Review: Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Gold Lounge Changi T2

General details

Opening Times: 24 hours
Capacity: 163
Re-opened: 9th November 2022
Toilets: No
Showers: No
Spa: No
Bar: No
Wi-Fi: Yes
Multi-standard Power Sockets: Yes
USB Charging Sockets: Yes
Wireless Charging: No
Dress Code: None

Lounge access

Unlike most airlines around the world, Singapore Airlines does not allow its KrisFlyer Gold frequent flyer members or Star Alliance Gold status holders flying in Economy or Premium Economy cabins access to its Business Class lounges at home base.

That’s where the KrisFlyer Gold lounges come in, separating those who are lounge-eligible though those status levels alone from Business Class, First Class and PPS Club passengers, who get welcomed into the carrier’s better facilities.

The following passengers are eligible to access the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Gold Lounge in Terminal 2.

Flying on a Singapore Airlines flight, or on a Star Alliance member operated flight:

• in First Class or Business Class; or
• in Premium Economy or Economy Class and holding Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Gold, PPS Club or Solitaire PPS Club status, or Star Alliance Gold status.

Additionally, only when flying on a Singapore Airlines flight:

• Club Vistara Platinum and Gold members
• Virgin Australia Velocity Platinum and Gold status members, in any cabin class
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Gold status members, in any cabin class

Solitaire PPS Club members, Suites and First Class passengers can also visit this lounge on arrival following a Singapore Airlines flight, with up to one guest travelling on the same flight as them.

However, it’s worth noting that in both the departure and arrival case Solitaire PPS Club passengers have access to the superior SilverKris First Class and Business Class lounges, which they will likely choose over this one.

Similarly Suites, First Class and Business Class passengers will no doubt choose The Private Room, the SilverKris First Class lounge or the SilverKris Business Class lounge as applicable when departing or arriving, rather than this lounge.

Fundamentally, therefore, the KrisFlyer Gold lounges cater for KrisFlyer Gold and Star Alliance Gold members departing Changi on an SIA or a Star Alliance carrier in Economy or Premium Economy Class.

Guest policy

The following passengers listed above can bring one guest into the lounge with them.

• Departing on SIA in Suites or First Class
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Gold, PPS Club, Solitaire PPS Club members
• Star Alliance Gold members
• Virgin Australia Velocity Platinum and Gold members

The guest must be departing on the same flight, as part of a recently tightened policy (previously, your guest could be departing on any same-day SIA flight).

Passengers departing on a Star Alliance flight in First Class can bring one guest into the lounge with them, provided their guest is departing on the same flight.

Business Class passengers are not entitled to a guest allowance.

Again, for this lounge the policy is only really applicable to KrisFlyer Gold and Star Alliance Gold members departing in Economy or Premium Economy Class, with higher status holders and Business or First Class passengers no doubt choosing their respective SilverKris lounge rather than this one.

Here’s the complete Singapore Airlines lounge access policy at Changi for your reference (click to expand).

Changi Airport SilverKris and KrisFlyer Gold lounge access Departing on a Singapore Airlines flight Cabin Class / Membership Tier Lounge Eligibility Guests Suites or First Class The Private Room SKL First Class Business Class SKL Business Class Solitaire PPS Club in Business, Premium Economy or Economy SKL First Class PPS Club in Business, Premium Economy or Economy SKL Business Class KrisFlyer Elite Gold in Business SKL Business Class KrisFlyer Elite Gold in Premium Economy or Economy KrisFlyer Gold Departing on a Star Alliance flight Cabin Class / Membership Tier Lounge Eligibility Guests First Class SKL First Class Business Class SKL Business Class Star Alliance Gold (including KFEG and PPS Club) in Business SKL Business Class Star Alliance Gold (including KFEG and PPS Club) in Premium Economy or Economy KrisFlyer Gold In all cases, your guest must be departing on the same day and same flight as you. Guest privileges are not cumulative (e.g. a First Class traveller who is also a Solitaire PPS Club member is not entitled to have two guests).

