At the start of the year, I flew down to Santiago, Chile, to visit a family member who is living and working there.  I got lucky and my upgrade cleared both ways, leading to pleasant but uneventful (and no need for reviews) trips in Polaris on a 767.  However, I was excited for a chance to visit and write a Sao Paolo Star Alliance Lounge review.  Although not uber-high end, my previous experience with the Los Angeles Star Alliance Lounge (prior to PTI, so tragically no review) was that Star Alliance lounges are pretty nice.  My travels had two nice blocks of time to experience the lounge at different times – post-redeye and pre-redeye – and I was able to make good use of all of the lounge facilities.  Onward to the review!

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Details

Name of Lounge: Star Alliance Lounge

Location: Terminal 3

Time/Length of Visit: 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM (Jan 2), 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM (Jan 5)

Dates of Visit: 1/2/20, 1/5/20

Seating – 3/3

The Star Alliance lounge is located up an escalator along a “lounge row” of multiple lounges at Sao Paolo Airport (GRU).  It is a big lounge with a variety of different types of seating located throughout.  The lounge overlooks the terminal and has a row of seats which looks over the hustle and bustle below.  There are tables and individual school-style desk seats also scattered through.  In the back is a sort of relaxation hallway (although there’s no real sound dampening) with loungers (not pictured), as well as an area with some TV and couch-style seats.

For my morning visit, the lounge was empty, which surprised me a bit as I came in on the redeye.  For my evening visit, the lounge was very busy.  While I was able to find a seat relatively easily, there weren’t a ton of options.  Power outlet availability was average – part of why I settled at the bar on both visits was it had chargers underneath.  Also, because it was the bar.

Drink – 3/3

There was a good selection of alcohol, wine, and beers available on display.  Nothing fancy, but pretty good for a lounge.  As my first trip was in the morning, I didn’t indulge because I’m not a complete alcoholic.  For my second trip, I wanted some scotch, and saw they only had Johnnie Walker Red out.  I have standards.  However, I had recalled (literally checking my phone and finding the picture below) from the morning visit that I saw “White Walker,” which is just fancy JW Black.  Deciding that I’d do some investigating, I asked the bartender “OK, where’s the good stuff?”  He kindly made a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black appear – apparently they keep the good stuff hidden during rush hour.  I tipped him for his kindness and he kept me topped off for the rest of my stay. 

In addition to the hard stuff, there were plenty of soft drinks and water, as well as a coffee machine which dispensed good coffee.

Food – 3/3

The food selection was similarly robust, with a good number of hot and cold options both days.  Hot options included:

• Rice
• Sautéed pork with peppers and sauce (this rotated each time I visited, I believe it was a chicken dish the second time)
• Pasta and accompanying sauces (make your own – this also rotated)
• Creamy cheese puff pastries things that were delicious
• Make your own panini

Cold options included:

• Various small cakes
• Cheese
• Eggplant rollup veggie things (delicious)
• Cold sandwiches
• Make your own salad

I’m scoring this category a 3, with the understanding it’s a business class lounge as the standard.  The food was good, it was plentiful, and it was interesting and local. 

Cleanliness – 3/3

The lounge was clean throughout my stay, even when busy.

Bathrooms – 2/3

The common bathrooms were spacious and clean, which was good.  I used the showers after my redeye on the outbound.  The shower rooms weren’t the largest, but they had a decent set of amenities and were generally pretty nice.  They were, however, extremely humid. Granted, it’s Brazil and it was summer, but it was that “just can’t get cool” feeling – even after a cold shower. The shower area itself wasn’t dirty, but it did have some stained grout and wasn’t the most appealing lounge shower I’ve ever used.  It also wasn’t the worst, however.

Wifi – 1/3

The WiFi flunked the speed test hard – this was during the evening when the lounge was crowded.  While it was OK for light browsing, as you can see, you wouldn’t be streaming Netflix in HD.

Views – 2/3

The lounge had nice views… of the terminal – as well as some distant views of the runway.  It actually was a very nice and airy lounge however.  If you can’t have great runway views, I prefer the open and airy approach toward a busy terminal as opposed to staring at a gate or some other uninteresting outside area. 

Sao Paolo Star Alliance Lounge Review Overall – 2.5/3

I really enjoyed my time at this lounge on both trips.  For my morning visit, although the shower wasn’t perfect, it was good enough, and I was able to grab a good bite to eat and strong coffee.  For my evening visit, although the lounge was busy, I was able to secure bar seating and passed the time chatting with my fellow travelers and drinking scotch.  Those are the kind of AvGeek visits that make traveling fun and pleasant… although not always memorable, depending on how much scotch you drink!

All images are the author’s.

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