REVIEW: Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse – Tokyo Narita

Virgin Atlantic (VS)

  • Location: Tokyo (NRT)
  • Class: Business
  • Access: Virgin Business class. Virgin Gold card holders
  • Date: April 2014


Reeling from the post-karaoke hangover, Kamara and I rushed to NRT for our morning flight. The taxi to Tokyo station kept getting stuck in traffic, this meant that upon arrival to the station we had to sprint to the Keisei skyliner.

Still, we did get the opportunity to top up the charge on all of our electronic devices whilst in the taxi:

keisei skyliner

The skyliner is the usual NRT racket. You pay to reserve a seat and then also pay extra once you get off, otherwise you can’t get into the airport. Total cost is around $35 but it is considerably faster than taking one of the regular trains.

virgin atlantic tokyo check-in

The staff looked visibly relieved when we showed up to the Upper Class check-in. I think we must have been SEQ 200+

sky priority NRT narita fast track

VS flies out of the Skyteam terminal at NRT, which has fast track lane usable for all elites and J passengers.

vs virgin clubhouse invitation

Thanks to this invitation, we were through security in a couple of minutes. We hot footed it to the Clubhouse and sat down just a minute or two before the VS901 boarding announcement.

Virgin Clubhouse entrance - Tokyo Narita Airport

Virgin Clubhouse entrance – Tokyo Narita Airport

We were given some welcome drinks as soon as we sat down and were also offered menus:

eggs benedict vrigin clubhouse NRT

I ordered the eggs Benedict, which came with bacon rather than salmon. They were good but not a patch on the Conrad’s version.

The NRT clubhouse is only really there to serve VS901 so when the boarding announcement was made the place completely emptied out. This gave me a perfect opportunity to take some pictures.

virgin clubhouse tokyo narita nrt review

virgin clubhouse tokyo narita nrt review

virgin clubhouse tokyo narita nrt review

virgin clubhouse tokyo narita nrt review

virgin clubhouse tokyo narita nrt review


Conclusion


Overall this is a cool, small lounge. The place is very design and service focused, which you’d expect given that these are the two hallmarks of the VS experience. Next time I would show up a little earlier to enjoy a peaceful boarding process. This is not a lounge where you would want to arrive three hours early tough as the space is limited and the place can get very crowded in the lead up to the LHR flight.


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