First Class Lounge

After arriving from Bangkok in terminal 2, I had to make my way to T1 for my China Eastern flight. The transit process was easier than I thought and I was through in less than 10 minutes. From T2 there’s a long walkway which leads you straight to T1, you do have to clear immigration if you want to switch terminals.

China Eastern have a private check-in area for First and Business Class passengers, Eastern Miles Platinum, Skyteam Elite members and passengers on Shanghai Airlines Business Class.

It’s a very wide space and there was no waiting in line.

It was fairly quiet but at 6:00 I suppose that’s a given. The staff spoke good English and we even had a good conversation and they were able to understand what I was saying which was great. They also asked if this was my first time in Shanghai and if this was my first time flying China Eastern.

I answered yes to both questions and was sent over to the seating area. I was a little confused why at first until a staff member came over and said ‘Mr George, I’ll be escorting you to the First lounge. Please come with me” I’ve flown many carriers in First and this is a nice touch other Asian carriers don’t offer. It probably isn’t needed but I hadn’t been through the airport before so thought it was pretty helpful.

The staff member was quite friendly and we went through security fairly quickly.

After arriving at the lounge, he sat me down and brought me a wifi code and said goodbye and have a great flight. I was expecting to be taken to some terrible worn out old lounge but this was the complete opposite. It was actually ‘Nice’

On the left, there’s a large amount of reading material both in Chinese and English.

On both sides of the lounge is a lot of leather seating. Each seat is also close to a power point which is convenient.

 

 

The lounge was very quiet, while I was there were probably 6 people in there max. Only China Eastern First passengers and Eastern Miles Platinum members can access it.

The lounge has quite a large buffet area with hot & cold food options and a large range of beverages.

There’s also a heap of snacks to choose from if you’re not feeling too hungry.

 

All the food was fresh and the staff would always go and see if it’s acceptable or not i.e they test it by eating it.

There are fresh fruit and salads available.

There’s also a good range of pastries available.

The lounge also has quite an impressive bar that very much reminds me of the ones in Etihad’s revamped lounges.

At the bar, they serve all types of alcohol as well as freshly made coffee. Interestingly they don’t serve many of the drinks that are at the bar onboard the aircraft.

Right opposite the bar is where the bathrooms are located. They were spotless and there was a cleaner in there every time I passed.

 

Next part of the buffet consists of more food options. First is a fridge with various types of sweets and sandwiches.

Next along is all types of hot food. There’s a large selection of both Chinese and Western food.

As you can see, the lounge was very quiet and wasn’t ever loud.

Possibly the funniest part of the lounge is the cutlery. Plastic knives and forks in a first class lounge, really?

After having some bacon and eggs I decided to get some work done. The wifi was quite possibly the worst I had used in a lounge. A connection with bad speeds and a VPN really don’t do well together. I was able to post one blog post while in there but streaming and downloading anything was out of the question.

Another thing to note is the staff won’t interact with you and ask if you need anything. I found that a little odd as alot of them would stay huddled together on thier phones, oh well.

Right at the back of the lounge are some lounging and massaging chairs.

 

They are quite comfortable and would be the best place to get sleep if you needed to. I was tempted but I would probably oversleep and miss my flight If I had.

Overall

The lounge isn’t one of the worst I’ve visited but also not one of the best I’ve been to. Yes, it’s new and quiet but the service is really lacking and the there are a few things that they could improve upon.

For what it is it’s great but I couldn’t see myself spending large amounts of time in there. I was there for about 6 hours and that was plenty of time.