The Changi Lounge is a landside airport lounge located within Jewel Changi Airport for arrival, departure and transit passengers (if you clear immigration into Singapore) which seems to be directly operated by Changi Airport Group.
With the reopening of the Changi Lounge in Phase Two (Safe Transition) of post-Circuit Breaker with a hard to beat promotion of S$12 nett for 2 hours, I opted to give it a try to pretend to wait for my flight (technically I did have one though, sigh), and it would have been my first experience in the Changi Lounge too.
That being said, S$12 nett does not get you the pre-COVID airport lounge experience, but as the information on their website states, you can “enjoy coffee and drinks, comfortable seating with ample charging and power points for devices and business facilities” – which means, most notably, the lounge buffet is (obviously) out for now. But at S$12, my expectations were well managed already.
The discounted price list at the Changi Lounge is as follows:
Lounge
2 hours: S$12
Extension per hour: S$4
Meeting Room
Single Room (up to 4 pax): S$60 for 1 hour
Extension per hour: S$20
Free 4-hours parking for a minimum of 4-hour lounge access or a meeting room booking.
I was ready to gladly pay the S$12 for a 2-hour lounge visit, but I didn’t expect a further discount when I showed up at the counter.
The $12 Changi Lounge promotion has ended. The new Changi Lounge promotion rates from 1 October 2020 are as follows:
Lounge Access
2h Package: S$15
4h Package: S$24
8h Package: S$44
Extension per hour: S$6Meeting Room
Single Room (up to 5 pax): S$80 for 1 hour
Extension per hour: S$40 for single roomExtra Perks
Enjoy free flow drinks (limited time promo) and free parking* for:
Lounge access packages of minimum 4h
Meeting room bookings of minimum 2h
The entrance to the Changi Lounge. The big counter outside is currently used for Jewel redemptions.
The sign outside the Changi Lounge advertises the S$12 promotion.
Heading into the Changi Lounge, visiting the counter to make payment first.
Here, I was welcomed by the staff who asked if I had a Changi Rewards membership. After taking down my card number, I got a surprise 10% discount, making this 2-hour visit only $10.80 nett. That’s a price for a pay-per-use airport lounge that’s truly hard to beat especially in Singapore.
After making payment, the lounge staff asked what my purpose of visit was so that they could recommend the best place to sit at, to which I replied, “for fun” and “nothing to do now”.
I was being honest, please don’t judge me.
The interior of the Changi Lounge with a focus on lounging now.
I’m not sure how the pre-COVID lounge looked like, but the seats are arranged in small clusters with some being blocked out to ensure extreme social distancing of way more than a meter apart between groups.
After about 15 minutes, the lounge staff came around to take the drinks order.
For S$12, don’t expect wine or champagne, but the beverage list was way more extensive that I had expected of a basic black coffee or tea with a side of sugar and powdered creamer a la McDonald’s.
The drinks came with plenty of snacks which I did not expect to be so much, though notably this was a serving for 2 persons.
The usual packaged snacks included 2 packs of Lay’s potato chips and 3 Loacker Minis.
There was also a sponge cake from Tong Heng Bakery. Egg tarts might have been nice too though.
The Sprite was served chilled with a glass to pour the drink into.
The hot latte was served nicely in a latte glass. Honestly, for S$12, I was expecting all hot drinks to be in a standard coffee cup just like how Saizeriya does it for their drinks bar.
After some guests were done with their stay and the lounge was empty, I took a walk around to see what other facilities there are.
The buffet line is empty for now.
The communal dining table has seats marked out for social distancing, with other smaller clusters available.
The bar is closed too, but I think I see where my latte came from.
The meeting room is part of the Changi Lounge too.
The view of the two rooms opened up.
1 room would be half the size with the partition pulled through.
Contrary to other news sites writing about the lounge visit, no, you cannot visit the Nap Room, and is obviously not included in your S$12. In fact, it would have costed extra anyway during pre-COVID times, just like those in The Haven by JetQuay and Ambassador Transit Hotel in Terminal 3.
The Nap Room service is now, however, not available till further notice.
More sofas blocked out for social distancing.
There is a working corner for 4 behind the meeting rooms, useful if you would need to type away on a laptop.
Universal and USB power sockets are available too, though it says it’s for phone use only. I didn’t have a laptop to try if the socket would provide sufficient power for it.
The view of the lounge while seated comfortably in my cluster.
Once I was ready to leave the Changi Lounge at the end of my 2 hour stay, the lounge staff gave me a further Complimentary 1 hour Extension voucher for my next visit – which means my next $10.80 nett spent at the Changi Lounge would be for 3 hours instead.
If there was going to be a pet peeve about Changi Lounge, it would be that there’s actually no toilet in it. The door beside the dining area leads out to the public toilet beside Paris Baguette…
… which was closed anyway due to the reduction in the number of toilets in Jewel during the COVID period.
I would think that in normal times, you would get a code to key in back into the Changi Lounge after your visit to the public toilet.
In COVID times ie. now, the nearest toilet is behind Rich & Good Cake Shop, which isn’t very convenient at all.
But overall, for S$10.80, Changi Lounge offered way more frills than expected from their promotional photos of just a seat, black coffee and a long saucer of nibbles.
I should also add that the Changi Lounge staff took the effort to ask for names of everyone in the lounge and addressed us by name throughout the stay, which was amazing, considering that I paid S$10.80 per person and not S$38. Heck, even if it was S$38, I wouldn’t expect the staff to address me by name, let alone remember it. I barely had any contact with lounge staff anywhere in the world.
(Looking closer at the staff’s name tag, it said “Terminal Manager” though. Hmm, what happened. But I guess they made sure that guests truly Enjoy Changi.)
I’ll definitely be back at the Changi Lounge to work or write one day with this great re-opening promotion, perhaps trying out their non-advertised Bento package too if I were to visit during a meal time. And Changi Lounge is definitely now on my list to try out before one of my next flights out of Changi Airport Terminal 1 once everyone can fly again to try out the full works of what they offer in the regular lounge.
One comment