No.71 Air China First & Business Class Lounge — Attraction in Shanghai

The Air China Lounge at Pudong International Airport leaves much to be desired, offering a below-average experience that fails to meet the expectations of frequent travelers or those seeking a comfortable pre-flight stay. Spread over two floors, the lounge feels disorganized and lacks the premium service one might expect from a flagship airline.

The first floor primarily consists of drinks and massage chairs, but it offers little else to engage or comfort passengers. The bar table, surprisingly, has no staff present, further diminishing the sense of attentive service. Moving to the second floor, where the food is located, the situation doesn’t improve much. The food selection is limited, and the quality is disappointing, falling short of even basic standards. While there is a noodle station—often touted as the highlight of the lounge—the experience is marred by poor service. The staff at the noodle station are noticeably rude; they take your order but rudely toss the beeper back at you, making the interaction feel unnecessarily unpleasant. Although the noodles themselves are decent, the unprofessional attitude significantly detracts from the experience.

Additionally, other staff members display a lack of courtesy and professionalism. For instance, a staff member pushing a trolley passed by guests without any acknowledgment or an “excuse me,” leaving a sour impression of the overall service culture in the lounge.

For a lounge operated by a major airline like Air China, the experience feels inadequate and poorly managed. The combination of subpar food, lack of bar service, limited amenities, and unprofessional staff makes this lounge a disappointing choice for travelers. If you have access to other lounges at Pudong International Airport, it’s worth exploring those...

Air China’s lounge in Pudong T2 combines both business and first class passengers. It is a double storey lounge with the food section located in the upper lounge.

Food wise, the selection is predominantly Chinese and very few international selection. Probably catering to the mainly Chinese clientele. I also failed to see any selection of alcohol in the lounge although I was not specifically looking for it.

I must also comment that the service is very lackadaisical. You have many staff standing like statues whilst tables are left with used utensils. The 4 cooks at the hot food section were so busy chatting that it took 3 calls for attention before one of them decided to attend to my order.

In terms of comfort, the sofas and seating areas are comfortable enough with ample power outlets for charging your various devices. Not a lot of TV screens ubiquitous in airport lounges though.

Toilets and showers are available although one would struggle to use the showers cause there were no attendants in sight.

I’ll try out the China Eastern lounge the next time since SQ allows selection of the lounges. See if it’s better than this lounge operated by their flag carrier...

This is the lounge run by Air China and the one used by Star Alliance Gold members. It is pretty huge, with 2 floors worth of space and even an escalator set inside the lounge.

Unfortunately, the quality of food isn’t as good as what you’d expect from China. Edible, but I didn’t go back for second rounds. There is however a decent variety - with soup noodles freshly cooked as you order, some small cakes and pastries available in the second floor refrigerated showcase, and a bunch of packaged snacks and nuts.

Shower rooms are available as well, but they had a weird smell and some parts were dilapidated. They are usable, with new towels, disposable slippers, toothbrush/toothpaste, comb available, so the basics were covered.

There were different types of tables/chairs throughout the lounge, so find a good spot depending on how much you want to relax, or on whether you wanted a...