Whenever I need to go back to Japan, I always book a flight for Gimpo – Haneda, so I don’t really get a chance to use Incheon International Airport anymore.
These days, I only use Incheon whenever I have my biz trip and that’s probably the only times when I get to use the KAL Lounge at Incheon, too.
The other day, I had to depart to Brazil, my flight was later in the night and when I visited the lounge before my night flight, the lounge was pretty much empty…
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KAL Prestige Class Lounge @ Incheon International Airpot
KAL（Korean Air） has its First Class Lounge and Prestige Class Lounge.
KAL’s Prestige Class is equivalent to business class for other airlines.
This is the entrance to the prestige class lounge↑↑
It’s located near the gate #11
When you go up from this entrance, you will see a reception on the right and when you face the reception counter, there are 2 lounge area, one of the left and the other on the right, but later in the evening only the right hand side area is usually open.
Usually, when I visit the lounge before going on my business trip, it is later in the evening time, so I never got to go to the left side of lounge area.
Korean air airplane model is welcoming you,,,
Lounge – quite dark
The lounge is not too small, but because it’s later in the evening, the lights are dimmed and looks quite dark…
When I proceed towards the end of the lounge, I saw more people
Light meal and drinks including beer are prepared in the corner of the lounge
At the windows side, there are counter seats and I saw many business men working on their computer and stuff.
Also, there are several booth with about 8 sofas ↓↓
Light meal offered at the KAL lounge
Korean Air is South Korea’s flagship carrier, so I would expect the lounge to be a little better offering something more Korean, but it seems like the food offered there are nothing like Korean traditional food.
Maybe, during the day time where there are more people around, Korean food is also offered, but in the night time when I was there, I couldn’t find anything Korean.
I wonder if the menu is the same for the day time too…
Anyways, when I was there, there were bread/muffins, salad, pasta, soup etc.
Things that I had that day are:
- Carrot soup
- Tomatoes
- Cheese
- Raisin
- Pasta salad
- Orange juice
That’s all.
They have Korean’s favorite Instant noodles “Shin Ramyun”!
Probably, only thing that is very Korean there at the Incheon lounge was that they have the Korean instant noodles “Shin Ramyun” ↓↓
I know the Asiana lounge at Gimpo international airport also has those, too.
When I use Gimpo, my trip purposes are more towards private, and I rarely use Gimpo for my business trip, so I don’t use Korean Air which is company’s partner airline; I usually use star alliances airlines, which is ANA/Asiana for Japan – Korea trip. Therefore, I often use star alliance’s lounge there @ Gimpo, and I see those Shin Ramyun there, too!
Shin Ramyun everywhere!
The only differences I found from the shin ramen at Gimpo’s lounge and Incheon’s lounge is that the Gimpo one was already “half-open” so that people will not take those instant noodles outside of the lounge. The one at the Incheon was un-open, so people (if they want,,,) could take those outside and eat them later.
But of course, there was a notice on top of the shelf saying “please do not take any food offered at this lounge outside”
I’m pretty sure there would have been a lot of people who would take instant noodles with them to their journey if the noodles are un-open… so that’s why they have to put that notice, not let them take any food outside of the lounge.
Anyways, I rarely eat those noodles at lounge, but when I am with my colleagues from my company, I sometimes eat those too!
But most of the time,,, I can’t finish them all, as they are way too spicy for me!
Beer server was there too!
Alcohol is generally free at the lounge; I’m sure it’s a huge plus for some of the people (not me~)!
However, I don’t know about the day time when there are supposed to be more people, but when I visited the lounge in the night time, there were not so many kinds offered at the lounge; probably only a few kinds…
Well, I guess I am so used to the Star Alliance lounge at Haneda International Airport and there, they offer Japanese sake, Japanese plum wine etc. so that’s why I feel it’s so little they offer at KAL lounge in Incheon.
Usually, I had some Japanese plum wine at Haneda lounge before my flight, so I was expecting to have some Korean plum wine too at the KAL lounge, but they didn’t have it and got a little disappointed!
What I saw was, only a few kinds and beer server: Budweiser and MAX (Korean brand)
On top of the server, there was a tablet device and it was showing “how to use the server” video clip in a loop!
After seeing a couple of lounges around the world, the one I like is, for sure, the Star Alliance (ANA) lounge at Haneda International Airport.
Of course, I don’t expect much for the lounge located at Gimpo in terms of the service and food offered at the lounge, as there are not so many people who use Gimpo airport, but I had much higher expectations for a lounge at Incheon international airport.
