I was thinking to myself, what are the minimal requirements for a business lounge: A reasonable choice of food, a decent relaxing sofa to sit on, some private corners to relax before a flight, a welcoming staff and an acceptable choice of beverages. LOL with capital letters. This is the worst business lounge I have experienced to date. Location? Air Algerie Business Lounge!
I’ll try to describe it as much as I can:
- At the end of a tiny tight corridor that connects the two terminals together is a broken glass door
- A door covered with dirty white curtains dating back to the Second World War
- At the counter, two hostesses who don’t have the energy to move their hands to grab my boarding pass
- I looked to the left to discover a single square shaped room which they call the lounge: Shocking!
- A messy setup of colored individual sofas cover all the area without leaving a space to walk around
- Light green, dark green, orange, white, yellow and black. Colors that do not even match together let alone represent anything specific
- Almost all the chairs are teared apart, dirty like hell with their sponges out
- Dirty floor
- Dirty glass tables
- An empty breakfast buffet
- Two computers decorate the corners
- A microwave: Haha! Amazingly cheap Chinese microwave next to the bread
- Two fridges containing soft drinks
At the counter is a small frame displaying some food menu – I thought great, I’m sure they will make this messy setup by offering some good food. The frame read: “Cornet de Saumon Fume, Emincé de Veau aux Champignons, Jardinière de Légumes, Espadon Grille, Riz à L’oriental, Fromage, Fruits, Pâtisseries.”
Wow, I thought. Great! But where are they displayed or offered… I didn’t see them anywhere.. UNTIL…
NO WAY! I later understood that this is actually the menu on board the plane. Lol! I loved the way its scratched with a pen for passengers to know that they have to choose either one of the two choices and not the two at the same time. No, really impressive! It’s a must see!
As for the food that’s actually served in the lounge… This is another story: Only three baskets: Chocolate croissants, another version of chocolate croissants and plane croissants- that is all you get. Three choices of inedible pieces of thick tasteless condensed bread. The chocolate croissant has a tunnel inside for a reason I didn’t understand. Maybe for kids to play with as a telescope since they can’t eat it.
Soft drinks without ice, yogurt left out of the fridge, cake slices put one over the other in an unappetizing way and disgusting muffins cooked the day before.
It was 9am and it was time for coffee, a coffee that I didn’t find anywhere. So, I decided to walk around searching for some hidden sections. Indeed there was one, a dirty disgusting kitchenette with an employee sitting on a plastic chair dozing off: “Good morning, can I please have a cup of coffee”? Mr. Lazy stared at me for 30 seconds then said, fine, a coffee it is… I really thought I was dreaming.
Is this acceptable in the 21st century? Maybe in third world countries, I mean fifth world countries…
