During our trip to Thailand, having only just arrived in Bangkok following a long trip in Singapore Airlines Premium Economy, we flew to Chiang Mai for a week. Up in the north of the country, Chiang Mai is known for the mountains that surround it, as well as elephants, water falls and beautiful temples. We flew there from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport (BKK), with Thai Airways, and also visited the Coral Executive Lounge at BKK’s domestic terminal. On the way back we had the opportunity to visit the Thai Airways Royal Orchid Lounge at the domestic terminal of Chiang Mai Intl Airport (CNX), which you can visit with Priority Pass.

Briefly, the Royal Orchid Lounge is a small lounge, with really just two connected seating areas which also includes a small buffet. However, despite that the lounge generally stayed rather quiet. The food selection was not particularly large, and while some options were only okay, the Thai desserts and pork buns were very tasty. Now let’s dig into the full review!

1. Locations and Hours
2. Access Requirements
3. Seating and Design
4. Food and Drinks
5. Restrooms
6. Summary

Locations and Hours

This lounge is open from 6:30am to 9:00pm.

To get to the lounge, you’ll need to head for the domestic terminal, and go up to the upper floor, where the departures are. Go through security, and once you are through, turn right and follow the signs to Gate 3. The lounge will be opposite that gate, and should be easy to recognize by the golden lettering right by the entrance.

Access Requirements

The Royal Orchid lounge has numerous ways to gain access:

• Fly in business class with Thai Airways or a Star Alliance partner: Since the Royal Orchid Lounge is the signature lounge of Thai Airways, business class passengers on Thai Airways get access. Thai Airways refers to its business class as ‘Royal Silk’. Business class passengers on Star Alliance partners can also access the lounge.
• Elite members of Thai Airways’ Royal Orchid program: elite members in the Gold or Platinum tiers of Thai Airways Royal Orchid frequent flyer program can enter the lounge as well.
• Those with Star Alliance Gold (Star Alliance’ highest frequent flyer elite tier) can get lounge access if flying in any class of service on Thai Airways or a Star Alliance partner.
• Those with paid Air Canada or United Club memerships: those that have a paid membership with Air Canada Maple Leaf Club (Worldwide) and United Airlines United Club can access the lounge.
• Priority Pass: This particular lounge accepts those with a Priority Pass membership. This is how I gained access to the lounge.

As you read the review, keep in mind that this is both a priority pass lounge as well as the designated lounge for domestic Thai Airways business class. You may find that for the latter the lounge is not as nice as you might expect, while as a priority pass lounge it’s an attractive option.

Seating and Design

The lounge is small, and so there isn’t a whole much of seating available. That said, there are about two spaces available, connected through a single walkway. When you enter the lounge, you access through that one walkway. Immediately to the left is the reception desk, where you can checkin. It seemed as though somebody was being trained when we got here, and the guests in front of us had some issues with their Priority Pass. While we did have a short wait, we were helped and checked in soon enough

The reception desk is already in the first of the two lounge spaces, and so when you pass it you find yourself surrounded by severals eating options while standing on the main connecting walkway between the two spaces. To the left and right are chairs and low tables organized in pairs. these are all the same, save for some color variation in the upholstering of the chairs. The walls are generally decorated in Thai Airways’ signature purple, interrupted by either wood paneling or a faux marble that complements the purple. I liked this color pellet, and felt it was quite elegant, if a little retro.

If you continue on the white walkway, you’ll get to the second space. This is a square room with more of the same chairs, through organized in rows with side tables in-between every two seats. The decoration is otherwise mostly the same as the first space, and includes some hanging art with Thai patterns to complement the purple and earthen/wooden tones.

Just to zoom in on where we were sitting, you can see here a little more clearly that on the front of the side tables are electrical plugs. It’s great that these are so numerous, so it shouldn’t be a problem to get your devices charged.

Like I said, the lounge really is small, so the two spaces is all that there is. There are no further spaces to talk about. Despite its small size, I did think it was a fairly nice space with a rather elegant though a little retro (slightly out-dated?) decor. I do like the purple with the earthen and wooden tones and thought all in all it was a nice place to spend an hour or two before flying.

I will also add that because the lounge if so small, it does get somewhat busy fairly quickly, but it also never got particularly loud. At no time during my visit was the lounge more than half full and it remained a fairly quiet place throughout.

Food and Drinks

Let me state upfront that we were here in the morning, so the bufet was centered around breakfast options.

As you come into the lounge you can see the buffet on the far left, past the three pairs of chairs to the left of the walkway. The buffet is on the smaller side, but does have a variety of options.

Starting with the island, you’ll see some little cakes and sandwiches among other desserts, organized in a sort of ‘high tea’ style. Directly to the right of that is a little freezer with small cups of ice cream with some very Thai flavors, such as pandan/coconut.

Then to the right of that you’ll find all the drinks. That includes a fridge with various soft drinks and small bottles of water. There were two kinds of Schweppes as well – seems very popular in Thailand? Otherwise there was an espresso machine that brewed a variety of coffee specialties, or dispensed hot water for tea.

Moving on the the main part of the buffet, this was arranged in an L-shape with a variety of options. Starting at the entrance of this buffet was a large thermos for hot water, and variety of instant noodle cups. There were also tea bags to make tea. Directly beside that was a cooler that had a large bowl of yoghurt, some pre-poured drinks, such as orange juice, and some plates of cut fruit. Now if I’m honest, I thought this was a rather awkward presentation that, in my mind, limits options for guests and increases the workload for the staff. Instead of 4-8 glasses of orange juice, why not a large carafe with juice and empty glasses to the side, like in virtually any other lounge? Same with the fruit: why not simply provide a tray with cut fruit of various kinds, rather than have this pre-plated?

Moving on, next are some hot options. This included omelets, right by the cutlery. Then follow toasters and sliced breads. By the bread is another hot food option, which appeared to be hot dogs.

Further, there are some Thai and other Asian desserts. These were some of the best options at the buffet, and I liked the pandan/coconut and Thai tea custards. These went very well with the fried dough in the display case to the right of them. And finally, there were a vareity of different kinds of buns, and I especially enjoyed the BBQ pork buns.

Overall, I’d say that the buffet had a somewhat eclectic collection of the options. As was the case with Coral Executive Lounge and the SATS Premier Lounge in Singapore, I felt the Western options (such as the omelet) were more or less okay, whereas the local (Thai) options were of significantly better quality. I really liked the pork buns and the Thai-style desserts, both the custard and the ice cream options.

Restrooms

Despite the small size, the lounge does have dedicated men’s and women’s restrooms. You get here by following the main walkway past the buffet and turning left. The women’s restroom is on the right and is for just a single person at a time, while straightahead is the men’s restroom. This can be used by up to two people at a time. That is because there is a urinal as well as a stall. Both restrooms were fairly clean maintained okay.

Summary

The Royal Orchid Lounge at Chiang Mai CNX’s domestic terminal was perfectly decent. It’s a small lounge with a decor that is elegant in a retro way, and may benefit from some updating, though I enjoyed spending an hour or so in this space. The seating was comfortable and I liked that in the second space there were ample electrical plugs to charge devices. The buffet had various options though I would recommend sticking to the Asian options, and specially the Thai dessert was very nice. Overall, this was a pleasant place to spend a few hours and I’d have no qualms returning.

Though I will say that as the designated lounge for business class passengers of Thai Airways, it is perhaps a little below expectation. But as a priority pass lounge, it is certainly worth visiting!