The Chase Sapphire Lounge in Phoenix is the smallest of any bank lounge in the United States. It’s just 3,500 square feet with capacity for just 78 guests. But there’s a trick to get in with no wait, the space is nicely designed, and the food is pretty good – possibly better than Philadelphia and LaGuardia.
This lounge first opened in November 2024. It’s on terminal 4 Concourse D, as you head down the D11-D18 pier (but before you reach any of those gates). You turn right past the security checkpoint, and the lounge is on your left, across from Bobby’s Burgers by Bobby Flay. You can walk between all gates within Terminal 4 post-security, but not between terminals 3 and 4.
Hours are 4:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. daily, but alcohol beverages aren’t available before 6 a.m.
Lounge Layout And Features
The centerpiece of the lounge is a wraparound bar with seating, and large windows overlooking the tarmac.
There’s also interior seating featuring a Sapphire Lounge-signature steam/water-vapor fireplace with visual flames, albeit not a real fire.
Then there’s an indoor patio area that opens to the concourse. It’s only partially-walled off from the terminal so you’re not fully separated. Some people like the airiness of it. I don’t.
Some of the seating is even a little awkward. These were low to the ground and more or less in the path of guests entering the lounge, and right beside the hot food area.
There’s a buffet area, of course.
And – instead of ordering hot food to your table with a QR code – there’s a refurbished Airstream trailer where made to order items are prepared and served.
Two private bathrooms are available, and there actually wasn’t a queue that I noticed while I was there. There are no showers.
You won’t really find anything else. There’s no kids play area, nursing room, or conference rooms. There’s no spa. There’s no room!
How To Skip The Lines
Last summer they started reservations for this lounge as a feature in the Chase app – something they haven’t rolled out to any of their other lounges, even the 5,390 square foot Sapphire Lounge in Las Vegas.
Reservations can be made 14 days to 24 hours prior to visit. A cardmember can make one reservation per day. And you still must be within 3 hours of scheduled departure to access the lounge.
Just navigate to ‘lounges’ in the app and select the Chase Sapphire Lounge Phoenix and you’ll be able to make reservations.
You can book any number of guests, but you’re still limited by your card’s guest policy (2 are free, children under 2 don’t cost anything, but additional older guests are $27 apiece).
The Chase website says “If you are running late, there will be a grace period of 20 minutes from your reservation time.” However when I made a 1 p.m. reservation time I was given a 1 p.m. – 1:10 p.m. entry window. I showed up at 1:15 p.m. and was welcomed in. In fact, they had to check to see whether seats were available yet for us. So while they hold seats open for reservations and provide an exact window it’s not a guarantee of immediate seating.
Ultimately, credit card issuer lounges have struggled with capacity for several reasons.
- Customers use them more than they used to. Premium leisure has grown in importance relative to business travel and these customers show up at the airport earlier, and banks have marketed to them.
- It’s difficult to get sufficient spaces inside airports. While airports learned they could lease less desirable space for use as club lounges (since travelers would walk farther to them, while they need to be walking past retail spots anyway to make those stores useful), new airport terminals are being designed with club spaces in mind.
- Better lounges attract customers. Passengers will arrive earlier (and eat more!) than you expect, even factoring that you know they will arrive earlier and eat more, when the lounge is nice and the food and beverage program better than what airlines traditionally offered in their lounges.
So I admit I’d appreciate reservations not just at a tiny lounge like this but all over. Capital One does a great job with reservations in their app for Landing (restaurant-style lounges at DCA and LaGuardia). I’d love it if this was replicated more broadly.
Access
Access is standard Sapphire-lounge policy, no more than three hours prior to departure:
- Chase Sapphire Reserve personal and business cardmembers and Ritz-Carlton card: cardmembers enter free, with up to two guests. Extra guests are $27 per person; kids 2 and under are free. (Employee cards on a small business Reserve account do not receive lounge access.)
- J.P. Morgan Reserve cardmembers receive access on the same terms as Sapphire Reserve. This is bascially a Sapphire Reserve card in a different design with free United Club access. It’s targeted at J.P. Morgan Private Bank clients (usually eight figures on deposit with Chase). It amazes me that they do not receive priority access, the way Amex offers Centurion cardmembers.
In additional, any Priority Pass cardmember (including from non-Chase cards) can visit one Chase Sapphire Lounge per calendar year free per Priority Pass account. Paid day passes without Priority Pass are $100 per person. I do not recommend this.
The Chase Sapphire Lounge Network
Dallas – Fort Worth and Los Angeles are known additional lounges in the pipeline which should open this year. The slate of currently-open lounges is:
| Airport | Size (sq ft) | Opened | Key notes | |||
| Boston Logan (BOS) | 11,500 | May-23 | Tap-room with local beer; massage chairs; showers; kids’ playroom | |||
| Las Vegas (LAS) | 5,390 | Dec-25 | Champagne welcome, just 87 seats | |||
| New York–JFK (JFK) | 7,600 | Jan-24 | Shared Etihad space; full cocktail & dining menu; showers | |||
| New York–LaGuardia (LGA) | 21,800 | Jan-24 | Two-story design; Reserve Suites; spa; arcade | |||
| Philadelphia (PHL) | 20,000 | Feb-25 | Beer-garden zone, shuffleboard, retro arcade, rest pods, facials | |||
| Phoenix (PHX) | 3,500 | Nov-24 | Small and overrun, limited amenities | |||
| San Diego (SAN) | 10,000 | Dec-24 | Wellness area with private pods & meditation | |||
| Washington Dulles (IAD) | 5,200 | Mar-24 | Shared Etihad space; compact but full service offering |
Chase Sapphire Lounge Phoenix Bottom Line
This is a high quality lounge. It is tiny. I wouldn’t make the trek to terminal 4 for it if you aren’t flying out of it to begin with. But I was literally leaving from gate D11, so I made a reservation guessing what time I might want it as a ‘just in case’.
The food is better than what you’d get from a Priority Pass lounge, or most base airline clubs. The tacos were good, but way too much sauce! And I kind of liked the Airstream concept.
There’s a good bar program, people like the coffee (I didn’t try it), and I like private bathrooms. They were clean!
How far in advance did you make this booking? I doubt the gate information is known until day of departure.
Furthermore having bookings will cause the wait list to be that much longer.