The 10 worst-rated airport lounges in India and South Asia, and where to go instead

Before the list, a warning about the data, because it shapes everything below. Lounge Frog has 117 lounges on file for India and its neighbours, and most of them have barely been rated. More than 60 Indian lounges carry a score built on one or two metrics, which is not enough to call any of them the worst of anything. Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Maldives are worse still: every lounge we list in those five countries has no ratings at all, so none of them can appear here. This is an India list by necessity.

So the rules were strict. A lounge had to be open and carry an overall score built from at least eight rated metrics. That leaves 24 lounges, enough to rank, but it also means the bottom ten runs from genuinely poor (1.3) to merely middling (3.6). I would not tell anyone to avoid numbers 8 to 10; I would tell them what they are missing. Five well-rated records were set aside because the lounges are closed, and one of them would have made the list: the old American Express lounge in Delhi Terminal 3, rated 2.8, which shut at the end of 2025 when Amex moved to Terminal 1. Ties were broken by the lowest individual scores. All scores are our own editorial ratings, explained on our methodology page.

The landside rooms

Three of the four lowest-rated lounges in India have one thing in common: none of them is past security. They are arrival lounges or kerbside waiting rooms, and they exist mostly so that a Priority Pass card has somewhere to go when you land at 3am. Number 3, a bar, comes after them.

1. T1 Lounge (Kerbside), Bengaluru — 1.3. Outside Terminal 1 arrivals near Arrival Gate 13, open around the clock, with a two-hour cap and a same-day boarding pass required. It scores 1 on ten of its fourteen metrics, including seating, service, cleanliness, coffee, wifi and power. Nothing scores above 2. If you are departing from Terminal 1, go through security and use the 080 Domestic Lounge on Level 2, also on Priority Pass, rated 3.8 with top marks for seating, power and workspace.

2. 080 Arrival Lounge (T2), Bengaluru — 1.6. Ground level in the Terminal 2 arrivals hall. Its best scores are a 3 for coffee, crowding and wifi; food, drinks, seating, restrooms, power and workspace all sit at 1. It shares a brand with the excellent 080 rooms upstairs and nothing else. Departing from T2, the 080 Lounge (Domestic T2) at 4.4 and the 080 International Lounge at 4.5 are both on Priority Pass. If you have just landed, I have no better-rated arrival option at Bengaluru to send you to.

4. Aviserv Lounge (East), Mumbai — 2.8. Landside on Level 2 of Terminal 2 arrivals, near Arrival Gate C. Coffee, drinks and exclusivity score 2; restrooms are its strong point at 4. Its twin on the other side of the hall, Aviserv Lounge (West) near Arrival Gate A, rates 3.3 on Priority Pass, though on seven metrics rather than eight. For departures from T2, the Adani Lounge - Loyalty (Domestic T2) rates 4.8 and takes Priority Pass, DragonPass and LoungeKey.

If you only remember one thing from this list: an Indian lounge on the landside of arrivals is a waiting room. Our piece on landside versus airside lounges explains why that matters beyond India.

Mumbai's bar

3. Good Times Bar, Mumbai — 2.6. Airside in Terminal 1B near Gate 10, and more bar than lounge. Service, drinks and cleanliness all score 4. It lands here because restrooms and exclusivity score 1, and seating and power score 2. I kept it in because the airport lists it among its lounges and it sells lounge access; a pure restaurant would have been left out. The alternative in the same terminal is the Adani Lounge T1B, on Priority Pass, but we have only rated it on two metrics (3.0), so I cannot promise it is better. One caveat: Mumbai's airport is moving flights out of Terminal 1 for redevelopment, with a large shift to Terminal 2 and Navi Mumbai due on October 25, 2026 and demolition of part of the terminal planned from January 2027. Check where your airline is flying from before you plan around either room.

A weak room inside a strong one

5. 080 VIP Domestic Lounge, Bengaluru — 2.9. Also called the Courtyard Club, this is a separate paid room inside the 080 complex on Level 4 of the T2 domestic pier, sold through Plaza Premium. It is quiet (4), with good seating and workspace (4 each) and a full bar, but coffee, food, power, wifi and crowding all score 2. The odd result is that the standard 080 Lounge (Domestic T2) next door rates 4.4 and takes Priority Pass. Unless you specifically want the quieter corner, I would not pay the upgrade. Eligible Air India and Star Alliance Gold passengers have the Air India Maharaja Lounge on the same level at 3.7.

Fine rooms with nowhere better to go

The next three are not bad lounges. They are the weakest of what is well rated, and at their airports there is nothing better on our books.

6. Earth Lounge (Domestic), Kochi — 3.2. Airside near Gate 1A in Terminal 1. Views score 5, and food, seating and service score 4. Drinks score 1 because there is no bar, and exclusivity is 2. Kochi has no better-rated domestic option. The international Earth Lounge in Terminal 3 has been scored on a single metric.

7. Elysian Lounge (Ground Floor), Pune — 3.2. Near Gate 5A in the new terminal's domestic area, open 24 hours with a two-hour cap; alcohol is extra. Drinks and exclusivity score 2, food and crowding 3. The other two Elysian rooms at Pune are rated on only two metrics each, so I cannot point to anything better here. The Pune leaderboard will change as they are rated.

8. Travel Club (Terminal 2), Chennai — 3.5. International departures, third floor, three-hour cap. Restrooms, views and wifi all score 5; the rest sits at 3, with exclusivity at 2. It is middling rather than bad, and it is the only rated lounge for international departures at Chennai, so there is no alternative to suggest.

The top of the bottom

9. Encalm Privé (Domestic T1), Delhi — 3.6. On the mezzanine of Terminal 1, sold as a premium walk-in room with a two-hour limit. Crowding, quiet and service all score 5. Restrooms and exclusivity score 1, and with only eight metrics rated those two scores drag the average down. The Encalm Lounge (Domestic T1) in the same terminal is on Priority Pass but rated on only three metrics (3.3). If your flight is from Terminal 3, the Encalm Lounge (Domestic T3) rates 4.7.

10. Travel Club (Terminal 4), Chennai — 3.6. Opposite Gate 17 in domestic departures, two-hour cap, alcohol extra. Exclusivity is 2; coffee and workspace are 3. If you are flying from Terminal 1 instead, the Travel Club at Gate 1 rates 3.8 on Priority Pass, with fourteen metrics behind the score. See the Chennai leaderboard for the rest.

What the gaps tell you

If you add up the lounges that would be the worst in India but have too little data to rank, the list is long: dozens of Adani, Primus, Paahun, Airr and Travel Club rooms at Jaipur, Lucknow, Goa, Madurai, Nagpur and similar airports, nearly all scored 1.5 or 2.0 on one or two metrics. Some of those may well be worse than anything above. We will add them as the ratings come in. In the meantime, our best airport lounges in India list covers the other end. The same exercise for neighbouring regions is in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Asia.