World's best [Priority Pass] airport lounge named

[Homer]

SMH: World's best airport lounge named

Airport lounges can ease some of the pain of travelling, and the SUMAQ VIP lounge of Lima's international airport has been voted the world's best for 2010 by independent airport lounge programme Priority Pass.

Priority Pass, the world's biggest membership programme that gives frequent travellers access to airport lounges regardless of their class of travel or which airline they've flown, asked more than 30,000 passengers from all over the world to pick their favourite lounge from among a 600-strong list.

In my view, having been in this lounge a couple of times, it is nothing special. The decor is more UA Red Carpet lounge than even a QF J or BA Terraces lounge. And the food options are probably on par with QF's domestic lounges. This is no QF F lounge, no Wing/Pier, etc. I can only guess that it won again because the voters are overwhelmingly from North/South America and this is better than the lounges they are used to in that part of the world.

 

[markis10]

Worlds Best Priority Pass Lounge ??????

 

[yohy?!]

I'd imagine that the fact that Priority Pass ran the survey that they could only vote for their own participating lounges?

 

[markis10]

Skytrax have a survey going at the moment, doubt I will need to compare the results.

 

[samh004]

I wonder where the actual worlds best lounge would be, not just the worlds best priority club lounge

Guess it would be difficult for any one person to try them all out to come to a conclusion though.

 

[simongr]

I expect that SYD QF F lounge would be up there but behind the SQ Private Room and the FRA F Terminal.

One key problem is separating the lounge from the airport and the airline - I can't rate LHR T5 highly because of the schmozzle that BAA created before you get to the lounge.

 

[ejb]

I am sure there are a few people on this site that could give a very informed opinion of lounges worldwide.

Me.......I would vote SYD F lounge but I have not been to many so my opinion is based on mainly Dom lounges.

I however do believe only PP lounges were included.

ejb

 

[tuapekastar]

I saw a 'list' of top 10 lounges somewhere in recent months where IIRC the SYD F lounge (which I like heaps, though less so than the MEL one) scraped in maybe number 8 or so (MEL did not feature).

Can't recall what all the others were, but there are obviously a number of pretty good ones out there.

 

[samh004]

One key problem is separating the lounge from the airport and the airline - I can't rate LHR T5 highly because of the schmozzle that BAA created before you get to the lounge.

Well surely you’ve just told yourself what you need to do. If you’re rating the lounge, what does check-in, immigrations and customs have to do with it?

I saw a 'list' of top 10 lounges somewhere in recent months where IIRC the SYD F lounge (which I like heaps, though less so than the MEL one) scraped in maybe number 8 or so (MEL did not feature).

Can't recall what all the others were, but there are obviously a number of pretty good ones out there.

That thread, which was posted here with a link to someones blog, appeared to be written by someone that had never visited most of the lounges in questions and rated them solely by what the marketing departments described the lounges as.

I recall visiting the blog recently and found it was very infrequently updated with any useful information.

 

[tuapekastar]

That thread, which was posted here with a link to someones blog, appeared to be written by someone that had never visited most of the lounges in questions and rated them solely by what the marketing departments described the lounges as.

I recall visiting the blog recently and found it was very infrequently updated with any useful information.

Oh! I didn't recall that bit... (but now you mention it...)

 

[simongr]

Well surely you’ve just told yourself what you need to do. If you’re rating the lounge, what does check-in, immigrations and customs have to do with it?

I am probably not well disposed to a lounge where I have had to schlepp through shocking security and been forced to walk away from the lounge just to squeeze a few dollars out of me...

 

[samh004]

Oh! I didn't recall that bit... (but now you mention it...)

I tried searching for the thread but couldn’t find it quickly enough for me. I can’t recall what it was called.

I am probably not well disposed to a lounge where I have had to schlepp through shocking security and been forced to walk away from the lounge just to squeeze a few dollars out of me...

I guess, but to get to The Wing “J Lounge”, where the entry is downstairs, you need to go down the escalators, and pass through several duty free shops, before you get to the entrance.

For the F lounge it’s much easier I’ll admit. Turn left.

