TIAT Lounge – Tokyo Haneda Airport Terminal 3’s contract lounge – was one of the five lounges I recently had a chance to check out before catching a flight to Korea.
Continue reading this review to see what the lounge was like.
Location & Opening Hours
TIAT Lounge is located airside (i.e. after security check and immigration) in Tokyo Haneda Airport’s Terminal 3, which is used by all international flights except for some of ANA’s. The lounge is about as easy to find as it gets.
Once you go through passport control, you will see a set of escalators right in front of you. Simply take the escalator (or a nearby elevator) one floor up and the lounge will be right in front of you. It shares reception with SKY Lounge, a lounge that one can pay to enter or use for free with some Japanese credit cards.
TIAT Lounge is open 24 hours a day.
Entry Requirements
The easiest way to get into TIAT Lounge is using Priority Pass or DragonPass.
Members of either program can stay for up to three hours. I am not sure whether the limit is enforced but as you will see below, chances are you will not want to stay that long anyways. Each member can bring in up to two guests (whether for free or at an extra charge depending on the type of membership) and children under 4 years old can enter free of charge.
Additionally, with this being the terminal’s contract lounge, select airlines such as including China Southern Airlines and ITA Airways invite their business class passengers and frequent flyer status holders to use the lounge.
Depending on how crowded the lounge is, you might get turned away if you are using one of the membership programs. Even if not, if you go during peak hours, you might have to wait outside the lounge for some time until seats open.
That was the case when I tried to go around 9PM.
Lounge Tour
TIAT Lounge essentially consisted of one not-so-large room with seating, a buffet area on its side, and restrooms and shower rooms tucked away behind the buffet.
Entering the lounge and turning left, there was a baggage storage area.
It didn’t have a way to secure one’s baggage and instead only consisted of a rack with a few large compartments at the bottom and smaller compartments above those.
The main part of the lounge extended behind a partition that separated it from the reception.
Most of the lounge’s 86 seats (according to the airport’s website) consisted of sofa chairs, some covered in cloth and others in faux leather. Each of the sofa chairs had a side table with a power outlet.
Additionally, along a good portion of the lounge’s windows were counters.
There were some lounge chairs with small coffee tables too.
On the very left side of the lounge, behind the corner was a small and modestly stocked buffet area.
Extending out of the buffet area was a hallway with the restrooms, a smoking room, a changing room, and three shower rooms.
There was also a rack with a few different magazines, both English and Japanese.
With the lounge being extremely busy at times including when I visited, there were “Occupied” placards guests could use to reserve their seats.
On a separate note, some of the seats were worn down and parts of the carpet were very dirty. Overall, the lounge has definitely seen better days. Then again, with the lounge being open 24 hours a day, being very busy at times, and being a contract lounge, that was not all that surprising.
The one thing that the lounge had going for it was the nice apron views through its windows. The abundance of power outlets was very welcome too.
Food and Drinks
TIAT Lounge offered a not-amazing-but-perfectly-fine selection of both soft and alcoholic drinks.
Starting with cold soft drinks, there were three dispensers including:
- One with juices (apple, orange, and tomato) and rooibos tea
- One with soda (Coke, Real Gold, and ginger ale), sparkling water, and green tea
- One with water
There was also canned sparkling water.
Hot drinks included a selection of coffee-based drinks from an espresso machine, green tea, and black tea.
Beer was available from an automated dispenser that Japanese lounges are well-known for. There was no indication as to what brand of beer was being served.
Other alcoholic drinks included white and red wines (Gaston Cuvee Prestige which retails for a whopping six or seven dollars), plum wine, shochu, sake, and a few different types of liquor including gin, vodka, and whisky.
As for things to eat, overall, the selection was not the healthiest or most exciting.
Lighter items to eat included edamame, grilled rice balls, scones, and pretzel dogs. There was also miso soup.
There were only two “proper” dishes – fried noodles and fried rice.
Lastly, there were bags of potato chips and – the nicest thing about the entire lounge for me – ice cream. Two flavors, vanilla and chocolate, were available.
TIAT Lounge Tokyo Haneda Summary
With the public areas of Haneda Airport’s Terminal 3 being quite nice and there being plenty of seats, charging options, vending machines, and restaurants, I would recommend skipping TIAT Lounge altogether in most cases.
That said, if you want to have a cup of ice cream or some potato chips – while also having something to drink – then you might want to try going to the lounge and seeing whether you will be able to get in or whether you will have to wait. If the latter’s the case then, again, I would recommend simply not visiting the lounge.
