Your favourite small airport lounge?

I'm currently in the lounge in Tallinn airport, sat by a lovely little gas fire, by an antique clock, looking out over the airport apron. The fridge had a better selection of nice sandwiches and quiches and similar than you get in the BA Galleries business lounges in T5. They've got local beer on tap, and the very nice local Vana Tallin spirit for self-pour. They have a small library at the back of the lounge, which suggests you should take books you like with you and drop them back next time. Power sockets no harder to find than in T5, and furniture in much better condition than most BA lounges too...

So, I'm voting the lounge in Tallinn airport my best small airport lounge of the last 12 months!

Anyone else have a favorite from another small airport they'd like to share?

 

Sounds great! I can't really think of any small ones that have stood out to be honest. The usual range is dismal to surprisingly decent - depending on whether the food is worth eating, what the booze situation is, and how crowded it gets.

I have a bit of a soft spot for the Yorkshire Premier Lounge at Leeds Bradford, as long as it's not busy.

Concorde Room isn't very big I suppose (even if Heathrow is!)? Also not that great though really, apart from the Grand Siecle (which is sensational when properly chilled ).

 

I liked a lounge at Bangkok airport, it was free for Thai Air travellers and very modern and well stocked! Such a great service..

 

Not sure that Bangkok counts as a small airport... But good to know there's a decent lounge there

 

The Tallinn airport lounge sounds very good. I'm surprised more airports don't make more of an effort with their lounges, especially in relation to interior design - they often seem to be modelled on the reception areas of budget or chain hotels, whereas (in my view) a better strategy would be to model them on the reception areas of boutique or luxury hotels.

 

Good point - the cost involved in making something look nice isn't necessarily much greater than something that looks a bit rubbish and it makes a huge difference to customer perception. Particularly in the age of social media, you'd think creating a bit of a talking point design/feature would be a no brainer.

Maybe partner with a local art college/design group.

 

Thanks for this post! I'm afraid I don't have a favourite to compare with this, but your description of the lounge at Tallinn makes me even keener to book a trip over there than I already was. Any idea whether the lounge you describe is included in a UK membership of Priority Pass or Lounge Club?

 

Try Bologna Airport in Italy (accepts Priority Pass). The lounge in itself is nothing fancy but has 3 great perks.
1. Dedicated check-in desk inside the lounge for national airlines (Lufthansa, BA etc). Once on LH they upgraded me for free to Business Class just by asking to have a better seat
2. You can have Italian cocktails (like Aperol Spritz) and quite good Prosecco!
3. The security check is inside the lounge which is sort like having a private terminal (yes literally inside the lounge).
Bonus: you can fly with Emirates to Dubai

 

Sounds great actually! - is boarding straight from the lounge too?

 

The only lounge I’ve experienced is No1 Lounge at Birmingham Airport and it’s definitely worth every penny. Lovely range of hot and cold food, decent selection of drinks to choose from at the bar, WiFi and just just generally a lot cosier and warmer than being stuck outside.

 

Cheers Aliya (and welcome to InsideFlyer!) - I haven't tried the No1 Lounge at Birmingham myself yet, so good to know it's decent!

 

Thanks for the welcome

I didn’t know these lounges existed for so many years and couldn’t believe how much I spent on food and drinks while I was waiting for flights when there was a better option available. Deffo worth the try!

 

Ah yes, I'd almost forgotten about the 'joy' of airport food/drink pricing - mainly thanks to lounge access via priority pass. Though I did get charged 5 Euros for a (small) bottle of water at Faro airport when I was in a rush earlier in the year - ridiculous!

 

Shame I have not been in any lounges even I fly at least once a year... I have recently got my amex gold that comes with 2 free passes each year - looking forward to use them hahaha.

 

until now I pretty much only used the BA/One World lounges around the world (as I'm silver with BA) but now I just got Priority Pass so I'm really hoping it's worth it as the quality of One World lounges varies quite a bit

 

I Love the one at southend airport, particularly as there is nothing else there

 

I actually really liked the Faro airport lounge - really small and actually pretty basic, but it was just very relaxed and welcoming in an airport I've always found really hectic and hard work.

That said, part of that might be because we visited at what seemed to be a particularly quiet period in the lounge.

 

Priority Pass lounges probably vary in quality even more to be honest - some are very good, others are... not.

 

I haven't been for about a year, but last time the 'food' selection was diabolical. The highlight was when a plate of extremely dubious looking, curling up, finger sandwiches was replaced with another plate of equally dubious, curling up, finger sandwiches - and this was the only thing to eat, unless you wanted crisps/savoury snacks or cookies.

Not very good Spanish wine too, which was a shame given how much excellent (very cheap) Portuguese wine there is.

That said - I agree it was comfortable and peaceful, and if memory serves the coffee was ok, so it's not all bad!

 

Have InsideFlyer done an 'airline lounges vs pay lounges' article? Or series of articles? That would be very interesting.