After Only 3 Days, The Chase Sapphire LaGuardia Lounge Already Has A Line To Get In

by Gary Leff

The Chase Sapphire Lounge at New York LaGuardia airport only just opened on Tuesday. Usually it takes awhile for new lounges to get crowded because word of mouth has to spread that the lounge even exists. This one is 22,000 square feet – twice the size of the nearby American Express Centurion lounge. And the existence of both in the same terminal should help spread out the crowding.

And yet there’s already queueing to get into this new Chase lounge!

The good news is that they offer virtual queueing, you don’t actually have to stand in line. And the wait was only 5 minutes to get in.

The hope was that with such a large space it wouldn’t be so full, and wouldn’t feel full either. That hope, I guess, lasted all of three days.

On the other hand, a five minute wait to get in on a day where it appears that nearly half the flights from the airport were delayed, could be a whole lot worse. During flight delays is precisely when you want the lounge to be a refuge, not a refugee camp. But at 22,000 square feet and still new it probably stood up to conditions better than most would expect of a lounge in the current times that accepts Priority Pass (only free once a year unless the Priority Pass has been issued by Chase).


Credit: Chase


Credit: Chase

I still haven’t been to the lounge. Most reports I’ve seen suggest that the design is gorgeous, and it’s an aesthetically pleasing space despite a lack of natural light. Also, that the food is good, but that several people prefer the food in the nearby Centurion lounge.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Wow looks fantastic frim the pictures.

    Could the combination of its novelty and that it’s the only be PP lounge in LGA be big contributors to its crowdedness? I’m curious what the breakdown is of which credit cards people are getting PP with. My gut says Chase is the most popular which wouldn’t help the latter situation as much. I also wonder what % of people have regular access to both the Chase and Amex lounge there.

  2. Please Gary, stop using italics so often in every single post. I have a game now where I read your articles and count the italics. It’s too much!

  3. I was there on the 17th, I guess the 2nd day it was open? Didn’t even know about it and I was delighted when I saw signs for it

    0 wait when I went early in the morning. The lounge is huge and gorgeous. Apparently you can book suites and facials there as well. The food was alright when I went, though I’m not a breakfast person in general so there’s some bias there. Everyone was super nice

  4. Theoretically, should be busier at the beginning of the year as non-chase holders use their one visit.

  5. I recently flew on AA in Business/First from LGA to Charlotte, NC. I am used to having access to the airline’s lounge when flying Business class, but they wouldn’t let me in although they offered to sell me a day pass for $79.00 which I declined. When I arrived at LGA, I asked them to connect my BA FF number which has a huge number of Avios to my AA ticket, and they did. Still the lounge refused to let me in. I rarely fly domestically, but am curious if the domestic rules are different from international lounge access. I would welcome anyone’s thoughts.

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