Kochi Airport is one of the airports in Japan that lacks an airline lounge. In fact, until July 2022 when the Card Lounge Blue Sky was opened, the airport had no lounge at all. Before catching a flight back to Tokyo during a recent trip to Osaka and Kochi, I had a chance to briefly check out the lounge.
Continue reading this review to see what the Card Lounge Blue Sky was like.
Location & Opening Hours
The Card Lounge Blue Sky at Kochi Airport is located landside – i.e. before security. It can be found on the second floor, next to “Ichiba” store and across from the security checkpoint.
While the entrance is fairly unassuming, you should be able to locate it fairly easily given how small the airport is.
The lounge is open daily from one hour before the day’s first scheduled flight departure until the departure of the day’s last scheduled flight. At the time of our visit, that meant 6:15AM until 7:55PM.
Entry Requirements
With this being a typical Japanese “card lounge,” holders of a variety of Japanese credit cards (Rakuten Premium in my case) can enter the lounge free of charge.
Those without an eligible credit card can pay to enter the lounge. Those 12 years old and above have to pay 1,100 yen (approx. 8 dollars) to enter the lounge for two hours. Kids aged 3 to 11 pay half of that and younger kids could enter for free. Extending stay in the lounge was possible in one hour increments at 550 yen per hour.
Lounge Tour
According to the lounge’s website, the lounge can seat 50 people. The vast majority of seats was in the lounge’s main, square-shaped located right past the reception. Some additional seating was in a rectangular part that extended out of the square area and led to the restrooms.
One thing that made this lounge relatively unique compared to other similar lounges was the proportion of seats that offered an excellent level of privacy compared to those that did not.
Starting with the main area, there were small pods with high partitions around them. Each of the pods had a small sofa for one, a small table, and a luggage storage rack. The luggage storage rack was equipped with a pair of power outlets.
Additionally, there were rows of benches for one separated by partitions. Each of the benches had a power outlet and a USB port underneath and came with a small table.
Two more relatively private types of seating included some work desks with large partitions separating them, and booths with a small table and a corner sofa for one.
There was also a counter along the window in the main area. Each of the seats at the counter had access to a USB port and a power outlet too.
The view from the window included the airport’s parking lot and some mountains in the background.
One of the walls in the main area featured some information about Dr. Tomitaro Makino – a famous Japanese botanist originally from Kochi – and Makino Botanical Garden – the main reason behind our visit to Kochi.
The wall was also decorated with some of his drawings of plants.
Lastly, there were also a couple of vending machines with drinks (more about those in the next section), a flight information screen, three screens showing live footage of the airport’s aircraft parking spots, and a rack with some Japanese reading materials.
As for the smaller part of the lounge that extended out of the main part, there were half a dozen tables along a long bench (there were no chairs on the other side of the tables).
There was also a couple of private workspaces/phone booths. Unfortunately, unlike at some other card lounges in Japan, the phone booths came at an extra cost of 330 yen per 30 minutes.
Food and Drinks
Interestingly, rather than having drink dispensers, there were two vending machines in the Card Lounge Blue Sky.
One of those offered a relatively wide array of cold and hot soft drinks for free. Among others, there were Coke, Calpis, yuzu honey lemonade, and a selection of coffee drinks. The other vending machine was selling canned alcoholic drinks (beer, wine, highball, etc.).
In addition to the two vending machines, there was also a tea and water dispenser.
There were no snacks or anything else to eat.
Card Lounge Blue Sky Kochi Airport Summary
The Card Lounge Blue Sky at Kochi Airport was, in most regards, just like any other credit card lounge in Japan. In other words, it offered a variety of seating and some drinks but not much beyond that.
The one thing that I wish the lounge had was free phone booths rather than paid work booths. On the other hand, I appreciated the amount of seats that offered good privacy.
All in all, this is not really a lounge that you will want to arrive at the airport early for. That said, if you have a couple of hours to spend at the airport and need to get some work done then I’d say the lounge is worth a visit, potentially even if you have to pay to enter.
