To kick off the return portion of our winter journey to Tokyo & Niseko, I flew ANA’s Boeing 737-800 Premium Class on the quick home flight from Sapporo (CTS) to Tokyo Narita (NRT), previous to connecting to ANA’s Airbus A380 first-class to Honolulu (HNL).
Previous to my flight, I had the prospect to take a look at the ANA Lounge at New Chitose Airport, in Sapporo. ANA has two sorts of lounges for home flights — the ANA Lounge and the ANA Suite Lounge, and I had entry to the previous, which is what I’ll be reviewing.
To be sincere, I discovered the lounge to be fairly naked bones, however I suppose nonetheless higher than ready within the terminal. One factor that stands out to me is that JAL provides home first-class passengers entry to its most premium home lounges, whereas ANA solely provides its Premium Class passengers (the equal of home first-class on JAL) entry to the much less premium home lounges, in order that’s form of disappointing.
ANA Lounge Sapporo location
Upon arriving at New Chitose Airport in Sapporo, I discovered the ANA check-in space, which had a number of completely different zones.
At many home airports, ANA and JAL each have devoted premium check-in areas, which really feel fairly unique. Since I used to be flying in Premium Class, I may use the particular check-in facility, positioned behind a set of double doorways.
This particular facility has check-in desks for premium passengers, but additionally provides entry to a personal safety checkpoint, which is a beautiful characteristic (not that safety in Japan is ever that disagreeable of an expertise).
As soon as by safety, I may both flip left towards the lounges, or proper towards the gates. After all I turned left, which introduced me as much as the second flooring, through an escalator.
In case you occur to be coming from contained in the airside portion of the terminal, for no matter cause, simply search for gate seven, and also you’ll see the beneath door, which can carry you to this very area.
ANA Lounge Sapporo hours
Presently, the ANA Lounge Sapporo is open day by day from 6:30AM, till the final departure of the day. So should you’re flying on ANA, you need to discover that the lounge is open previous to your flight departure. After all lounge hours could fluctuate seasonally, based mostly on flight schedules.
ANA Lounge Sapporo entry necessities
As talked about above, there are two elements to ANA’s lounge facility on the airport:
- The ANA Lounge is open to Premium Class passengers and Star Alliance Gold members
- The ANA Suite Lounge is open to similar day connecting worldwide first-class passengers and ANA Mileage Membership Diamond members
The 2 lounges share an entrance, so after I arrived on the lounge, I attempted to see if I may get entry to the extra unique ANA Suite Lounge, since I used to be connecting similar day to ANA first-class to Honolulu. Nonetheless, it was a kind of “pc says no” conditions, because the boarding move scanner rejected me, and the brokers didn’t intervene. Presumably the problem is that my home flight was on a separate ticket from the worldwide flight, regardless that I already had each boarding passes.
ANA Lounge Sapporo seating & format
The ANA Lounge Sapporo consists of 1 big room overlooking the apron. Beneath you’ll find the map of the lounge.
As you enter the lounge, you first stroll down an extended hallway, after which flip proper, and then you definately’ll end up in the primary a part of the lounge.
You’ll be able to see mainly the whole lot of the lounge within the two photos beneath. There are a selection of seating choices, starting from chairs at communal tables, to particular person chairs for lounging.
Beneath are a number of extra photos of the seating choices, which offer you a way of all of the seating choices. The lounge doesn’t precisely have a really trendy really feel, however the usage of wooden feels Japanese. On the plus facet, there’s loads of charging all through the lounge, and Wi-Fi was quick and free.
When it comes to extra facilities, the lounge has a number of non-public cellphone cubicles, for vacationers to take cellphone calls (my fellow Miamians might be shocked to study that merely choosing up a name on speakerphone isn’t the right lounge etiquette in Japan!).
The lounge additionally has a small enterprise heart space, with printing providers.
Then there’s a smoking room, separated from the remainder of the lounge by a few double doorways.
Undoubtedly, the perfect a part of the lounge is the views, as you have got superb apron, taxiway, and runway views. Japanese aviation is endlessly fascinating, so what a deal with that is!
ANA Lounge Sapporo meals & drinks
The ANA Lounge Sapporo has a good number of drinks, although don’t anticipate a lot in the best way of meals. All the pieces is out there at a self-serve counter.
Drink choices included espresso, tea, soda, juice, a beer machine, and a primary number of liquor.
There’s mainly no meals, with the extent of the choices being tiny packaged chocolate and snack combine.
ANA Lounge Sapporo bogs
The ANA Lounge Sapporo has gender segregated bogs. The boys’s room had a number of sinks, stalls, and urinals, which did the trick, however weren’t the shiniest I’ve seen in an airport lounge.
The lounge doesn’t have showers, not that you simply’d anticipate for there to be showers in a home lounge in Japan.
Backside line
The ANA Lounge Sapporo is a primary facility with comfy seating, good views, and an okay number of drinks. It’s not a nasty place to kill a while, however then once more, the gate space at Japanese airports is fairly civilized as nicely.
What’s most disappointing — and what I feel is price calling out — is how each ANA and JAL have two tiers of home lounges. Whereas JAL lets passengers touring within the forward-most cabin entry the higher lounge, ANA doesn’t. That’s even if ANA even usually has greater pricing than JAL.
So this was actually disappointing in comparison with my latest go to to the JAL Diamond Premier Lounge Sapporo, which I had entry to on the same JAL ticket. It’s one of many many causes I’m on #teamJAL somewhat than #teamANA (although they’re each nice).
What’s your tackle the ANA Lounge Sapporo?
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