Lounge Review: Air Lounge at Vienna International

Taking the Vienna to Dubai flight with Emirates twice in the last month gave me a chance to visit Air Lounge – the Priority Pass lounge in Vienna airport’s old terminal non-Schengen area – twice.

The lounge is one of four Priority Pass lounges at the airport, and is largely similar to the Sky Lounge in the new terminal that I reviewed earlier.

Besides being used by Priority Pass and select airlines, it is also possible to pay 29.5EUR to enter the lounge regardless of the airline or class you are flying.

Lounge Overview

The entrance to the lounge is located on the main departures level, on the right side just after passport control. It is available for use to passengers departing from “D” gates.

Right after entering the lounge, there is a welcome desk with a cloakroom room to the left of it. When the lounge staff saw me taking a picture of it at a later stage of my stage, she smiled saying that “I take many pictures of everything.”

Once past the reception, one enters the dining area with two counters with stools and a counter with food and drinks. The counters are separated from the reception with magazine racks.

The rest of the lounge is basically one long room with a workspace in the reception-side corner, and a variety of seating options throughout the remainder of the room.

A variety of lounge and sofa chairs can be found in the hallway-like room – both individual chairs facing the windows as well as pairs of sofas facing each other for groups. The room is divided into several seating areas using “string curtains” for more privacy. The lounge also offers limited apron and runway views.

Most of the seats feature red, blue, yellow, and green tables that I find to be a bit tacky.

The workspace consists of two counter-height workstations including one with a PC, and a work desk. The desk is slightly odd, as it has slightly raised borders, and offers a view of the whole lounge – it looks more like a check-in or reception desk than a workstation.

There are no showers in the lounge.

Food & Drinks Selection

The food and drinks offered in the lounge are spread over a single counter in the main area.

It seems like there is generally one hot option available. During my first visit, it was tomato pasta. During the second visit, chicken tikka marsala with rice was offered. There were also two kinds of soup on offer both times I visited, different kinds each time.

The selection of cold food is limited to bread, fruits, sweet and sour snacks, and salad.

 

Finally, the usual selection of cold and hot drinks is available. One thing worth noting is that the sodas are provided in large PET bottles instead of cans.

Air Lounge Vienna Summary

Since the lounge offers no showers, and the selection of both food and drinks is rather limited, in most cases, it is not worth paying for the lounge. Whether that means in cash or by using up one of the limited Priority Pass lounge visits you have available.

In case you have the unlimited Priority Pass Prestige membership, there is, of course no downside to visiting and spending time before your flight here given that there is no other Priority Pass alternative in that area of the airport.