Location

At the time of writing, only the southern end of the T2 departures concourse has been reopened, including the southernmost check-in desks, immigration clearance section, and ‘F’ gates.

The Singapore Airlines lounges in T2, however, maintain their original location in the northern section of the terminal closer to the ‘E’ gates, which is still largely under renovation.

That means clearing immigration then making a left turn to the opposite end of the terminal, where the lounges are located.

You then make your way to the lounge via a kind of temporary corridor, flanked by hoardings on either side, protecting it from ongoing construction work behind.

It’s about a five minute walk from clearing the immigration area to the escalator that then takes you up to the SIA T2 lounge complex. You can’t miss this – there is currently nowhere else to go once you reach this end of the temporary corridor!

Once you reach the top of the escalator you’ll see the entrance to the DBS Asia Treasures lounge, then immediately after that it’s the KrisFlyer Gold Lounge on the left.

Further down the corridor right at the end is the entrance to the SilverKris Business and First Class lounges, which we are not reviewing here.

First impressions

On entering the lounge you can turn left or right, but effectively either way you’ll soon realise you’re just entering one single rectangular room.

Seating runs from the lounge entrance through to the back wall, and on the left side too, with the far left wall closest to the entrance also featuring the food and beverage section.

There is practically no natural light in this lounge, with the opaque windows running along the right side simply overlooking the corridor to the SilverKris lounges.

Some green plants and orchid flowers break up the space a little, but fundamentally there is nothing to distract you from noticing this is just one dimly-lit room with rows and rows of armchairs and a self-serve food and beverage area.

The lounge carpet has also been replaced for the reopening, with a slightly darker tone that has the effect of ‘lifting’ the furniture and other fittings slightly, making it feel a bit more spacious than before in our opinion.

Seating options

The lounge has 163 seats, around half the capacity of the new KrisFlyer Gold lounge in Terminal 3.

There’s only one seating choice in the KrisFlyer Gold Lounge T2, and that’s the international ‘lounge staple’ low armchair option.

Furniture isn’t exactly brand new, but does look to have been updated since our last visit here pre-pandemic, perhaps using pieces relocated from the carrier’s T3 lounges, which have been fully renovated and no longer use these older armchairs.

Most seats are separated from each other by a small circular side table, but there isn’t a great deal of room to spread out with items like a laptop. You’ll probably end up doing what I did and working from your computer on your lap, if you need to!

Some of the seats are in grey or beige fabric material, while others are clad in dark leather.

Lamps between the individual seat rows themselves break up the space a little, and these do seem to be a bit brighter than they were pre-COVID.

Most seats in the lounge are designed with spacing between them for solo travellers, but there are ‘couple’ pairs directly alongside one another, particularly towards the back of the lounge and along the right side as you look from the entrance.

The business section at the far end of the lounge has two office-style chairs for those needing to catch up on some more serious work during their visit.

This featured two desktop computers prior to COVID-19, but now simply has workstations designed for you to sit at with your own laptop or personal device.

This makes a lot of sense in the age where so many travellers carry a laptop or tablet with them. In our experience desktop computers in airport lounges seldom work anyway.

The workstations have multi-standard power sockets in a recessed section at the back of the desk, and to the side, so you can easily plug in your laptop and your phone or tablet.

Kudos to the lounge staff

We did want to make a special mention to the lounge staff at this stage – they were friendly and helpful, but most of all happy to be welcoming people back into this lounge, despite its shortcomings!

Tables were cleared promptly as guests left the lounge to catch their flights, though our visit was at the quieter lunchtime period, so we can’t vouch for how efficient this is during the morning rush.

We took a seat just behind the entrance on the left side during our visit, and were quite surprised at the number of guests the poor lounge reception staff had to turn away, seemingly every few minutes! Common questions were:

• Can I enter with my credit card?
• Can I enter using Priority Pass?
• Can I enter flying in Economy (no status)?
• Can I enter flying on Scoot (with status)?

