Review: Korean Air Prestige Class Lounge, Seoul Incheon Airport

Korean Air lounges are located in regions through the world and are often referred to as the “KAL Lounge.” You’ve probably seen one or two of them even if you haven’t ever flown Korean Air, or even been through Seoul Incheon airport, for that matter.

However, interestingly, these lounges are only available in Korea, Japan, and the U.S., at the following airports

• Korea: Seoul (Incheon, Gimpo), Busan, Daegu, Gwangju, Jeju
• Japan: Fukuoka, Nagoya, Osaka, Tokyo (Narita)
• America: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Honolulu

I find this to be a bit interesting considering how many long-haul markets Korean Air serves abroad. In Europe, for example, they fly to London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Milan, Rome, Madrid, Barcelona, Prague, Vienna, Saint Petersburg, and Moscow, many of which are SkyTeam hubs.

That being said, if you are transiting through Seoul Incheon airport, it is important to note that there are two Korean Air lounges: one is called the KAL Prestige Class Lounge, while the other is called the KAL Concourse Lounge.

It is important to note this difference because one is nominally superior to the other. James has done a review of the KAL Concourse Lounge, which is a better lounge than the KAL Prestige Class Lounge, for reasons I’ll list below.

Accessibility

James highlights the important information below on the accessibility to the satellite lounge vs. the concourse lounge:

The Korean Air Lounge Concourse A is located airside on the fourth floor of the satellite terminal, adjacent to gate 116. The lounge is open to premium cabin passengers and SkyTeam Elite Plus members traveling on Korean Air and SkyTeam partner airlines; premium cabin passengers on Air China, Etihad, JAL and others; and Priority Pass, Loungebuddy and Dragonpass members traveling on any airline. Priority Pass, Loungebuddy, and Dragonpass members are limited to two guests per card. The lounge is open from 6:30 AM to 11:30 PM daily.

Strangely, per the SkyTeam lounge website for Seoul Incheon airport, passengers flying on any of the SkyTeam member airlines that operate into Seoul, including Aeroflot, Air France, Alitalia, China Airlines, China Southern, Czech Airlines, Delta, Garuda Indonesia, KLM, Korean Air and Xiamen Air, can use either lounge. The only exception, however, is China Eastern, which is limited to the KAL Prestige Class lounge, for whatever reason.

At any rate, the KAL Prestige Class lounge is located on the main terminal at Incheon, near Gate 11. It is open from 4 AM until Midnight, whereas the KAL Concourse Lounge is the satellite lounge and is open during more restricted hours (relatively speaking) from 6:30 AM to 10:30 PM.

Lounge Review

This is the final installment in my trip report series from my Yoga retreat in Bali, which I took in early August 2017.

Trip Report Series: 

• Self-Connecting to an International Flight: Lessons Learned
  
• Review: Singapore Airlines Economy Class, San Francisco – Singapore (via Hong Kong)
• Review: Plaza Premium Lounge, Hong Kong Chep Lap Kok Airport
• Review: Free Singapore Stopover Tour, Changi Airport
• Review: Tigerair (now Scoot), Singapore to Denpasar, Bali
• Review: Premier Lounge, Bali Ngurah Rai International Airport
• Review: EVA Air “Hello Kitty” Economy Class, Denpasar, Bali to Taipei
• Review: China Airlines Lounge, Taipei Taoyuan International Airport
• Review: China Airlines Business Class, Taipei to Seoul Incheon Airport
• Review: Korean Air KAL Prestige Lounge, Seoul Incheon Airport

After transiting in from China Airlines, the immigration formalities at Incheon airport went by very quickly and I was surprised by how quiet the airport was. This was my second time flying out of Incheon, and my experience as a transit passenger was far superior to my prior experience as an origin-and-destination passenger. My previous visit to Seoul Incheon in January 2015 was marred by the long security lines and huge crowds taking the trains from the main terminal to terminal A. Check-in had been handled by China Airlines at Taipei Taoyuan airport, and my bags were checked all the way through San Francisco.

I had about 4.5 hours to kill at Incheon, and I figured it would be most prudent for me to try and maximize my ground time by doing work in the lounge. My flight to SFO was going to be departing from gate 12, so it made little sense to travel to the A concourse.

I took the elevator up to the lounge and proceeded to check-in. First impressions of the space and architecture were very positive, as I thought everything was very open and airy.

From here, I proceeded to the main area. Once again, the area looked exceptionally open and afforded great views of the tarmac, apron, and runways.

The layout, however, was awful. The seating is crammed all in one major area and it seemed claustrophobic without even being all that busy. Though there were plenty of open seats, the style hardly seemed better than a waiting room at the terminal.

The food and beverage area was quarantined to one side, but the selections were scant. Noticeably, the bar area only had three types of liquors available for self-serve.

The food items were just as bad. There was some cheese, salad and then 1 or 2 hot dish items. Per usual, there was a “meatball” dish (seriously, what is up with all the crappy lounges in Asia having meatballs?) and some hot rice.

Perhaps the most insulting part of the whole affair was that there was ramen: except it was instant ramen. Meaning, the type that you buy when you’re a poor college student, sealed and packaged in plastic, and then filled with hot water.

There were those cool beer dispensers where you put the mug in and get your glass filled with MAX beer.

Sadly, the ramen was the best part of the meal, which isn’t saying much.

There were a few places to sit in peace, and I found a barstool-style place where I could watch the planes while I did my work. I planted there for a few hours and drank some beers while I worked.

The one upside of the lounge was that it was fairly quiet throughout the day, and didn’t experience any fluctuations in volume at various points. That being said, I was content with the silence as I managed to get a decent amount done.

However, this lounge absolutely lacked any charm. Comparatively, the Asiana lounge at Incheon airport is so much nicer. Here are some photos of it from my visit there in January 2015:

Bottom Line

While I had an otherwise fantastic experience flying SkyTeam from Taipei back to the U.S. (China Airlines to ICN and then Korean Air to SFO), This was probably one of the very few big disappointments of the journey, as the KAL lounge in the main terminal was extremely outdated and minimal. It is the only official SkyTeam lounge at Seoul airport, which is slightly disappointing given that many other alliance-oriented airports offer partner carrier lounges in Asia. For example, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport features Singapore Airlines Kris lounges and Tokyo Narita has Cathay Pacific lounges, even though they are hubs for Thai Airways and Japan Airlines, respectively, but I digress.

The lounge was a let-down and highly inadequate for Premium cabin passengers. While extremely open, airy and with tons of room, natural light and vistas of the apron, the food and beverage were extremely basic. It was entirely self-serve, but there were hardly any “wow” factors. At best, you could help yourself to an eclectic plate of standard, boring items like a salad, cheese wedge, some rice and some meatballs. They offered ramen, except it was instant ramen, which is very unimpressive. I did like the automatic beer fill machine, though.

James’ report on the Korean Air Concourse Lounge appears to indicate that the satellite concourse provides a better lounge experience for Korean Air premium class customers and SkyTeam elites. If you have extra time to kill in Seoul, I would encourage not using this lounge in the main concourse.