To lounge or not to lounge when you fly

There’s a calculation every regular long-distance traveller ends up making at one time or the other. Say you’re travelling intercontinentally, with six-hour legs (or more) on either side of a two-hour (or longer) connection. Or you finished your meeting early, and rather than risk traffic to the airport in an unfamiliar city, you decide to arrive early, and the check-in queue is a lot shorter than you thought.

Should you, or should you not, check into a lounge?

Often, the answer is a simple one. If you’re an elite member of a frequent flyer club, and your access is complimentary, then you make use of lounge facility with nary a second thought.

But what if you’re not on a qualifying flight (many times, even elite members are barred from complimentary access if their flight is not on the same day); or your flight is not on the airline whose system you’re on? Should you pay the fees?

Let’s look at three lounges I have had the chance to visit in the last few months:

Emirates Sky Lounge at Dubai International Airport

Emirates Airline makes a big deal of its first class service, so it follows that there’s a swanky first class lounge at Dubai International. I didn’t have the chance to visit this one, but I have had the chance to sample the Business Class lounge – which is slightly more plebeian, but still pretty good.

It’s open to business class passengers either departing from, or transiting through, Dubai. Its charms are the usual ones you find in a lounge of this kind – complimentary snacks and drinks, showers and lots of seating.

It can get a little crowded, though, and you need to be careful that the gate isn’t too far from you, which will necessitate a mad dash through a crowded airport.

The major advantage you will have is that you’ll avoid the temptation for an expensive bout of shopping, which seems to be the standard economic activity at this airport.

Delta Sky Lounge at Terminal 4, John F. Kennedy International Airport

Terminal 4 at JFK, which serves Delta Air Lines and its associated partners, has been rebuilt recently, and part of its improvements is the Delta Lounge. This is a pretty good lounge, especially as you anticipate many hours and connections before you reach a destination such as Nairobi. Several things recommend it.

First, because American airports are a simulacrum of shopping malls, with sports bars, diners, fancy and not-so-fancy restaurants, the lounge needs to compete. So it has a decent bar (with mostly free drinks, but also cocktails and other drinks that you can run a bar tab on).

Secondly, it offers an excellent view of aprons, runways and gates. There are desks (with power ports) that directly overlook the action airside, and you can spend hours (if you’re an airplane buff) staring at behemoths from Singapore Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways taking off and landing, as well as private jets which use the airport.

Apart from the bar and the free snack area (you should try the ginger biscuits), there are showers and quiet areas for those who may want to read or work online.

KLM Crown Lounge at Amsterdam Schiphol

This might be one of the most useful (at least for me it is), because every time I visit, I’m between two lengthy flights, mainly in the cramped quarters of economy class.

Because KLM flights from Nairobi land at Schiphol in the morning, the shower and complimentary breakfast are extremely useful. So is the automated kiosk where you can re-confirm your onward connection and change seats, should you feel the need.

There are also major newspapers. The most useful feature is a series of private rooms, where you can sleep off the depredations of your previous flight, and look forward to the oncoming one (just be sure to not sleep so deeply as to miss your next flight).

Word is that Kenya Airways is in the final stages of completing their lounge at Terminal 1-A at JKIA. If it is even half decent, it will be a world’s difference from what’s currently on offer.