We got the impression the reception staff must spend 90% of their whole shift saying “No”!

Additionally, a surprising number of SIA Business Class passengers try to enter this lounge.

Perhaps that’s not too surprising in fact, since the lounge entrance at the top of the escalator comes well before the SilverKris Lounge further down the corridor, and the obvious perception that “Gold” ranks higher than “Silver” is a logical one, for those who aren’t familiar with SIA’s lounge hierarchy.

Thankfully the lounge reception staff were directing these passengers to the SKL Business Class lounge, though there is nothing stopping them visiting the KrisFlyer Gold lounge if they wish to.

Wi-Fi

The KrisFlyer Gold Lounge was moderately busy during our visit, and we took the opportunity to test the Wi-Fi speed in two locations, at the seating area near the entrance and at the far end of the lounge where the two work desks are located.

As you’d probably expect for a small single-room lounge like this, we found there was no difference in speed based on where you are physically located.

These are sufficiently fast and perfectly useable speeds, though they do fall short of what we’ve been seeing at other lounges in recent years, and come in at around half the speed SIA is currently providing in its Business Class lounges in both T2 and T3, based on our recent visits.

Entertainment

The KrisFlyer Gold Lounge in T2 has two wide-screen TVs, showing a news channel at one side and sports channel at the other, located at either end of the main lounge seating area.

Some armchairs face the TVs directly, but there is no sound.

Power outlets

If you need to charge your portable devices, there’s bad news in this lounge because not all seats benefit from the option.

While SIA’s latest lounges have power sockets at nearly every seat, even including wireless charging pads on table tops in the recent designs found in T3, there’s only a smattering of sockets here in the mildly-revamped T2 facility, at selected seats only.

If you’re lucky enough to find a seat next to one, the good news is that multi-standard sockets with incorporated USB-A and USB-C charging ports have been added in the lounge’s minor refresh.

That’s really nice to see, since this lounge previously only had Singapore and UK ‘Type G’ three-pin sockets before the pandemic, which can be really useless to international travellers without an adapter plug.

Reading materials

At the middle of the lounge’s main seating area, a room divider breaks up the space as a section designed to house reading materials for guests.

Unfortunately due to COVID-19 precautions, shared reading materials like magazines and newspapers are still not offered in SIA’s lounges, though hopefully this will change in due course and a decent selection can make a return here soon.

There are also flight information screens in this section, showing SIA and Star Alliance departures in both T2 and T3.

Toilets and showers

This may well be our first lounge review that doesn’t really require this section – the KrisFlyer Gold Lounge at Changi T2 does not have shower facilities or even toilets inside the lounge itself.

The nearest toilets are usually tucked just behind the lounge, to the left of the main entrance down the short corridor.

Unfortunately these toilets are temporarily closed (let’s hope they are knocking through the wall to incorporate them into the lounge!), so it’s a longer walk to the ones beyond the DBS Treasures lounge entrance, at the time of writing.

The lack of such basic washroom facilities within the lounge itself is what really lets the KrisFlyer Gold Lounge T2 down.

Many eligible travellers will be well advised to take the SkyTrain to T3 and use the newly renovated KrisFlyer Gold Lounge there if they are in need of a shower. That relocated lounge now boasts its own toilets and three private shower suites.

Beverages

The self-serve drinks fridge includes canned Tiger and Heineken beer, plus juices and soft drinks like Coke, Sprite and Schweppes Tonic or Soda Water.

There is also a Tiger Beer tap, for those who prefer a draft pour, with chilled beer glasses in the adjacent fridge.

TWG teas are available, and at the far left end of the food section there’s a bean-to-cup coffee machine for an instant espresso, cappuccino or latte.

Strangely the ice machine is also located at this far left end of the F&B section, the furthest from where it’s more likely needed (with the soft drinks and spirits!).

Here’s how the wine scores on our favourite ratings site Vivino (out of 5).

It probably goes without saying there is no Champagne offered in this lounge.

