Review of the V1 Lounge, Kunming International Airport

This is my review of the V1 lounge at Kunming international airport. It is the lounge you will have access to if you’re departing on an international flight from Kunming and flying with one of the airlines that offer lounge access.

There was little information online about this lounge and I can see why. As a lounge for a relatively major international airport, it’s pretty poor. The terminal is actually a nicer place to sit before your flight.

The lounge was extremely busy when I visited so couldn’t get many photos, especially of the seating.

Where is it

The V1 lounge is in the international area of airport. About 80% of the departures at the airport are for domestic flights, and check in for the few international flights are at the far right hand side of the terminal building, near check in rows J and K.

Or if arriving by car or taxi it will be at the start of the ramp.

Once through customs and security, you’ll enter into (one section of) the vast terminal and the lounge is on the right just before you get to the gates.

The entrance is at the end of the mini corridor on the right.

Entry Requirements

To get into the lounge you need to be flying business class on one of the carriers that offer it from Kunming. This includes Thai Airways, Korean Air and China Eastern.

You also gain access if you have status with one of those airlines which is how I gained access thanks to my SkyTeam Elite status and flying with China Eastern.

Dragon Pass holders can also enter but not Priority Pass.

Facilities in the V1 Lounge, Kunming Airport

The lounge is extremely basic and you can see most of it from the entrance when you walk in.

In the entrance, there is a newspaper rack with newspapers and magazines in English and Chinese.

To the left of the entrance is a mass of seating mostly with individual seats set in a quad formation with two seats facing each other. This follows around the corner as well. There isn’t much differentiation in seating in the lounge.

In front of the entrance and to the right is the dining area with a buffet selection, seating with higher tables that are more comfortable for eating and some fridge with drinks in.

The lounge has a pretty low ceiling and there isn’t any natural light in the lounge.

There are no toilets in the lounge and you must use ones in the terminal building.

There is also a lack of plug sockets for charging devices, something that is quite important in China.

Food and drink in the V1 Lounge, Kunming Airport

I have to say the food and drink options were pretty poor.

I had enjoyed a lot of good Chinese food during my stay in Kunming but the choices available weren’t great. An egg dish, a chicken dish and a red kidney bean option were available but none were appealing. The noodles were also not great.

There were fridges with cold drinks which included water, apple juice, Pepsi and some colourful soda style drinks.

There was a coffee machine that should have made a cappuccino but had run out of milk when I used it.

There was also a fridge with some fruit and sandwiches and hamburgers. The sandwiches had a sticker of a chicken or a cow on to depict what meat they contained and they weren’t great. I asked for the hamburger to be heated and it was basically a slice of ham with some cucumber in a burger bun which wasn’t improved by heating. I didn’t expect it to be good and mainly had it out of curiosity but I can confirm it was dire. The sandwich, that remained chilled, wasn’t much better.

The food service is only available at select times and I had the lunch service which they were clearing away by the time I boarded.

There was no alcohol served in the lounge.

Overall thoughts

This wasn’t the worst lounge I have ever been to (which is probably this one) but it isn’t far above it when it comes to an international business class lounge at a hub airport.

I do have to say that the staff were lovely though and cleared plates frequently and were constantly tidying and cleaning the lounge as well as restocking the fridge when only a few items appeared to be used. They were also very enthusiastic and friendly when they heated my burger.

However it isn’t worth getting to the airport early to experience the lounge and you might as well stay in the terminal if good food and natural light is what you’re after as the wide open space has plenty of coffee and snack options (but don’t expect main meals).

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.