At check-in this morning I was extremely happy to be advised that the new lounge would be open today for the first time. I was excited to try it.
That is the end of the happy story.
There was zero signage anywhere in the terminal, I had to ask two seperate staff in the duty free shop where it was. Turns out it’s a tiny glass door in the waiting area for gates 48 & 49.
I swipe my card and the glass door opens. I was then greeted with stairs? Hullo? I have never seen a stairwell entrance to a lounge in my life. So if I’m elderly or a have a stroller or I’m in a wheelchair... no lounge for me?
I was first person inside, I got there about 4:40am (security opens at 4:30am)
Upstairs I was greeted with 6 or 7 staff members all chatting away and all had their backs to me.
Also those staff members had bags thrown on all the big comfortable chairs (of which there are only two!!) so I got stuck sitting in a less comfortable chair. They didn’t even move their bags and jackets when they saw me move over to those comfy chairs, so I had to turn around and take a window seat.
It’s tiny. Super tiny. Maybe 30 seats? Only the bar seats have charging capacity, the window seats where I was have no power points. The fridge is open, and very noisy, it was really annoying to listen to the fridge for an hour. Nothing like the quiet stillness in lounges I’m used to at this time of day. Also, because it’s upstairs from two gates, it’s an open mezzanine and you can hear ALL the terminal noise : announcements, boarding calls, screaming children, phones ringing, the lot. I’ve never been in such a noisy lounge. And it’s not even 5am yet...
There was no bubbles open I had to request it but it was served to my seat so that was ok. Doubt that will continue, I’m sure it was only because I was the first person in.
Breakfast food selection was coughhouse nothing hot just yoghurt & museli, danishes & croissants. Oh and some cut pineapple and honeydew. I’d have gotten nicer food out in the terminal, and certainly healthier.
Upon staff members noticing that their first guest had arrived one of them rushed over and demanded to see my boarding pass. As I handed it over, I mentioned to the rude lounge dragon that a) you checked me into 1A not 20 mins ago, we talked about the lounge having it’s first day open today so you knew I was heading straight here, and I have bright blue hair, so it’s NOT possible to forget me, and b) the door downstairs wouldn’t have opened if I wasn’t allowed access.
It felt awful, a very nasty greeting to what was actually really exciting for me, being the first ever passenger into the first ever VA international lounge.
Wifi password didn’t work I tried it 3 times then asked for help. Turns out the password advertised everywhere (which has VA capitalised for marketing purposes) is case sensitive and was set up with lower case va. I mean come on people, it’s not fecking hard to make it case insensitive or to get it right the first time. Also the way I was treated when I queried the password was awful, someone else (not the person I queried it with) yelled out from across the room “try lower case”, and that worked, so then I asked why the placards had it as upper case and they said “you’re in now, it’s fine” so dismissively.
Talk about pissed off.
I don’t think I’ll ever fly VA ex WLG again. What a thoroughly unimpressive introduction to their first ever international lounge.
#disappointed
It’s absolutely a few pegs down lower than a Priority Pass Lounge.
That is the end of the happy story.
There was zero signage anywhere in the terminal, I had to ask two seperate staff in the duty free shop where it was. Turns out it’s a tiny glass door in the waiting area for gates 48 & 49.
I swipe my card and the glass door opens. I was then greeted with stairs? Hullo? I have never seen a stairwell entrance to a lounge in my life. So if I’m elderly or a have a stroller or I’m in a wheelchair... no lounge for me?
I was first person inside, I got there about 4:40am (security opens at 4:30am)
Upstairs I was greeted with 6 or 7 staff members all chatting away and all had their backs to me.
Also those staff members had bags thrown on all the big comfortable chairs (of which there are only two!!) so I got stuck sitting in a less comfortable chair. They didn’t even move their bags and jackets when they saw me move over to those comfy chairs, so I had to turn around and take a window seat.
It’s tiny. Super tiny. Maybe 30 seats? Only the bar seats have charging capacity, the window seats where I was have no power points. The fridge is open, and very noisy, it was really annoying to listen to the fridge for an hour. Nothing like the quiet stillness in lounges I’m used to at this time of day. Also, because it’s upstairs from two gates, it’s an open mezzanine and you can hear ALL the terminal noise : announcements, boarding calls, screaming children, phones ringing, the lot. I’ve never been in such a noisy lounge. And it’s not even 5am yet...
There was no bubbles open I had to request it but it was served to my seat so that was ok. Doubt that will continue, I’m sure it was only because I was the first person in.
Breakfast food selection was coughhouse nothing hot just yoghurt & museli, danishes & croissants. Oh and some cut pineapple and honeydew. I’d have gotten nicer food out in the terminal, and certainly healthier.
Upon staff members noticing that their first guest had arrived one of them rushed over and demanded to see my boarding pass. As I handed it over, I mentioned to the rude lounge dragon that a) you checked me into 1A not 20 mins ago, we talked about the lounge having it’s first day open today so you knew I was heading straight here, and I have bright blue hair, so it’s NOT possible to forget me, and b) the door downstairs wouldn’t have opened if I wasn’t allowed access.
It felt awful, a very nasty greeting to what was actually really exciting for me, being the first ever passenger into the first ever VA international lounge.
Wifi password didn’t work I tried it 3 times then asked for help. Turns out the password advertised everywhere (which has VA capitalised for marketing purposes) is case sensitive and was set up with lower case va. I mean come on people, it’s not fecking hard to make it case insensitive or to get it right the first time. Also the way I was treated when I queried the password was awful, someone else (not the person I queried it with) yelled out from across the room “try lower case”, and that worked, so then I asked why the placards had it as upper case and they said “you’re in now, it’s fine” so dismissively.
Talk about pissed off.
I don’t think I’ll ever fly VA ex WLG again. What a thoroughly unimpressive introduction to their first ever international lounge.
#disappointed
It’s absolutely a few pegs down lower than a Priority Pass Lounge.
