Review: British Airways Lounge San Francisco Airport (SFO)

For the outbound portion of our winter trip to Tokyo and Niseko, we flew Japan Airlines’ 777 first class from San Francisco to Tokyo. Japan Airlines sends its premium passengers to the British Airways Lounge San Francisco (SFO), so in this post, I want to review that experience.

The British Airways Lounge SFO is a pleasant facility, which was renovated several years back. What made this visit above average is that our Japan Airlines first class tickets got us into the lounge’s first class dining section, which really elevates the experience, in terms of the quality of food and drinks, plus in terms of lack of crowding. Let’s first take a look at the main part of the lounge, and then we’ll look at the first class dining section.

British Airways Lounge San Francisco location

The British Airways Lounge SFO is located in International Terminal A, which is one of the airport’s two primary international terminals. Once you clear security, just turn right, in the direction of gates A1-15. While there’s a complex with some lounges to the left, the British Airways Lounge and Emirates Lounge are located to the right.

Walk down the concourse, and as you approach gate A5, you’ll see the entrance to the lounge on the right.

British Airways Lounge San Francisco hours

The British Airways Lounge SFO hours vary over time, based on flight schedules. In the afternoons, the lounge operates as a “proper” British Airways lounge, in the hours leading up to the carrier’s departures.

Then in the mornings, the lounge operates as a contract lounge for both EVA Air and Japan Airlines, generally opening a little over three hours before the first flight’s departure. For example, on the day I visited, the lounge opened at 8:40AM, while the Japan Airlines flight to Tokyo Narita departed at 11:40AM (meanwhile our flight to Tokyo Haneda departed at 12:55PM).

It’s worth emphasizing that in the mornings, this seems to purely operate as a contract lounge, so don’t be surprised if you’re denied entry under oneworld policies, even if you’re on British Airways. There aren’t even any British Airways agents at the reception desk, but rather just EVA Air and Japan Airlines agents to welcome in “their” guests.

British Airways Lounge San Francisco entry requirements

The British Airways Lounge SFO entry requirements change throughout the day. In the afternoons, when this acts as a British Airways lounge, it in theory follows standard oneworld lounge access rules, meaning it’s open to eligible oneworld first and business class passengers, plus eligible oneworld Emerald and Sapphire members.

The catch is that British Airways is notorious for not really following standard lounge access rules at its outstation lounges. So if you’re an eligible oneworld elite member but aren’t flying British Airways, don’t be surprised if you’re denied access without a good explanation.

Meanwhile in the mornings, eligible EVA Air and Japan Airlines premium passengers can get access to the lounge.

British Airways Lounge San Francisco layout & seating

The British Airways Lounge SFO is 655 square meter (around 7,000 square foot), so it’s not huge, but it does the trick. The lounge is located one level under the concourse, so once you’re checked into the lounge, you can either take the staircase or elevator down a level.

As you first enter the lounge, there’s a bit of random seating, including some high-top communal seating, a padded bench of sorts, and some dining tables.

As you go deeper into the lounge, the first room is the self-serve bar area, which feels modern and quite chic, and primarily boasts seating along a couple of counters, plus several dining tables.

The next room of the lounge is where most of the seating is located, and it feels rather cluttered. There are some banquettes along the walls, plus sets of two to three chairs arranged around small coffee tables. It would be rather to sit in one of the sets of three seats if you weren’t sitting next to travel companions.

There’s also a room off to the side of this space, with some communal workstations, and high-top seating.

Then there’s a room in the back with more banquettes — clearly British Airways is trying to maximize seating here, because there’s not otherwise any natural light here.

Lastly, there’s one more small room with a pretty traditional lounge seating setup, featuring rows of seats that are facing one another (there’s also the first class dining section, but I’ll cover that later).

The lounge boasts excellent views of the apron, so if a plane pulls into a gate right by the lounge, you’re in for a treat.

Note that the lounge also offers direct boarding for the gate right by the lounge, so if your flight departs from there, that’s a very handy feature. During our visit, the EVA Air flight got to board directly from the lounge, while the Japan Airlines flights both required going to the gate.

British Airways Lounge San Francisco food & drinks

During my morning visit, the British Airways Lounge SFO had a respectable selection of self-serve food, which I imagine is similar to what’s available in the afternoons. The lounge has two buffet areas — the main area has cold options, while the bar area has hot options.

Cold options included a kale and shaved brussels caesar salad, as well as a more general salad bar, where you could make your own.

Then there were finger sandwiches, wraps, cold cuts, cheese, fruit salad, and cookies.

The hot buffet included chicken stew with root vegetables and mushrooms, lemon roasted brussels sprouts, and rice. I was a bit surprised by the lack of Asian options, given that the lounge was being used by EVA Air and Japan Airlines at the time.

As far as drinks go, there was an espresso machine, Twinings Tea, a water filter with still and sparkling water, soda, beer, wine, and a selection of liquor.

British Airways Lounge San Francisco bathrooms

The British Airways Lounge SFO has bathrooms along the interior of the space. The men’s room has several sinks, as well as a couple of urinals and stalls.

Unfortunately the lounge no longer has shower suites — it used to before the renovation, but those were taken out, to expand capacity.

British Airways Lounge San Francisco first class dining

The highlight of the British Airways Lounge SFO is the first class dining section, located in the very back of the lounge, right by the direct gate boarding. This is generally reserved for British Airways first class passengers, but Japan Airlines has negotiated this for its first class passengers as well, which is a nice feature for those eligible.

The first class dining section has roughly a dozen tables, and is an elegant setup, despite the lack of windows.

We had this entire space to ourselves for the entirety of our visit, so that was nice. I should mention that the main part of the lounge got ridiculously busy, when passengers from all three flights were there at once. So having a private space like this was awesome.

The first class section has its own little liquor setup, which was a bit better than in the main part of the lounge, but isn’t anything that’s going to blow your mind.

The first class dining section features an a la carte dining experience, and you can find the menu below, which is the same throughout the day.

We met up with our friends in the lounge, ahead of our flight to Tokyo. Huiling was working the first class section, and she was so lovely and fun, and kept us entertained during our visit.

We decided to have some champagne, and Pol Roger was on offer.

Since there were four of us, we collectively tried several things, including the assorted dinner rolls…

…the leek soup with crème fraîche…

…the chicory salad with mustard vinaigrette…

…the braised short rib with potato gratin, sautéed spinach, and rosemary jus…

…the lemon roasted sole with braised fennel and velouté…

…the impossible burger with aged cheddar on a brioche bun…

…and the vanilla cheesecake with raspberry sorbed and mulled wine syrup.

I’d say the food quality was reasonably good. Was it the most epic meal ever? No. But it was perfectly tasty given that it was prepared in an airport lounge kitchen. Furthermore, it was nice to have a private space like this, and Huiling was a delight.

It’s nice when airlines go above and beyond to carve out special services for first class passengers even at outstation lounges, as that rarely happens.

Bottom line

The British Airways Lounge SFO is a pleasant facility, with modern decor, lots of natural light, nice views, and a decent selection of food and drinks. Admittedly the lounge gets crowded during peak periods, since it’s not a huge space.

What makes the ground experience here pleasant is the pre-flight dining facility for first class passengers. Having access to this offers a lot less crowded of an experience, the food and drinks are quite good, and the service is excellent. A special thanks to Huiling for making our stay here so fun. However, the party was only getting started…

What do you make of the British Airways Lounge SFO?