The Japan Airlines First Class Lounge is just past security, up a pair of escalators in Terminal 2 and is available to JAL first class passengers, oneworld emerald members, and oneworld first class passengers. We were eligible to visit the lounge because of our connecting flight to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific. Both the Sakura (business class lounge) and first class lounge are located in the same area with one occupying a different level than the other. You turn left to check into the Japan Airlines First Class lounge and right to turn into the Sakura Lounge.
We were promptly admitted upon presenting our boarding passes, but the showers were unavailable at that moment due to some maintenance and cleaning. I definitely didn’t like that because we were pretty sweaty from how warm the flight over was from Chicago.
The lounge is quite large with plenty of seating, power outlets, and food on offer. There were many quiet areas and one of them had a few massage chairs.
There are a couple of different areas of the lounge stocked with a soda fountains and chocolate (Nestle Kit-Kats), but the main buffet area is located next to the large windows on the far end. The spread was quite good for meat lovers and had an excellent salad station for vegetarians. A salad station not made up of just lettuce and types of dressings. There were a few Japanese options and items from a continental breakfast that included cereal, bread, and pastries. I definitely appreciated that everything was clearly labeled inside the lounge. Oh yeah before I forget: there is some made to order Sushi and noodles stations in the dining area, which is supposed to be really good from what I’ve heard.
The lounge has some nice views of the tarmac and one of the nearby runways. We could already see our Cathay Pacific 747 getting loaded up for our upcoming flight to Hong Kong in the back:
Just a level down from the First Class lounge is the Sakura lounge, which was incredibly busy, but also brighter and airier than the First Class Lounge:
We spent a good couple of hours at the JAL First Class lounge just relaxing and charging all our various gizmos and gadgets. We thought about venturing out to check out the Cathay lounge, but ended up not having enough time in the end.
Bottom Line
The Japan Airlines First Class lounge is uncrowded, quiet, clean, and elegant for a quick airport wait. Wi-Fi is generally fast, and food is relatively tolerable even for vegetarians. It’s an absolute paradise if you can eat Sushi and some of the other Japanese dishes. I was a little disappointed that there were no showers available during our time in the lounge, especially after that sweaty flight over from Chicago. There is no doubt that this is a nice lounge, but I would rank it below what Cathay Pacific offers in Hong Kong. Oh yeah, Cathay also seems to know what it means to be vegetarian 🙂
What’s your opinion on the JAL First Class Lounge @ Narita?
Trip Index:
Japan Airlines First Class ORD-NRT
