Leeli Lounge Review: Male Airport, Maldives

The tail end of my mini around the world Aeroplan booking kicked off with my first time flying Singapore Airlines Business Class from the Maldives to Singapore. An unexpected bonus to that was access to the Leeli lounge at Male airport. I say unexpected as there is no Star Alliance partner lounge at the Male airport. That said, access to this private lounge was a bonus, although a minor one. Read on for my Leeli lounge review and find out why.

Leeli Lounge Location

After an unnecessary but welcome escort by Mercure Maldives staff between the domestic and international terminals, we cleared airport security and checked into our Singapore Airlines flight. With business class seats came priority cards for fast tracking immigration. This was another nice touch although not necessary given the airport was quiet. Through the duty-free gauntlet you will find the Leeli Lounge directly on the left.

READ MORE: Mercure Maldives Resort Review

Amenities & Service

Upon warm welcomes we were given Wi-Fi passwords and ushered inside. There we found a large open lounge with way more guests than expected given how quiet the airport was. That’s because the Leeli Lounge is private and contracts to the major airlines meaning not only Star Alliance flights have access.

On the positive, the crowd was all in the area closest to the buffet leaving plenty of quiet space in the back, or so we thought. The only other people in the area decided to sit directly behind us and loudly play K-Pop videos and a Korean version Candy Crush on their phones.

Seating in the Leeli Lounge is pretty standard and includes in-seat power outlets, although situated in a way that my universal adapter would fall out rendering it useless. This Leelie Lounge review is not off to a good start. ?

There are a few lay flat chairs however they were all in use during my Leeli Lounge review.

On the positive, I can report that the Internet is probably the fastest I have ever experienced at a lounge! My surprise here is twofold; one, we were on an island and two, the K-Pop videos weren’t hogging all the bandwidth.

Although the Internet in the Leeli Lounge is blazing fast and the K-Pop is loud, it shouldn’t distract you from protecting your devices with a vpn. Connecting to public WiFi comes with risks, even in a business class lounge, so it’s best to surf safely!

Food and Drink

Given the Maldives is an Islamic nation, there is no alcohol to be found inside the lounge. Don’t expect a preflight cocktail here. You will, however, find lots of tea’s and a surprisingly great espresso machine.

Coffee and tea is where the food and drink highlights end in this Leeli Lounge review. The food spread was peculiar to say the least. It consisted of stale pastries, room temperature tuna salad sandwiches, cup of noodles, and, for some reason, a large bowl of pink marshmallows. Weird.

I opted to save my calories for Singapore Airlines offerings as I had read that the food is great in Business Class. This should not be surprising given how much of a foodie country Singapore is. Stay tuned for my full Singapore Airlines Business Class review.

Getting In

As noted off the top in this Leeli Lounge review, as a contract lounge, access is arranged for pretty much every international airline flying through Male. This means First and Business Class passengers from several different airlines. Surprisingly, paid access is not an option, nor is any sort of partnership access through credit card programs.

Conclusion

Given that access to the Leeli Lounge was somewhat of a bonus to me, I can’t complain. It provided free and fast Internet and a surprisingly good cup of coffee. That said, in a country that is all about luxury, the Leeli Lounge experience certainly falls short of expectations. I would not go out of my way to access it and would avoid any sort of extended layover.

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For more luxury travel reviews from The Maildives and beyond see HERE.