Lounge Review: Pura Indah Lounge Jakarta Airport (CGK)

It took me about an hour to get to the airport from the Grand Hyatt by taxi. I was flying JAL out of CGK, and at check-in, I was told that JAL uses the Pura Indah lounge.

Entrance to the lounge

There were a lot of different lounges at the airport, including a Citibank lounge. I didn't realize that Citibank has its own lounges, but I also remembered seeing tons of Citibank advertising and deals at Plaza Indonesia, the mall connected to the Grand Hyatt. It seemed that many of the lounges in the international area of the terminal I was in (Terminal 2D) were accessible via Priority Pass, including this lounge that JAL (and many other airlines) uses.

The lounge has separate first and business class sections, but first class is just a room that's less crowded. There was tons of seating and not that many people using the first class side.

Lounge seating

Japanese newspapers for JAL passengers

In terms of food, there were a number of sweet options like cakes, pastries, fried bananas, and desserts wrapped in banana leaf, but savory options were limited to some chicken curry puffs, penne with eggplant, and soups. I thought the fried bananas were pretty tasty, but I'm a fat kid at heart and a sucker for most fried and/or sweet things.

The food options overall looked a little sad. It's still a better food selection that you'd get at many US domestic lounges (although that seems to be changing), but because there weren't that many passengers on the first class side, the food turnover was slow. So it was a bit unclear how long some of the food had been sitting there.

Drinks and refrigerated foods

Sandwiches

Pastries

Soups

Fried bananas and banana leaf desserts

Hot savory food (chicken curry puff and eggplant penne)

The wifi in the lounge was quite slow, and there weren't enough power outlets in the lounge, so it's not a great place to sit and do work. There is a shower in the bathroom that looked reasonably clean, but I didn't see any towels, so you might have to ask for those. But it didn't seem like the shower got a ton of use.

Shower

Overall, this lounge is disappointing for a lounge at the airport of a major Asian city, but it's better than waiting in the terminal. It's also nice that it's accessible via Priority Pass.

Source: Lounge Review: Pura Indah Lounge Jakarta Airport (CGK)