 

[JohnK]

Does anyone really look at the lounge ratings? Has anyone not visited a lounge because it was not rated highly by people you do not know and are never likely to meet?

Personally I do not care for ratings (not just lounges but hotels, restaurants etc) and wish to form my opinion on lounges.

 

[samh004]

Does anyone really look at the lounge ratings? Has anyone not visited a lounge because it was not rated highly by people you do not know and are never likely to meet?

Personally I do not care for ratings (not just lounges but hotels, restaurants etc) and wish to form my opinion on lounges.

I guess, say you had the flexibility to choose between travelling to Europe via first SIN, BKK or HKG, and then through LHR or FRA or somewhere else. There’s lots of potential choices and the lounges at each destination differ slightly in what they offer every person.

 

[dajop]

Personally I do not care for ratings (not just lounges but hotels, restaurants etc) and wish to form my opinion on lounges.

Lounge ratings no probably not, you go anyway, except occasionally faced with the choice of multiple lounges at the one airport (and even then if there is time a lounge crawl soon sorts out the good from the bad). For hotels, I do find them useful particularly in selecting hotels not to stay at. When there are 50 reviews and 48 of them have nothing good to say, I usually take that as a sign to stay well clear.

 

[JohnK]

I guess, say you had the flexibility to choose between travelling to Europe via first SIN, BKK or HKG, and then through LHR or FRA or somewhere else. There’s lots of potential choices and the lounges at each destination differ slightly in what they offer every person.

I will take the routing which first of all has the best timing taking into consideration SC's for paid flights and availability for award flights. I won't route a trip just to pass through a specific airport to use a specific lounge. The beer tastes the same in each of the lounges mentioned above, food is available on the flight.

When there are 50 reviews and 48 of them have nothing good to say, I usually take that as a sign to stay well clear.

How many times have you taken the time to write about positive reviews? How about when there are only 3 reviews and they are all negative?

I do read reviews but if I had bothered to take their advice I would have missed the opportunity to stay in some very good value for money hotels around the world. I have now made it my mission to write positive reviews for places that I feel have unnecessarily been given a bad review. Just remember that not everyone experiences the same things in the same places.

 

[dajop]

IHow many times have you taken the time to write about positive reviews? How about when there are only 3 reviews and they are all negative?

I do read reviews but if I had bothered to take their advice I would have missed the opportunity to stay in some very good value for money hotels around the world. I have now made it my mission to write positive reviews for places that I feel have unnecessarily been given a bad review. Just remember that not everyone experiences the same things in the same places.

I usually only bother writing positive reviews, unless it is really bad. I'd rather tell people about a good hotel than whinge about some random event that created an unpleasant time for me.

3 reviews is not a good enough sample size for me to take too much notice of - but once it gets up to 15-20 and there's a distinct pattern emerging (particularly if a good number of these are written by Australians) I will sit up and take notic When half the reviews suggest bed bugs and lack of hot water or other such things I will happily pay an extra $10/night for a hotel that has nothing but positive reviews (or positive reviews plus a few people being a bit precious). Usually the reviews are backed up by me feeling doubtful about the hotel anyway.

I also calibrate my experiences every know and then with trip advisor, and once the reviews build up to a decent number its surprising how accurate (on average) they are - one example the Langham Place Mongkok in HKG, where I stayed without reading any reviews and really loved it - checked on tripadvisor 6 months later and it was No 4. ALso Also they often have genuine information about location (eg "great location only 3 mins from subway or great hotel- but it's a lot further from xyz than the hotel website indicates), wheras hotel websites are often vague at best about location.

Not saying its' the be all and end all, just another data point for weeding out the shockers.

 

[simongr]

Does anyone really look at the lounge ratings? Has anyone not visited a lounge because it was not rated highly by people you do not know and are never likely to meet?

I have avoided lounges based on recommendations of people here - none of whom I have met.

 

[JohnK]

I have avoided lounges based on recommendations of people here - none of whom I have met.

So you actually haven't been to a specific lounge to form your own opinion? Anyone lounge(s) in particular?