Review: the (British Airways) JAL Sakura Lounge at Frankfurt Airport

This is my review of the Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge at Frankfurt Airport, which is where you may end up if flying with British Airways.

This is the last article from my recent review trip which took in Ibiza, Madrid and Frankfurt.  Frankfurt was my last stop before flying back to London and after having spent an afternoon in the city centre I made my way back to the airport to do a bit of work at the JAL Sakura Lounge.

The Japan Airlines lounge is the main oneworld facility at Frankfurt.  The lounge is after the passport control but before the security check so you need to leave with enough time to get to your gate.

If you have a British Airways Gold card, there is also a First Class Lounge in the same facility.  This appears to be only open three hours prior to the departure of JAL’s Tokyo flight.

The oneworld website shows two other potential lounge options in Frankfurt for BA passengers.  The Cathay Pacific First and Business Class lounge is by Gate E7, closing at 2pm, and the Iberia lounge is opposite Gate D26.

All in all I found the JAL lounge a perfectly adequate facility.  There were Japanese, German and English magazines and newspapers:

The Sakura lounge is arranged as one big room at the far end with a good number of seats:

This is the same room from the left side of the lounge:

There was a TV showing the news:

If you prefer a bit more privacy and don’t want to look at people, you can sit in one of the armchairs next to the window front:

The kitchen area had various teas, spirits and sandwiches.

The beer selection was very good and there were also some juices and soft drinks.

There was a salad buffet and ….

….. sausages with German mustard – a few of those sachets might have found their way into my liquids bag to get them through security.

This is the instruction sheet for the toilet. No comment.

To give you a better impression, here is a short YouTube video of the JAL Sakura Lounge at Frankfurt Airport (you can subscribe to our YouTube channel via this page – this is the same link to visit if the video does not appear below).

Conclusion

The JAL Sakura Lounge is a smart place with acceptable food and drinks. I wasn’t fully convinced by the style and as the lounge was very busy the atmosphere was rather stressed. The food was average, however I did like the sausages – simple but just what I needed.

As my flight was delayed (we spent two hours on board and were then allowed back in the terminal – see my article here on how I claimed EU261 compensation) I got to spend another hour in the lounge later in the evening. This time it was less busy. I had a couple of sandwiches that were quite good and made myself a few G&Ts.  For a short visit it offers all you need and not much more.

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As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

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The Platinum Card from American Express

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There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

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