Category Archives for Lounges.
It’s actually coach passengers with access to Delta Sky Clubs that are likely to see the greatest benefit, because those lounges are generally attractive facilities with good food and beverage options. What those passengers need most is for existing lounges to be a quiet respite from the terminal. And these Delta One lounges will go a long way towards making that happen.
The oneworld alliance has opened up its first ‘alliance lounge’ at Seoul Incheon airport. There’s been a tremendous amount of fanfare for this week and a half old space. But there are teething pains, because the lounge is improperly denying access to customers with eligible oneworld status, even who are flying business class.
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!
Chase’s new Sapphire Lounge is now open at New York LaGaurdia airport. The JFK lounge opens next week, in the old Etihad Airways space. Chase’s airport lounges are managed by Airport Dimensions, which is part of the same company as Priority Pass.
Star Alliance member Asiana is offering free lounge access to all coach passengers transiting through Seoul for all of 2024. Anyone with an airport transit of less than 24 hours booking their flights through a travel agent can take advantage of access to a Plaza Premium lounge at the Incheon airport.
Back in March I wrote that Delta Air Lines was planning a Sky Club for Charlotte, the major American Airlines hub in the Southeast.
Construction on the club is now evident.
John LeFevre, the former investment banker who created the anonymous “Goldman Sachs Elevator” twitter account, laid out the case against airport lounges.
Air travel has been democratized. So have lounges. And that means they aren’t really exclusive. If that’s the complaint, it’s true about many but not all of them. You need to decide whether the value proposition of a given lounge is worthwhile to you.
On arrival at the airport two days earlier I picked up a sandwich from Tortas Frontera, so I skipped it on this visit. Heading straight to the American Airlines Admirals Club it struck me just how copious the food offerings are… at Delta Sky Clubs, where you’ll find beef, chicken, salads, and sandwiches and many more options as well, all complimentary for guests.
American Airlines sells food in its Admirals Clubs and offers a much more modest spread.
I had a 3 hour 50 minute connection at London Heathrow. Normally I’d feel that was interminably long. However I was connecting from British Airways Terminal 5 over to Terminal 4 for Etihad. And it turns out it was much worse than that: three buses and one hour and thirty five minutes from plane to lounge. The good news is that the Etihad London Heathrow lounge is actually pretty good. I just had less time there than I’d expected!
Delta Airlines has increased the price of its Sky Club memberships and limited lounge access for American Express cardholders, leading to creative cost-offsetting tactics by members, including one who calculates breaking even by taking salami slices from the lounge. This behavior, reminiscent of past incidents where lounge amenities were exploited, raises questions about the impact of such strategies on airline policies and lounge experiences.
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 »
