Review of the oneworld Lounge, Seoul Incheon Airport

The oneworld alliance is one of three major airline alliances around the world and is the last one to have their custom built lounges.

As someone that predominantly flies with oneworld carriers and has status with the alliance, I was looking forward to what this lounge would offer. I had seen images online and it looked fantastic.

Whilst a nice lounge, I felt it was lacking in quite a few areas. Here is my review of the oneworld lounge in Seould Incheon Terminal 1.

Where is it

The lounge is located in terminal 1 of Incheon airport where all of the oneworld flights depart. Terminal 2 is just for Korean Air and a select few other airlines.

There are up to 6 main security banks for international departures from Terminal 1. If you head through security and immigration at either numbers 3 or 4, it is closest to the lounge which is located in the centre of the airport.

The lounge is between gates 28 and 29 with a sign for the lounge and the adjoining Korean Air Lounge. Head up the escalators and the striking facade is in front of you.

The friendly staff in the reception area are on the left.

Note that I entered the lounge about 8pm for a midnight flight.

Entry Requirements

To access the lounge you need to be flying in business class or first class on any oneworld airline departing that day. Passengers flying on a oneworld airline in economy are welcomed if they have Sapphire or Emerald status with a oneworld airline.

Passengers with status can bring one guest into the lounge with them as per oneworld lounge access rules.

I flew Malaysia Airlines and managed to enter with my oneworld Sapphire status.

The lounge does not belong to Priority Pass and there is no other way to pay to get in.

The lounge is open form 5.30am to 1.30am to cover all oneworld international departures from the airport.

Facilities in the oneworld Lounge, Seoul

As you walk into the lounge past reception, there are large lockers on the left hand side to store any luggage.  Entering the lounge, there is a bar right in front of you that has a striking design and was well staffed during my visit.

There is an abundance of seating all over the lounge with every type of chair and seat you could wish for (more on that in a moment). To the left is a buffet area serving a selection of salads, toast and croissant (even though I was there in the evening) on the left side, fruit and some cakes in the middle, and warm mains on the right.

There was also a fridge with soft drinks, juices and some beer in for self service. Although all of these can also be served at the bar.

There are two coworking areas with doors for privacy if you had to work or take any calls whilst in the lounge. Next to those is a conference room with a mock up painting Review of the oneworld Lounge, Seoul Incheon Airport a table with 5 chairs in case anyone needed a last minute business meeting with a small team.

There was wifi throughout the lounge but you had to log in with an email address where you will have to unselect the marketing emails they want to send you. Even though it tells you to click on the email to confirm your session but you can log in, I entered a fake email address and managed to connect with no issues. However, I still found that an unusual feature of a premium lounge.

At the far end of the lounge was a small area with mini cabanas to sit by yourself and some lounge style chairs.

There are also toilets and two showers. To use the showers, you need to ask at reception. I was told there were five people in front of me in the queue and had to wait about 30 minutes until I could use one. I was at the lounge a long time before my flight so it didn’t really matter to me, but if you have a short connection it is one thing to note.

The shower was good but the water didn’t get that hot. There was also nowhere to put your bag when you were in the shower. There was a small seat, but that contained a box that had the towels in. There was also nowhere next to the sink to put a toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant etc. So my bag ended up on the floor and I worked out of that. It just seemed very badly designed. The shower gels and shampoos smelled delightful though are were very high quality.

Another thing to note, there was lovely background music being played throughout the lounge, which also filtered through to the shower rooms.

Overall, the lounge has everything you could wish for in a lounge if you are ticking boxes. It is also fantastically designed, looking fresh and modern, and I think the designer deserves a pay rise!

Seating in the oneworld Lounge, Seoul

The lounge has every type of seating you could imagine. And none of them are comfy.

I first tried sitting at some of the stools near the bar and I found the chairs bulky and difficult to move and tuck into the table.

I then sat at some of the dining style seats near the buffet and found them hard as well.

I sat in some of other seats that have a bubble design and also didn’t find those particularly comfortable to sit in either.

