After my brilliant time in Sao Paulo, it was time to head home via the Guarulhos Airport and Terminal 3. Security and outbound immigration were very quick with zero queues, and before long found myself airside.
There are a couple of lounges available to British Airways passengers, the LATAM VIP lounge and the American Airlines Admirals Club. A friend had previously reviewed the LATAM lounge on the blog here, so didn’t want to cover it again.
Upon presenting boarding passes we were warmly welcomed into the virtually deserted lounge. There were a couple of seating areas at the front, and then you enter the main section.
Admirals Club Sao Paulo entrance Admirals Club Sao Paulo seating Admirals Club Sao Paulo sculpture
My first impression is that there was a lot of seating. Lots and lots of seating. There was a ‘cinema’ style area with two large TV’s – one showing CNN international and the other showing a Brazilian new channel. But both had the sound on so was somewhat hard to discern what was what.
Admirals Club Sao Paulo tv area Admirals Club Sao Paulo seating Admirals Club Sao Paulo more seating Admirals Club Sao Paulo dining area
There was also an area set-up for dining.
In terms of food options, for an Admirals Club, it actually wasn’t bad at all. There was a variety of Brazilian pastries, desserts section, sandwiches, snacks and some hot food as well.
Admirals Club Sao Paulo drinks Admirals Club Sao Paulo warmed pastries Admirals Club Sao Paulo desserts Admirals Club Sao Paulo snacks Admirals Club Sao Paulo sandwiches Admirals Club Sao Paulo hot options
There was also a variety of sparkling wine options, including something that looked like a rosé, but came out of the bottle almost brown. It was vile. Normally I love my fizz, but I actually left half the glass.
Thoughts
When I was at the lounge, it was pretty dead – I strongly suspect when the evening bank of AA departures leave, it would be heaving. I wasn’t that impressed – it was a pretty basic business class lounge without any decent views.
To be honest, the LATAM lounge next door wasn’t that much better either. Having visited the LATAM (née LAN) lounge in Santiago, that was considerably better. Even the small one in the international section of Buenos Aires airport I thought was better.
In short, I wouldn’t get to the airport too early if you’re leaving from Sao Paulo – we had a bit over an hour before boarding started (between both lounges) and that was more than enough.