Both JAL Sakura Lounge and ANA Lounge at Sapporo New Chitose airport went through a renewal process in the last couple of years. While the JAL Lounge reopened in 2016, the ANA Lounge reopened in September 2017.
I visited and reviewed the JAL Lounge in the past (see the review here), and I finally I had a chance to visit the renewed ANA Lounge at Sapporo airport back in July before my flight to Okinawa thanks to my friend’s Star Alliance Gold membership. So here’s the review.
Location, Opening Hours & Access
The lounge is located airside at Sapporo’s domestic terminal, across from gates 7 and 8. It shares an entrance with the more premium ANA Suite Lounge, and both of them are one floor above the main departures level.
The ANA Lounge at New Chitose airport is accessible to ANA Premium Class passengers as well as all Star Alliance Gold members traveling on ANA flights, and its open every day from 6:30AM until the departure of the last flight of the day.
Lounge Tour
The ANA Lounge shares its reception with the ANA Suite Lounge, and is located on the right side of the reception. Just past the reception, there was a luggage storage area, and the lounge also featured a smoking room and a number of “phone booths” where visitors could use their cellphones without bothering other guests.
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The main feature of the lounge was a large communal table with about twenty seats and an “artificial hill” in the middle located near the entrance. There were also a couple of tables, a counter with power outlets and some seats, as well as a rack with (Japanese) reading materials) in this part of the lounge.
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Then, there was a drinks and snacks area (more about that in the next section). Across from that, there were some more counters as well as some sofa chairs – each of them equipped with power outlets.
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Finally, there was one more seating area at the further end of the lounge which consisted of sofa chairs. The lounge’s rest rooms and smoking room were located in this area as well.
Food and Drinks
Just like with other domestic ANA Lounges (such as the Tokyo Haneda one), the only food in the lounge were rice crackers.
Then, there were some alcoholic drinks including shochu and a couple of brands of Japanese whisky. There were also automated (Kirin, Sapporo, Asahi) beer and highball dispensers that Japanese lounges are well known for.
Finally, the soft drinks included aojiru vegetable juice, soda and other drinks available from a dispenser, milk, vegetable and tomato juices, tea and coffee.
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ANA Lounge Sapporo Summary
I haven’t visited the lounge before its reconstruction so I cannot compare it to what it was before, but overall, I liked the lounge’s design. It was bright with large windows along its whole length and offered great views of the runways. It was more or less the same as any other domestic ANA Lounge.
While the food and drinks were nothing to write home about, they were on par with all the other domestic lounges in Japan.
All in all, I wouldn’t arrive at the lounge early for the sake of enjoying the lounge, however, if I had to get some work done, the lounge would be a perfectly suitable place to do so while doing some plane spotting.
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