The self pour spirits selection included:

• Bombay Sapphire Gin
• Absolut Vodka
• Myers’s Premium White Jamaican Rum

• Johnny Walker Red Label Whiskey
• Teachers Highland Cream Whisky

Dining

Food is available via self-serve buffet style selection along the back wall of the lounge.

Hot and cold options are provided at the counter top, with plates, bowls, cups and glassware on shelves directly below.

A decent selection was available, but as with most Singapore Airlines lounges there was a distinct lack of healthy options, with a lousy attempt at a salad and some fruit being the only items to break up a wall of “brown food” / carbs.

Our visit was during lunchtime hours, with the lounge serving the following hot food items:

• Mexican Wings
• Chicken and Mushroom Spaghetti
• Chilli Fried Rice
• Minestrone Soup
• DIY Laksa Station with condiments and Laksa noodles

There is also a Dim Sum station along the wall to the right of the fridges.

During our visit the selection here was:

• Chicken Char Siew Pau
• Vegetable Pau
• Har Kow
• Seafood Siew Mai
• Multigrain Vegetarian Fried Rice

Cold selections comprised:

• Cereal, chips and mixed nuts
• Salad and Cheese
• Fruit, bread, crackers and conserves
• Mango Mousse Cake
• Mini Cream Puffs
• Pre-packed Sandwiches

On the ‘grab and go’ sandwich side, Egg Mayo and Pesto Chicken sandwiches were advertised, but only a small selection of the latter were ever available during our visit.

There are no separate dining tables in this small lounge, presumably due to space constraints, so you’ll have to eat at your armchair seat from one of the side tables, or your lap.

Concluding thoughts

SIA’s KrisFlyer Gold lounge in Terminal 2 is the carrier’s oldest and most inferior facility at the airport – so expectations weren’t high for out visit, with only a minor refresh conducted during COVID-19.

Nonetheless – it gets the (very) basics right.

Seating is reasonably comfortable, even if it’s fundamentally all in one room and lacks any particular variety. Food and beverage options are actually quite decent, albeit the usual “brown food” without many healthy options to choose from – an issue that sadly afflicts all SIA lounges.

Wi-Fi is sufficiently fast to get some work done and the lounge had a quiet relaxed vibe during our mid-afternoon visit.

Those who’ve visited in the morning departure peak have attested to a more crowded experience, but in the afternoons this place is peaceful, for now at least.

The major issue is that there are still no toilets and no showers in this lounge, basic facilities travellers now expect to find even in third-party Priority Pass lounges.

It’s difficult to believe Singapore Airlines will maintain this setup for KrisFlyer Gold lounge passengers in T2 right through to the mid 2030s, when Terminal 5 opens, so we’re hoping for a new or improved lounge long before then.

Perhaps the best thing about this lounge though is that there’s actually no need to use it, unless you’re seriously pressed for time.

The latest revamped KrisFlyer Gold lounge in Terminal 3, complete with a bright terrace setting, plenty of natural light, plus its own showers and toilets, is only a 15-minute journey door-to-door from here.

That makes it a better option all-round than this lounge, until a revamped version can also hopefully make its way to Terminal 2.

Don’t forget there’s also the option to check-in for all Singapore Airlines flights departing from Changi T2 at Terminal 3 instead, giving you faster access to a better lounge there, followed by a short SkyTrain ride to T2 when it comes time to head to the gate and board.

Overall: Good enough for a short visit, but definitely not worth arriving early for.

Review Summary

2.5 / 5 among airline-operated lounges

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Gold Lounge Changi T2 A very basic lounge with only one seating option and no toilet or shower facilities, but a decent food selection and solid-enough Wi-Fi. SIA’s T2 KrisFlyer Gold Lounge is the carrier’s least impressive home-base facility, but it gets the basics right. It’s just not worth getting to the airport early for, and frankly there’s now a much better option a short SkyTrain ride away in T3, for those with sufficient time to spare.

Visited: November 2022

(Cover Photo: MainlyMiles)