Is this the best Priority Pass lounge in the country?

The club location at SFO

The Club opened in June at SFO’s Harvey Milk Terminal 1. Both times I visited in October there was a line to get in; however, it was only a five minute wait when I was there for a recent flight to New York.

As you enter the lobby on the main floor of the terminal, you will see a large staircase.

There is an elevator behind the check-in desks, but it was not working during my visit (except at the request of people in wheelchairs). Instead, the luggage room near the elevator was used for storage so people didn’t have to lug their suitcases up two flights of stairs to the main lounge.

The stairs are a dramatic way to enter the space, but hopefully the elevator won’t be offline for long.

The Club SFO is definitely the nicest Priority Pass lounge I’ve been to in the US. Unlike most of the 20 clubs in the domestic Priority Pass network, this one is chic and well-designed. A dramatic lighting feature frames the space. (Although, as you can see, it’s getting quite full.)

I had trouble taking photos so it didn’t look packed, but it didn’t feel as busy as it looked.

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Around the corner from the main dining room is a long, beautiful bar serving top-shelf cocktails, beer and wine.

The admission requirements of the Club SFO

The Club SFO amenities

The Club SFO has some of the best amenities you will find in any SFO domestic lounge. My favorite feature was the small seating area at the top of the stairs with a “first of its kind microclimate fireplace,” according to the lounge. It uses water vapor and beautiful lighting to mimic a real fire. Moreover, the space never became completely full.

There’s also a nice spot for napping, a feature the Club SFO calls a “rest zone.” Unfortunately, a shortage of lounge chairs means that you cannot always get a spot; there are only four seats in total, all facing a beautifully lit wall. During my stay there was one brief moment when the room was empty.

Additional seating areas include several work areas, individual sofas with high walls, and individual quiet rooms off to the side labeled ‘privacy’ that some people had turned into sleeping areas.

There were dozens of small seating areas, most of which were filled with passengers killing time before their flight (including one passenger who turned two chairs into a makeshift bed).

The view wasn’t the best feature of the lounge, although you could see some planes in the distance through a few windows. There were views of the terminal corridor below.

The lounge has a wellness center, but you must request access. It was closed during my stay. The small room is equipped with two Lululemon Studio Mirrors, yoga mats, yoga blocks, gym towels and water.

Finally, the lounge features three small ‘luminescence’ rooms that you can book at 20-minute intervals. They are equipped with adjustable lighting and temperature controllers. I was able to reserve one for a quick meditation and to escape the hustle and bustle of the main lounge.

All reservations for the lounge can be made via an app that you open via a QR code.

Please note that you must pay $25 to use the showers. There are three in the lounge, one of which is fully wheelchair accessible. I asked an attendant to let me take a few photos because I didn’t feel like showering myself. It’s nice to have the option, even if you have to pay for the pleasure.

I appreciated that each shower had a rain shower head and shower rod. Amenities were from the German cosmetics brand Babor.

The bathrooms were clean and tiled with nice phrases like “standing room only” at the men’s urinals. There was even a diffuser to keep the bathrooms smelling clean.

The lounge also offers a lactation room for breastfeeding mothers.

Wi-Fi at The Club SFO was lightning fast – perhaps the best I’ve ever found in a lounge. As you can see below, download speeds came in at 284 Mbps and upload speeds at 248 Mbps. Wow.

There were also plentiful outlets in the lounge.

The restaurant and bar of Club SFO

The lounge bar was a popular spot, but I never saw long lines for cocktails during my visit.

Back in the main dining room, a walk-up buffet drew quite a line as it transitioned to lunch during my visit.

The food was impressive, with the chefs replenishing the food as the guests quickly snapped it up. Items included California fruits, a carrot-coconut curry with jasmine rice, orange chicken and broccoli cooked in pineapple soy.

There was also a wine buffet serving Chalk Hill and Foley wines, but this was closed during my visit.

Finally, there were a few other drink stations with a coffee maker, soda water tap, tea, soda, and a few other treats.

In short

The Club SFO is already proving to be incredibly popular thanks to its beautifully designed two-storey space, wide choice of great food and beverage options and many interesting amenities. I’m a little concerned about the crowds, but that’s true of almost every lounge these days, especially during prime time.

If this is the direction The Club is going, I’m all for it.

I can definitely say that this is the nicest Priority Pass lounge I have been to in the US

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