the Sakura lounge.
Keep in mind in Narita’s terminal 2, which is where the OneWorld flights operate from, there are two JAL Sakura Lounges. So my flight arrived at the satellite terminal and after connecting through security I was let out into the satellite terminal as well. I went to the Sakura Lounge there and the agent kindly told me that I am more than welcome to use this lounge but she highly recommends that I use the lounge in the main terminal as it’s a lot bigger and it’s much closer to my gate. Now that is some awesome attention to detail and service. Most lounge agents just scan my boarding pass and I’m in without anything else said. Anyways to my point: check out the map below. I’ve circled the locations of both Sakura lounges in thick black. The top one is the satellite one while the circle closer to the bottom of the screen is the main lounge and that’s the one I will be reviewing and visiting so here we go!
Firstly, you’ll see this signage and you will know you’ve arrived at the lounge. Even though it doesn’t explicitly say “Business Class” or “Business” anywhere, the Sakura Lounge is the lounge for business class passengers and OneWorld Sapphire member s(me!).
Once you walk in through the doors, you will have your boarding pass checked as well as frequent flyer status if you are flying in economy class and then go down a set of escalators to the business class part of the lounge.
This lounge indeed was quite big. So we will look at the lounge section by section. When you first arrive into the lounge from the escalators,you can either walk straight into a relatively smaller room, or you can turn left into a much larger room. First, we will check our the straightforward smaller corridor.
So looking straight the first thing on the right is a private telephone room for making calls.
Then there is a long row of lots of seats which each have a table for use, a side counter, and a power plug along the center island. The black squares below along the island are the power ports and they are made for use with plugs from different countries.
As you walk further down, there are sofas set up for a kind of more family style seating or if you are traveling with (a) companion(s). However do keep in mind these sofas do not have any power ports.
Now past these sofas is a small drink and snack area.
Here are some candies and small snacks along with small cookies down below.
Sorry about the reflection but behind the snack area was a fridge with milk, water, and glasses.
Then there was a good variety of Japanese Alcoholic beverages
And some more wines…
And finally what appears to be a cappuccino machine.
After the food section there was a little bit more seats however I did not seem to find power ports on these seats.
And at the end of the hall there was some seating along the wall.
There was also a smoking lounge of sorts in the lounge itself.
Ok so now that we’ve covered the primary part of this lounge, backtrack to the entrance of the lounge as you come down the escalators.
Now instead of going straight, this is what you see when you make a left turn. First thing is a service desk to the right that you can inquire about anything you’d like.
Beyond that is a huge room.
Immediately to the left in the big room you’ll see a set of stairs leading to the upper floor. We’ll explore this last.
There are all sorts of seating options in the large room.
Then there were some more sofas and individual/dual seating options
Then there were some tall seating areas. I was very happy with the amount of natural lighting the lounge had all over the place with the large windows. It definitely makes it a lot more pleasant for me at least.
Speaking of large windows, there were some great air side views as well from this lounge.
Then as you walk further into the lounge there’s another snack set up and I won’t go into the details because the set up has the exact same spread as what was in the first room.
Towards the back end there were some more seats similar to those at the end of the first room I was in. There was also a departure board along with some magazines.
I know by now some are you are wondering how come this lounge has no real food? Hold on….it’s coming.
And there was this nice vase with flowers in the middle of the big room.
Now let’s go upstairs.
As soon as you go up the stairs, there were tables of seating and this part of the lounge was also very crowded. This is where the real food is and you are not allowed to take it downstairs.
The seats all have power ports and are high-top seating. This upper floor also had a lot of natural lighting.
I got some rice with beef curry and it was very flavorful….I absolutely loved it!
Now to the food area. First there was an area with chilled greens and veggies with local items.
Then there was an udon noodle station that you could customize with condiments provided.
Then there was another cappuccino machine along with hot water.
Then there was a section with breads and butter.
Then there was some soup.
There was also a some dim sum with shu mai dumplings and shrimp dumplings.
I had both and both were really good.
There was one more station I could not photograph and that was the rice and beef curry station and that was because it was simply too crowded for the whole time I was there and rightfully so.
On the upper floor, there were also some more alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks set up.
And there was some more seating as well and as you can see it was crowded as well.
At this point, I want to briefly note a couple things.
Throughout my whole time in the lounge, it was quite warm and decently humid. While I appreciate humidity, beyond a certain point it isn’t too comfortable. Being that it was decently warm too didn’t help. I was thankful to find an AC vent by the window I could sit near and relax a bit.
Nextly, as I was eating, I noticed that there were lounge attendants constantly going around and cleaning and collecting empty plates, bowls, and glasses which I thought was definitely neat.
Lastly, there is wifi throughout the whole lounge, there is no password, and it was pretty fast.
Now back to the lounge, the upper floor had great tarmac views as well.
Here is a look at the walk up the lounge from the first floor of the lounge.
From where I was, you could also take elevators between the two floors if you needed.
On the ground floor, there was also a massage chair behind the stairs as well as a shower and rest area that could be accessed.
From here I left the lounge to head towards my flight to Singapore and the gate was roughly a 2-3 min walk from the lounge.
Overall, I was quite pleased with this lounge. It has all the important aspects of a lounge you’d expect. There’s plenty of seating options with power ports, there’s refreshments and drinks. I thought the variety of food was lacking and was limited to local Japanese options only but the food was still awesome and I loved it. And there were showers and resting rooms too so this lounge really has it all and it’s pretty large. I only wish this lounge maintained its temperature a little better and the lounge was crowded during the time that I was there. But despite that, this lounge was a nice way to relax and reload from a long flight and now onto the next. Stay tuned for the Japan Airlines review from Tokyo to Singapore as that’s coming up next! Cheers!