Review: Clipper Lounge, Terminal 2, Mumbai

Update: New Lounge as of February 2014 is covered here.

I intended to arrive at the Mumbai Airport Terminal 2 in good time for this trip. Part of the reason for that was that I had just gotten done with a long day with a client, and I wanted to relax and be at ease on my flight, since I was going to slip into work as soon as I landed up in the Netherlands post my flight. However, the whole expectation of having an easy evening was marred with a crappy experience with an OlaCabs driver, who I usually thought were good, and the to-the-wire experience with my upgrade with Jet Airways, which finally cleared.

Anyways, at the airport, Jet Airways was nice and courteous and I presented them with 3 paper vouchers and my upgrade was confirmed. Too bad, it being a last minute thing, the only seat I got was 2D, which is the middle column in the 1-1-1 configuration of Jet Airways Airbus 333-200s’ Business Class. My favourite seat is usually 6K in that configuration. Anyhow, way better than slugging it out in Economy on 14A which was the seat I had pre-blocked.

I had requested for a Meet and Assist service, something I used to use occasionally, however I was informed that 9W had discontinued the service. I joined one of the passport control queues which was for premium cabin customers, however in the absence of any checks being implemented at the entry, all sorts of customers were walking into the queue, and it took a good 30 minutes to clear passport control. Next I had a trip through security, where I was hoping to wait much more, but thankfully someone got the sense to organise a premium cabin queue there as well.

Apart from taking it easy, my initial plan was to head into the Celebrations Lounge, present at Terminal 2 to be able to experience it and write a review for all of you. However, given my time had cut close, I headed to the regular lounge Jet Airways uses, the Clipper Lounge at Terminal 2 and presented my boarding pass, which was a go and I was let into the lounge. The reason was, this is the lounge 9W looks for its passengers in while boarding, and I did not want to be caught napping while my flight was gone.

Mumbai has a lot of early morning departures, and Clipper being one of the 2 contract lounges at this airport, gets traffic from a lot of these airlines such as Delta, Qatar, Cathay Pacific, Jet Airways to name a few. Add to it the traffic driven by Priority Pass and the card networks, such as MasterCard, and the lounge is choc-a-bloc full all evening long. Digressing for a moment, I’ve long wondered why Jet Airways does not have a lounge at its home airport in BOM, while it does have one at Brussels and Newark, and others such as British Airways, Emirates and Lufthansa have one in Mumbai. Back to the point, it was not easy to find a chair to settle in, because all the good ones were taken and I had to walk all over the place to find a table, which I had to share.

I’ve reviewed this lounge in the past, so you could have a look at the old review. Not much has changed. The lounge also has a First Class section, which you get access to basis your eligibility with the airlines. I last popped in there when I travelled Cathay Pacific and since I hold Emerald status on oneworld, they sent me to the First Class section.

The food quality, surprisingly, was partially good this time. The sandwiches were fresh, while some of the other Indian snacks were rubbery and chewy. What surprised me was that the entire line-up of snacks was largely focussed on the regional cuisine of Gujarat this time, and I haven’t been able to figure out why.

Here are some pictures of the options available to eat.

Vegetarian eats

More Vegetarian eats with some ready to eat noodles and chicken+rice

Desserts

Bar

My square meal

The I ate some more

My flight was called for boarding 45 minutes out, and I was only happy to leave for the flight, given the amount of crowds I had to endure at the lounge.

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