Category Archives for Lounges.
For banks like American Express, Chase, and Capital One, lounges sell credit cards. For airlines, lounges bring in revenue. They sell tickets. They keep customers loyal and spending more to do so. They also bring in revenue from… selling credit cards. And they bring in revenue from partners (unless they’re in oneworld, where partners don’t pay each other for lounge access in the same way).
I had the opportunity to test the Capital One Landing at Washington’s Reagan National airport again, and this time under ‘real world’ conditions over the past week.
I am always skeptical that execution of food will be as good when the executives aren’t there, and under pressure to turn out dishes at the type of volume necessary for a full house of travelers.
There’s nothing relaxing about a lounge where you can barely find a seat, and you’re dodging other passengers, how is this better than the terminal or more to the point better than spending $25 for a burger, camping out at a sit down restaurant that has power outlets?
The single most basic amenity of a lounge is peace and quiet. Beyond that, airline lounges range from opulent and decadent to basic. Here are the bare minimums for a decent airport lounge
Capital One Landing DCA is the first fine dining airport restaurant that’s free with the right credit card. The food is spectacular, and you can even make reservations.
Crowded lounges make airport lounges no longer enjoyable. If they aren’t an escape from the busy terminal, what’s the point? You can use the airline lounge for dedicated reservations agents when your flight delays, but otherwise give it a miss. And when there’s a long line to get in too, that’s even worse.
But the Delta Air Lines Sky Club in Atlanta on the T concourse took things to a new level with waits of up to 20 minutes to leave.
It seems worth noting that the plan that American Airlines announced for a new 15,000 square foot lounge near gate 14 three years ago is not happening.
They’re still getting a new lounge, despite pulling back significantly in Austin and eliminating around two-thirds of destinations served. But it won’t be as large, and it will be in a different space.
I covered all of the airport lounge moving pieces at the Austin airport like plans for all airlines to move to different spaces, and to add credit card and common use lounges, as new construction finishes.
However the most immediate change deserves to be pulled out separately.
The Austin airport has an upcoming presentation slated for this week on its lounge plans. They’re building four new lounge spaces, will relocate all of the airlines, and make room for credit card issuers and common use operators that join programs like Priority Pass.
It was 2018 when I wrote that Centurion lounges are so busy, nobody goes there anymore. I rarely stop in, even when I have the time. They’re too busy. The food isn’t as good as it used to be. And other lounges have improved.
They’ve limited guest access and how much time you can spend in a Centurion lounge, but that hasn’t solved the crowding as they sign up more and more cardmembers with the promise of access. But now they’re doing something that could at least make the waits easier.
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 »