In the end, I spent most of my time in an armchair style seat that had a small table with a plug socket attached. It was perfectly fine but a long way from the comfort you get in some lounges.

The good points are: there are plenty of different types of seating and chairs all over the lounge for you to try. There are also plug sockets, USB-A or USB-C at most seats so there is always somewhere to charge your devices. The seating areas also look brilliant in my opinion, even though I’m aware some people don’t like it.

But at the end of the day, the main point of a seat is to be comfy, and most of these weren’t.

There are so many other types of seating, I will let the photos do the talking below.

Food and drink in the oneworld Lounge, Seoul

Korea has some fantastic food and I had enjoyed my time eating my way through Seoul. On first impressions the food looked good. I didn’t try the toast or croissants (that were still out at 9pm) but I did have a few of the cakes whilst I was waiting for my shower and they were delicious. As good as the small cakes I’ve had in the Malaysia Airlines and Qatar Airways lounges.

I also had some nachos (without the cheese it was served with) and some tempura fish bites that were ok but didn’t scream to me a particularly premium lounge food.

As a main, I had a little bit of everything on offer from the warm side. White rice, “hot vegetables”, “orange and duck” and “beef chop steak”. The descriptions had a lot to be desired. The beef in a dark sauce was delicious and the duck was pretty good too but not great.

I wanted to go back for seconds of the beef but they had just finished and it was replaced by a “sweet chilli shrimp” and the tempura fish bites from earlier had been replaced by “butter roast potatoes”. I had some of each and some of the pasta salad.

I was very disappointed as everything on the plate tasted extremely sweet. The potatoes had a sweet fake cheese sprinkled on them, the pasta sauce had far too much sugar and the sweet chilli shrimp had forgotten the chilli and just gone with the sweet.

Overall, I found the food to be poor.

Another thing I found annoying with the food was the hot plates they were served on. In most lounges, the food is either uncovered or has a lid that can be lifted on a hinge so that it stays open. In this lounge, the lid had to be removed, but there was nowhere to store it whilst I would serve my food. It make it awkward and as you can see in one of the pictures, I have just rested it behind the bowl.

There were two coffee machines at either end of the lounge that also had hot and cold water and ice dispensers in them. There was a wide selection of soft drinks for self service as well.

The bar was excellent and had some premium spirits but there was a large section for self service as well. It was strange that I could go and pour my own drink with a barman standing the other side of the bar.

There were two white wines, a New Zealand sauvignon blanc and an Australian chardonnay, two red wines, a cab sav and a pinot noir and a Brut Cuvee champagne. The spirits were also of a good quality with a more premium choice behind the bar if you wanted to ask for them.

Staff service in the oneworld Lounge, Seoul

I don’t normally have a section on the staff and the level of service you get in a lounge as there aren’t normally that many touch points, even in the best lounges.

But I have to say that the staff in the oneworld Lounge at Incheon were excellent. The lady on reception when I entered was very friendly. The member of staff I booked a shower with was friendly and helpful and the gentleman on the bar that served me and personally gave me the shower key was also very happy to be there. All the members of staff had excellent English as well.

Even the staff that went around collecting plates and glasses were polite and friendly.

The staff are the one stand out from an otherwise disappointing experience.

Overall thoughts

One of the main reasons I took this flight from Seoul was to try out this lounge. It had been on my radar for a while. But I have to say I was very disappointed in the experience. The staff were great and I think it is a visually stunning lounge. But the food was poor, the seating was uncomfortable and the wait for the showers was frustrating.

As a lounge that is owned by an alliance, I was expecting it to be similar to all of the other great lounges I have been to when flying with oneworld. But almost every oneworld airline lounge I have been to has been better than this one. It is just above a priority pass lounge in my view and nowhere near a business class lounge that I would expect from the airlines that fly from Seoul.

I was hoping it would be a lounge that would wow me but I didn’t get that impression at all and it left me very underwhelmed at what could have been.

Dan

Dan is an avid traveller from London. His first big adventure was in 2010 living in Malaysia for 3 months. He has been on the road almost constantly since 2015 travelling to destinations that aren’t on the mainstream tourist trail and working full time and travelling since 2021.