The SKY Lounge at Vienna VIE Airport is one of the most popular VIP lounges in Central Europe, thanks to its free access for a large number of credit card holders.

How do you get into the lounge and is it worth paying to enter if you don't get in for free?

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Lounge opening hours and location

The lounge is located on the 2nd floor of Terminal 3 (i.e. by departure gates F and G) after security but before passport control.

• Opening hours are daily 4:30-23:00

It is therefore open to passengers on all flights. If you are flying to a Schengen country, you head from the lounge one floor down directly to the "F-gates". If you are flying to a non-Schengen country, you will still need to go through passport control, which is next to the lounge.

The SKY Lounge can be found next to the Austrian Lounge, which offers more space and more refreshments.

The walking distances to the different parts of the airport are roughly as follows:

• Terminal 3 security checkpoint approx. 3 minutes
• F-gates approx. 5-15 minutes
• G-gates approx. 12-20 minutes
• B, C, D-gates approx. 20-30 minutes (must take shuttle bus)

If you are departing from B, C, D you can use the virtually identical VIENNA Lounge.

You can check the exact location of the lounge on the airport map: viennaairport.com.

Entrance - who has access to the lounge

The SKY Lounge is a free, widely available lounge for holders of many credit card or airport lounge access programs, and if you don't have.

Free entry

You can enter the lounge free of charge in the following cases.

• Payment cards
  • Mastercard WorldElite issued at any bank in the following countries.
  • Komerční banka - in addition to Mastercard WorldElite also for A card / Lady card / 4U card (Mastercard only) and 2 free entries per year also for Visa Infinite cards
  • Raiffeisenbank - Mastercard Gold and RB Premium credit card in addition to Mastercard WorldElite
  • mBank - 4 free entries for mKreditka Travel and mKarta Business card holders
  • Slovenská sporitelna - Visa Gold, Visa Platinum, Visa Business Platinum cards
  • Tatra Banka - Visa Platinum card
  • Erste Bank issued in Austria - Visa Platinum, Visa Platinum Business, Mastercard Platinum cards
  • PayLife issued in Austria - PayLife Black card
  • BAWAG issued in Austria - Visa Gold card (only 2 entries per year)
• Airport lounge programmes
  • Priority Pass
  • Lounge Key
  • Dragon Pass
  • LoungeMe
  • Revolut with Ultra plan (get Revolut here)
  • Maximum stay is limited to 3 hours
• Airlines - (business/first class passengers) or Gold and above status holders
  • All Nippon Airways ANA
  • Brussels Airlines
  • Emirates
  • Ethiopian Airlines
  • Korean Air
  • Qatar Airways

Paid admission

If you do not meet any of the above conditions, you can pay to enter the lounge. The maximum stay is limited to 3 hours.

• 46 eur - Full admission
• 28 eur - Discounted admission for holders of Visa Infinite / Visa Gold / Visa Business credit cards issued in Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and A1 banks (Mastercard Platinum only)
• 18 eur - BAWAG bank (Visa Gold only), PayLife bank (Visa Business Gold and Platinum cards)

Space and atmosphere - often crowded

Even with the wide availability of free tickets, the lounge tends to be overcrowded and the most comfortable seats are almost always fully occupied.

The crowds tend to be at their lowest around 7:00 to 10:00 and after 20:00.

The main area contains comfortable seats suitable for relaxation.

There are dining tables along the food counters.

You'll also find a small corner with desks for working on laptops separated by a glass wall from the rest of the lounge, so it's quiet and peaceful.

The furniture looks dated, which detracts from the overall impression.

The lack of windows overlooking the airport tarmac does not add to the atmosphere.

Food and drink on offer

From a contract lounge with such wide free access, I honestly expected a worse range of refreshments.

For this category of lounges, I would say it is an above average selection of food.

• Hot meals - a steady menu of 4 to 6 types of food and always 1 type of soup, the quality is rather average but the dishes are usually edible

• Cold meals - a choice of several types of salads, sandwiches and pastries. The quality was not great and I enjoyed the hot dishes more

• Sweets - typical Austrian cakes and buns, but I found the sweet dishes to be the best of the lounge's offerings

• Fruits, veggies, nuts, granola - the selection of muesli/granola/snacks and any veggies outside of salads was completely lacking during my visit. There were only 3 types of nuts, apples, pears and bananas

• Soft drinks - there are fridges in two areas of the lounge with plenty of sodas in glass bottles, infused water and also Coca cola, Coca cola zero, Fanta, Sprite from post-mix

• Coffee and tea - the selection of teas is wide and although the coffee is only available from vending machines, it is the Julius Meinl brand which is one of the best in this segment.

• Alcohol - for a contract lounge, there is a fairly wide selection of good wines and there is also a bar with liqueurs and spirits available all day

Lounge facilities

The SKY Lounge doesn't offer much else besides food and drink.

Showers

There is a single shower available in the toilet area, which was also inaccessible at the time of my visit.

However, I imagine that even if the shower is functional, there must be a very long waiting list for it, estimated to be well over an hour.

Edit: In the experience of other travellers, showers are usually accessible and long queues don't usually form.

Wi-fi

Internet access is available via free wi-fi.

Internet speed is very good and suitable for playing and downloading videos.

Charging plugs

Plugs for charging electronics are available for most chairs and all work surfaces.

All plugs are "European" type F only.

Workspaces

In the SKY Lounge, you will find a separate area with work desks ideal for working quietly with your laptop.

Smoking room

Before entering the lounge, smokers can use a ventilated booth designated for SKY Lounge visitors only.

Children's play area

There is no children's corner in the SKY Lounge.

Conclusion and my review

Taking into account the fact that the SKY Lounge is a typical contract lounge operated directly by the airport and not the airline, I actually rate it quite positively.

Sure, the space is limited, the overall furnishings look a bit cheap and the lack of windows doesn't add to the atmosphere, but the refreshments on offer are solid and the lounge is perfectly adequate for a short stop before a flight.

Positives

• Very wide range of free entry options
• Fairly extensive food offerings, especially hot dishes
• Fast wi-fi

Negatives

• Frequent overcrowding, little space
• Poor selection of fruit, vegetables and generally healthy dishes
• Non-functional showers
• Old-school and not very well maintained furniture

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