IASS Superior Lounge NOA is a relatively new lounge in Tokyo Narita Airport’s Terminal 1. It was opened in July 2023, together with IASS Superior Lounge KoCoo in Terminal 2. Both of these lounges promised an upgraded experience compared to the same company’s IASS Executive Lounges in the two terminals.
Prior to jumping on a flight to Taipei and heading to Europe at the end of August, I had a chance to briefly visit the lounge, which is also a part of the Priority Pass network.
Continue reading this review to see what the lounge was like and whether it’s worth a visit.
Location & Opening Hours
The IASS Superior Lounge NOA can be found in Narita Airport’s Terminal 1 which is primarily used by SkyTeam and Star Alliance airlines. More specifically, it’s located after security check and immigration, near gate 26. As such, you can only use the lounge if you are departing on an international flight.
While the lounge is open every day from 7:30AM until 9PM, the last entry time is 8:40PM.
Entry Requirements
Entry requirements for the IASS Superior Lounge NOA are stricter than for most other credit card lounges in Japan. Rather than gold card holders of most brands being able to access the lounge, it can only be accessed by those holding select platinum cards.
That said, if you are coming from abroad – or even if you live in Japan but do not have a platinum credit card – you can still enter the lounge through select lounge membership programs, namely Priority Pass (the way I entered it), Lounge Pass, and Lounge Key.
Regardless of how you are eligible to enter IASS Superior Lounge NOA, you will also need a boarding pass for a flight on the same day.
Lounge Tour
Entering the IASS Superior Lounge NOA, there was a small reception area with a couple of chairs, a small Godzilla on display, and a small reception desk.
There also appeared to be a luggage rack right next to the reception desk. That said, there was no luggage stored there at the time of my visit.
Going past reception, I was surprised at how small the lounge was. That said, I liked its simple design with some traditional Japanese touches including a flight information display set in a torii (a traditional Japanese gate) and an elevated seating area surrounded by a stone border.
The flight information display was to the left of the entrance into the main part of the lounge. Behind the display was a small seating area with about ten sofa chairs. Between the sofa chairs were small console tables with power outlets and USB ports.
In the middle of the IASS Superior Lounge NOA was the elevated seating area mentioned above. It ran through most of the lounge’s length and featured a bit more than a dozen chairs split across two rows facing each other. Between the chairs were, again, small tables with power outlets and USB ports.
On one side of the elevated seating area was a buffet counter and on the other side was a counter with seats offering some great views of aircraft.
Lastly, in the very back of the lounge were some more sofa chairs. Those did not have any tables next to them and did not appear to provide access to power outlets or USB charging ports either.
Food and Drinks
The good news is that unlike in the IASS Executive Lounge landside, the IASS Superior Lounge NOA is – as it’s name suggests – superior and offers not only drinks but also some food. The bad news is that the selection is still nothing to write home about.
Starting with cold drinks, there was a soft drinks dispenser that included carbonated water, Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zero, ginger ale, Fanta Melon Soda, green tea, and orange juice.
Hot drinks included a selection of coffee drinks and hot chocolate from a Costa Coffee machine, as well as black, green, and roasted green tea bags.
Lastly, alcoholic drinks included sake, wine, lemon sour, and beer. The latter two were served by automatic dispensers that Japanese lounges are well-known for.
As for bites to eat, there were snacks and sweets including mixed nuts, peanuts, soy sauce dango (mochi dumplings), and matcha chocolate.
There were also miso soup, cream bread rolls, red bean bread rolls, Japanese-style salads, and pickles.
Finally, there were takoyaki and Napolitan (ketchup spaghetti).
IASS Superior Lounge NOA Tokyo Narita Summary
Without a doubt, the IASS Superior Lounge NOA is an improvement compared to the other, older IASS Executive Lounge in Narita Airport Terminal 1. That said, it is still far from being a lounge worth visiting unless you have no other options.
The lounge is nicely designed, was empty during my visit so provided a quiet place to relax in (although that will depend a lot on the time of your departure), and offers a basic selection of drinks and some bites to eat but that’s about it. On the other hand, the food selection was minimal and there were no toilets or showers in the lounge.
All in all, if you are thinking of visiting this lounge using Priority Pass, skip this one and head to one of the other Priority Pass lounges at Tokyo Narita – like the KAL Business Lounge – instead.
