Papeete Airport Business Class Lounge Review

Papeete Airport Business Class Lounge Review-Manuhiri Lounge

 

This Review of Air Tahiti Nui Business Class Lounge at Papeete Airport (the Manuhiri Lounge, also used by Air France, Air New Zealand, Qantas and Japan Airlines) is part of a trip report on Bora Bora and New Zealand luxury resorts, dining and activities. 

For the prior posts, please see:

Review: American A321 Business Class New York to Los Angeles

Paradise! Can You Guess the Place?

Review: Residence Inn by Marriott LA

Review: Los Angeles International Lounge

Review: Air Tahiti Nui Business Class

A Must in New Zealand: The Farm at Cape Kidnappers, Hawkes Bay

Review: American Airlines A321 First Class JFK to LAX

Four Seasons Bora Bora Review

Four Seasons Bora Bora Restaurant Reviews and Menus

Four Seasons Bora Bora: Top 10 Things to Do

Review: InterContinental Bora Bora Resort Thalasso Spa

Bora Bora Dream Pictures Review

InterContinental Bora Bora Restaurant and Room Service Review and Menus

Bora Bora Snorkeling Tour with Pure Snorkeling

InterContinental Tahiti Review

 

Papeete Airport Business Class Lounge Location and Access

There is only one Business Class Lounge in Papeete Airport, the Manuhiri Lounge in Terminal 1. It is located airside, after you pass security, and you need to go upstairs to the 2nd floor to reach it. It opens 150 minutes before the first flight departure of the day, and closes 60 minutes after the last scheduled departure, although note that these times do not take into account Hawaiian Airlines or LAN, which only have once a week flights into Papeete.

You'll have access if you are departing in Air Tahiti Nui Business Class, Air France Business Class, Air New Zealand Business Class, JAL Business Class, Qantas Business Class, or if you have Priority Pass membership.

 

Papeete Airport Business Class Lounge Amenities and Seating

The Manuhiri Business Class Lounge is quite small, and even for our early morning flight the lounge was already fairly crowded when we arrived. Since I try not to take photos of other passengers' faces, this was the only photo I could manage of the seating during our visit.

Papeete Airport Business Class Lounge Review-Seating

 

There are views of the tarmac from the windows:

View from Papeete Business Class Lounge

 

When checking into the lounge, we were given a slip of paper with the WiFi username and password, but it proved to be just about useless as the WiFi was achingly slow, when it worked at all. So don't count on getting serious work done on the lounge's WiFi.

Papeete Business Class Lounge WiFi Username and Password

 

If you do need to print something out, there is a business center of sorts with a few computers and printer:

Papeete Business Class Lounge Review: Computers and Printer

 

The food offerings were fairly meager for an international business class lounge, but the little we ate was decent. Interestingly, given the early morning hour, there were sandwiches as well as sweets such as macarons and financiers:

Sandwiches and Macarons, Papeete Business Class Lounge Review

 

More conventionally, there was juice, with a choice of orange juice or mango juice from concentrate:

Juices, Papeete Business Class Lounge Review

 

There were also canisters of breakfast cereal, and some trays of sliced cheese and cold cuts that had almost run out:

Breakfast Buffet, Papeete Business Class Lounge Review

 

I thought these containers were plain yogurt, but on closer inspection they were fromage blanc, which I prefer and is common in France but not in the U.S.:

Fromage Blanc, Papeete Airport Business Class Lounge Review

 

We were also happy to see a bowl of fresh fruit, and helped ourselves to some pears:

Fresh Fruit, Papeete Airport Business Class Lounge Review

 

Most importantly, there were Lavazza espresso machines, which helped my husband and I wake up a bit:

Lavazza Espresso Machines, Papeete Business Class Lounge Review

 

If you prefer to start your drinking early, there was also wine and beer as well as soda in the fridge:

Wine, Beer, Soda: Papeete Business Class Lounge Review

 

And if your idea of breakfast is instant noodle soup, there were packages of Cup Noodles on offer, and a water dispenser with cold and hot water.

Instant Cup Noodles, Papeete Airport Business Class Lounge Review

 

The Verdict

The Manuhiri Papeete Airport Business Class Lounge is fine in most respects for its market, since Tahiti is primarily a leisure destination. Yes, it would be nice if it was bigger and had more seating, but it's not as if there are even flat bed business class airline products flying to Tahiti yet. There aren't a lot of food choices, but what we had was perfectly acceptable given Tahiti isn't an international business destination, except for luxury travel advisors such as me and a few others. And the Lavazza espresso machines made better espresso than I've had in many other business class lounges. 

But call me crazy–in my view even the most basic business class lounge, international or domestic, needs to have good WiFi. And in this respect, the Papeete Airport Business Class Lounge needs serious work. I would gladly have given up some of the food options to have faster, more workable WiFi.

If you've used the Papeete Business Class Lounge before an Air Tahiti Nui Business Class or other business class flight, what was your experience?

Related Posts

Review: Los Angeles International Lounge

Air Tahiti Nui Business Class Review

Flat Bed Business Class to Tahiti and Bora Bora?

InterContinental Tahiti Review

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Brett Hamilton
6 years ago

Thanks for the review – we are about to spend about 5 hours there before our flight!