Review: Air France/KLM Lounge Munich Airport
In this review, we will check out the Air France/KLM business lounge at Munich Airport (MUC).
Going home
With my visit to the surprisingly beautiful town of Landshut coming to an end, it was time to head home.
From Munich Airport I would first fly with Air France to Paris, where I would connect for my final flight of this trip to Bucharest.
Landshut is located just 30 minutes away from Munich International Airport (MUC) by train, making it an interesting alternative for the Bavarian capital to stay the night before your flight.
Buying a ticket (13.20 EUR for a one-way journey) was a smooth process and armed with a beer I found myself a comfortable seat in the half-full train.
Munich Airport
Munich Airport is Germany’s second biggest airport after Frankfurt and a major Lufthansa hub.
I was however flying with Air France, which shares its check-in desks with fellow Sky Team partner KLM in Terminal 1 of Munich Airport.
Compared to Terminal 2, from which Lufthansa and its Star Alliance partners fly from, Terminal 1 is decidedly functional.
It clearly wasn’t constructed to win any design awards and felt really dated, both landside and airside.
What mattered more was that the check-in procedure was smooth.
There were barely any queues when I arrived, with nobody waiting at all in the Sky Priority check-in line which I could use as a Flying Blue platinum member.
Queues at the priority security channel were non-existent as well and within minutes I found myself landside.
Munich Airport’s terminal 1 consists out of five modules or halls designated as A, B, C, D and E.
For my Air France flight, I had to go to Module D of terminal 1.
Each hall only has a few departure gates, shops and cafes only – meaning there isn’t really much at all to do.
If you are flying out of Terminal 1, I certainly would not recommend to arrive early expecting to find a whole lot of exciting facilities!
Air France/KLM lounge entry requirements
Air France and KLM operate a shared lounge in Module D of Terminal 1.
The lounge itself is clearly signposted and is located on the mezzanine level one floor above the main terminal.
Behind the non-descript door I was welcomed into the lounge by a friendly receptionist.
As I was flying in economy class, I was granted access into the lounge courtesy of my Flying Blue platinum status.
Besides Sky Team frequent flyer elites, business class passengers can access the lounge as well, although unlike frequent flyer elites they are not allowed to bring a guest into the Air France/KLM lounge.
Priority pass and other lounge membership cards are not accepted at the Air France/KLM lounge.
Lounge layout and design
The Air France/KLM lounge is quite similar to Terminal 1 in the way that it certainly won’t win any design award.
It looks outdated, soulless and rather dull.
The lounge is notably lacking any decorative element whatsoever, as all you are looking at are white walls and wooden dividers.
Although the lounge has large windows, they overlook the terminal below and not the tarmac.
This means there is little to none natural light, which is certainly not helping much to create a nice lounge atmosphere, with fluorescent lights being the biggest source of lighting.
The lounge is basically divided into several smaller seating areas with small leather chairs and a dining area with even more basic seats.
Although there are dividers between seating areas, there is little privacy in the lounge when it is at capacity.
On the plus side, there are plenty of power sockets and the lounge WiFi internet speeds were fast.
Lounge buffet
There is one small buffet counter in the Air France/KLM lounge from where you can grab some food.
If you want a proper meal, you’d better like German food!
The only hot items were two different kind of sausages (Bavarian weisswurst – white sausage – and Frankfurters).
Of course, there are pretzels and potato salad as well to complete the list of traditional German staples.
The quality of it was mediocre at best, which doesn’t come as a surprise given the food is basically out there for hours.
Apart from the German food items there were some unappetizing looking sandwiches, cold cuts, apples and bananas, two kinds of salad as well as some varieties of crisps and nuts.
Drinks and booze
The Air France/KLM lounge has a coffee machine which made decent espresso and lattes.
In the fridge you can find bottled soft drinks, water as well as canisters of juice.
It being Germany, there is of course beer as well in the fridge: Beck’s – mildly disappointing for a Bavarian lounge! – and Paulaner wheat beer.
The wines in the lounge were lower to mid-shelf wines which were nothing to write home about.
Rather disappointingly for an Air France lounge, there was no champagne but rather a mediocre French Crémant.
Strong alcohol choices were the usual mid-shelf bottles of rum, vodka, whiskey, cognac and a few other drinks.
