San Francisco is a major market for European travel. As a result, the city remains well served by Skyteam airlines Air France and KLM. With non stop flights to Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam, it’s essential that Skyteam offer a business lounge for it’s travellers. Our visit to the Air France / KLM Lounge allowed us to experience the fundamentals of their current lounge offering.

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This post is one chapter on my trip to the Republic of the Maldives. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan and Air Canada’s Aeroplan. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Review: Air France / KLM Lounge, San Francisco International Airport California, USA

Our travels today had us departing from the San Francisco International Terminal on a wonderful flight on Qatar Airways Q Suites Business Class San Francisco – Doha and onwards on Qatar Airways Business Class Doha – Malé. We had visited the San Francisco Waterfront Airport Marriott for a brief overnight stay, before setting out to the airport.

Locating the Lounge:

The Air France KLM Lounge is located in the San Francisco International Terminal near the start of the “A” Gates.

After checking in with Qatar Airways, and passing through TSA Pre-Check International Terminal, we found ourselves on the secure side of the San Francisco International Airport “A” Gates. While this is a nice terminal by American standards, I find it a little sterile and without much personality.

It’s a hard left for the lounge entrances. With the exception of British Airways Galleries Lounge San Francisco, the lounges are located immediately at the start of the “A” Gates concourse.

It’s worth mentioning that it is technically possible to get to the San Francisco International Airport “A” Gates through a secure passage way from the Terminal One – “B” Gates and the Terminal Two – “C” and “D” Gates. This is quite a walk but perhaps it’s an option if you plan to access these lounges through Priority Pass or other credit card memberships.

Getting back to the San Francisco International Terminal “A” Gates, a pathway takes you to a lounge lobby, where all the lounges in this precinct are displayed. The Air France / KLM Lounge is located near the Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge, the China Airlines Lounge, the Cathay Pacific Lounge and the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse Lounge.

Rounding the corner, we ascended a long escalator up to the second floor, and passed down a long narrow office like hallway to the right hand side.

The entrance for the Air France / KLM Lounge is pretty minimal and functional in nature. There were no grand lobbies or other entrance features, just a reception desk and a lobby area to validate your access.

Accessing the Air France / KLM Lounge:

After arriving to the small reception, we presented our boarding cards for access.

Air France / KLM advertises access to the Air France / KLM Lounges as follows:

Enjoy complimentary access to our lounges:

• For yourself and a guest, if you are traveling in the La Première cabin
• For yourself, if you are traveling in the Business cabin

You may also enjoy complimentary access:

• For yourself and a guest, if you have Flying Blue Platinum status**
• For yourself and a guest, if you have Flying Blue Gold status
• For yourself and a guest if you have SkyTeam Elite Plus status

All guests are welcome, pending availability, and must also be traveling on either an Air France, KLM or SkyTeam flight departing from the same hall. 

The lounge is also a member of Priority Pass, which is accessible with a membership to several premium credit cards, including the American Express Platinum Card. During our visit, due to high capacity, Priority Pass visitors were only permitted a take way box containing a sandwich, chips and tinned soft drink.

Our access today was provided courtesy of Qatar Airways, which surprisingly didn’t have an agreement with the neighbouring One World based Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge or the One World based Cathay Pacific Lounge.

Inside The Air France / KLM Lounge:

The Air France / KLM Lounge advertises itself as a temporary space while the San Francisco Lounge is getting a makeover. The new lounge is set to open in the fall of 2023. In the meantime, Air France / KLM is offering this space, which is on the compact size.

Immediately after entering the lounge, you’ll find yourself in a small corridor space. The lounge is set up in a small “U” shape with compact rooms. The first room only had about fifteen seats set up in a table and chairs configuration.

Taking a left around the corner, visitors would find themselves in the main lounge space. The primary lounge room is also the food service area. Combining these two areas as a result of space constraints makes the area a little congested and busy.

Walking further into the lounge, there is a very small area beyond the main room. The space also featured high density table and chair seating areas, along with bar rail seating against the windows.

The lounge was initially really busy when we first arrived as a result of an Air France and a KLM flight departing at around the same time. The lounge had a much different feel when it was at capacity. When it was packed with limited spaces to sit, it was decidedly a lot less enjoyable.

The lounge offered some daylight apron views with a peek – a – boo basis, with some reasonable plane spotting from the lounge itself. All the views are from a profile basis, so you’ll get a great view of the first plane, then an obstructed view of the next gate and so on.

Food and Beverage:

The Air France / KLM Lounge was one of the highlights of this lounge. In a compact space, the lounge was able to offer a surprisingly good food and beverage offering.

From the bar, there was a fresh looking charcuterie platter with cut salami, fresh ham, brie cheese and sliced baguette.

Fresh turkey and vegetable sandwiches were also available. For some thing so simple, it’s amazing that over a meal period that sandwiches aren’t always on offer.

Salads were also available, along with select grapes and sliced fruit.

On the food service bar, there were self service wines and sprits. The wines were of surprisingly good quality for a lounge, with french sparkling wine from Albert Bichot making an appearance, along with Etude Pinot Gris from Carneros California.

Despite the reasonable wines, service of the wines was in plastic throw away highball cups, as pictured in the bottom right of this photograph.

The Food and Beverage offering at the Air France / KLM Lounge was probably the highlight of this compact space, with the plastic cup offerings a little bit of a low rent touch.

We enjoyed a little time in the lounge and more so once it emptied out and was a little less chaotic from the Air France and KLM Departing Flights. We later went on to depart on Qatar Airways Q Suites Business Class San Francisco – Doha and onwards to Qatar Airways Business Class Doha – Malé.

In Summary:

The Air France KLM Lounge provided a small format business class lounge for departing travellers from the San Francisco International Airport. While the lounge can best be described as “intimate”, there is enough in the lounge in order to snack on and enjoy a drink prior to your departing flight.

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If you’ve visited the Air France / KLM Lounge in San Francisco. did you spend a lot of time in this small space before your flight ?

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