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This is part of the Around the World 2015 Mega Trip
- Etihad Business and First Class Lounge Washington DC
- Etihad Business Studio – IAD to AUH
- Review: Etihad Arrivals lounge and Etihad Chauffeur experience
- Grand Hyatt Dubai
- Hyatt Capital Gate Abu Dhabi
- Etihad Business and First Class Lounge Abu Dhabi, AUH
- Etihad Pearl Business Class – AUH to JNB
- Intercontinental Johannesburg Sandton Towers
- Blue Train Johannesburg to Cape Town
- Queen Victoria Cape Town
- Chitwa Chitwa Sabi Sands Luxury Game Reserve Kruger National Park
- Royal Chundu Zambezi River Lodge – Victoria Falls
- Intercontinental Johannesburg Airport
- Review: S(h)ongololo Lounge JNB
- Cathay Pacific Business Class – JNB to HKG to HND
- Ritz Carlton Tokyo
- Japan Airlines First Class Lounge Tokyo, NRT
- American Air Flagship First Class – NRT to LAX
Review: S(h)ongololo Lounge JNB
Prior to boarding our Cathay Pacific flight from JNB to HKG we were invited into the S(h)ongololo Lounge which is right around the corner from the Cathay gates. The lounge was free to us because of our flight cabin ( business J ), but you can also buy 3 hours in it for R350 (~$26).
The lounge was CROWDED!
This wasn’t a complete surprise. Layovers can be quite long in Johannesburg and for $26, more people than not are going to fork over the coin to have a place to kick it for a few hours. It’s also small. Roughly the same size that Etihad had at IAD…and it services one airline and one flight a day! We had about 20 mins. Enough for a quick trip to the bathroom, a snack, and some pics. Miles is just so dang obsessed with getting pictures everywhere 😉
Miles looks very young for his age… thank goodness he had his I.D.
There are signs stating that all pre-packaged food was to be consumed in the lounge
I can’t imagine too many people are adhering to that policy 😉
The hot food was mainly Asian…but pretty decent
There should be a bigger sign for the toilets and showers heh…heh…heh
A small yet functional business center
Despite being overly crowded it was all in all it was a good lounge. Nothing spectacular like United’s at LHR, but it had hot and cold food, great looking pre-packaged sandwiches, open bar, and showers. Had we not been curious as to what it had to offer I doubt we would have even gone in. We had a big hold up at check-in and customs took forever. If you have free access to the lounge, then by all means go in and check it out…if you don’t and it’s just an hour or two between connections…I would skip it. There are plenty more dining options to check out in the terminal and when combined with duty free shops…more than enough stuff to keep you occupied.
Although…you might miss an opportunity to see Miles up on this wall in the future 😉
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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