Lounge facilities
Although the lounge has toilets, it does not have showers.
There are no dedicated work spaces or business centre, nor any other special working or leisure facilities.
In short
The Air France/KLM lounge at Munich Airport is certainly not a great lounge or something to get early to the airport for.
It’s a rather outdated, boring and bland lounge lacking any real facilities.
The lounge isn’t even necessarily comfortable nor very private, although it is surely a better place to wait for your flight than the small terminal itself.
If you are looking to get a drink or a snack, the Air France/KLM lounge isn’t a too bad of a place however.
Although certainly not extensive or high quality, the drinks selection is quite decent.
Those who like German food will be happy to see some sausages and pretzels, although besides those food items the buffet is rather limited as well.
Overall, the Air France/KLM lounge is a rather mediocre outstation lounge which pales to the Air France lounges in Paris or the KLM lounges in Amsterdam.
Trip report index
This article is part of the ‘An Adriatic Adventure: Off-Season Travel to Dubrovnik, Montenegro and a Bit of Bavaria‘ trip report, which consists of the following chapters:
1. Review: MasterCard Business Lounge Bucharest Otopeni Airport
2. Review: Aegean Airlines Economy Class Bucharest to Athens (Airbus A320)
3. Review: Aegean Business Lounge Athens Airport Hall A (Non-Schengen)
4. Review: Olympic Air Economy Class Athens to Dubrovnik (Bombardier Dash 8-400)
5. Review: Apartments Festa, Old Town of Dubrovnik
6. A Dubrovnik Winter Trip: Off-Season Travel Away from the Tourist Crowds
7. Review: Dubrovnik (Croatia) to Kotor (Montenegro) by Bus
8. Review: Palazzo Drusko Deluxe Rooms, Kotor, Montenegro
9. Kotor, Montenegro: Old Town Charm in Europe’s Most Spectacular Scenery
10. Cetinje – The Old Royal Capital of Montenegro
11. Review: Ramada by Wyndham Podgorica, Montenegro
12. Podgorica: Is the Capital of Montenegro Worth a Visit?
13. Review: Wizz Air Podgorica to Memmingen (Airbus A320)
14. Memmingen: More Than Just a Low-Cost Airport Close to Munich
15. The Bavaria Ticket: Unlimited Train Travel Across the German State of Bayern
16. Review: Michel Hotel Landshut, Bavaria, Germany
17. Landshut: Bavaria Off The Beaten Track
18. Review: Air France/KLM Lounge Munich Airport (current chapter)
19. Review: Air France Economy Class Munich to Paris CDG (Airbus A319)
20. Review: Air France Business Lounge Paris CDG Airport Terminal 2E – Hall L
21. Review: Air France Economy Class Paris CDG to Bucharest (Airbus A320)
As ever a great review Koen/RomanianFlyer!
You clearly don’t remember when T1 @ MUC was all there was and Lufthansa were in there too! It was chaotic but still a step up from Riem which was chaotic, congested and glad it closed but T1 didn’t immediately seem that much of an improvement although runway capacity was obviously much better.
I agree though, now T1 is the very poor relation to T2 and *A passengers (except TK) have a much better deal out of MUC than ST or OW.
Thanks lhrpete!
Riem was before my time, and this was actually the first time I ever departed from T1! I only departed T2 once on LH, so actually my departure experiences at MUC are quite limited. Looking back at my flight logs, I did however fly into MUC at least 6-7 times weirdly enough – this mostly due to my weird travel patterns where I often opt for an open jaw ticket or a combination of one-way fares (eg. last year flying into MUC, out of NUE).
I was quite surprised actually to hear that TK doesn’t depart from T2 but from T1. I just found this bit of FlyerTalk background from 2014 in which (unconfirmed) reports say its either due to high handling charges or a row with LH.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/turkish-airlines-miles-smiles/1573761-turkish-airlines-leaves-star-alliance-terminal-munich.html
TK in T2 at MUC – LH as you know have a big gripe with TK over their coverage out of Germany and in particular because TK offer a much better product that LH short haul particularly in business class.
The rational for removing TK from T2 was that there was insufficient capacity for them to be there with their 3 A321s a day while there is capacity for QR and EY in similar timings and there is so much use of remote stands in T2 anyway that it is just patent nonsense because LH do not want them there.