Review: Chennai International Airport Travel Club lounge

The first leg of my onward trip was from Chennai (MAA) to Abu Dhabi (AUH). I had some time to kill at the airport, and so I decided to head to the lounge that I was able to access, because I was flying business class anyway. Here's a quick review of the lounge.


Index of posts


Chennai International Airport has two lounges, actually. The Port Lounge, which is located in the main (new) building is a relatively small lounge that tends to be crowded. And while I haven't been to that lounge in 18 months, I'm willing to bet a small fortune that it hasn't changed much.

However, the Travel Club lounge is a relatively new and larger lounge located in the old terminal building, one level below. This lounge is used by Lufthansa, Emirates, Etihad and Jet Airways, and also serves as the lounge for MasterCard, Visa and Amex lounge programs.

You can access this lounge after clearing immigration and security, and turning right. Take the elevator or escalator down to the first level (where boarding gates 11 to 16 are located). The lounge is located on the left, a minute's walk down the concourse. (As an added bonus, it is located right next to the smoking area!)


While it isn't a spectacularly large lounge, it can accommodate 50-60 persons in total. There are a mix of individual chairs, which are rather comfortable.


Or if you prefer to dine properly or have more than 2 people in your group, you can choose one of the 4-seater tables.



There's a further section to the right (upon entry), which has more individual seats.


The F&B spread is also a massive improvement over the other lounge, and they've got soft drinks and water in the cooler, as also a coffee machine.


You can choose bakery snacks such as small rolls, cake slices, etc, from the counter on top of the cooler. Or you can access the buffet for a more substantial meal.


I'm not sure (and I didn't ask) who does the catering, but it could be the Taj hotels. The overall food quality is acceptable (from my earlier uses of this lounge - I didn't eat on this visit).

There's also a small bar with a choice of spirits, and a cooler of beer (full bottles and pints).


It was just after lunch that I reached the airport, and I wasn't really hungry this time around, and so I ate nothing here. However, I did have some coffee, and a glass of flavoured ice tea, both of which were pretty decent.

Given the timing of my flight, there were only 4 or 5 others in the entire lounge at the time I visited it. The lounge was reasonably well-staffed given its small size, so there was no trouble with getting anything I wanted.

Overall, as I said, not a spectacular lounge in its own right, but a vast improvement over the Port Lounge which used to be the only option in the days past.

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