Category Archives for Lounges.
Overall I find the Japan Airlines first class lounge Tokyo Narita to be fine. It’s a nice enough place to pass the time before a flight, though it’s not a destination itself worth showing up at the airport early for.
The overall design is really dark. I would love it if the lounge were somewhat brighter. It’s nicer than all but a handful of business class lounges. The highlight for most is the sushi bar.
In April word leaked that LAX would be getting a Centurion lounge finally. We should expect this lounge to open in 2019.
The lounge will be located in the in the Tom Bradley International terminal, and not where it was originally expected between terminals six and seven. It will be 13,693 square feet, 10% larger than the expanded Centurion lounge they’re building in Dallas.
American Express has now made the benefit official, expanded it, and clarified access rules. Effective June 1, Platinum and Centurion cardmembers have access to Lufthansa lounges in Munich and Frankfurt when flying on Lufthansa, Swiss, or Austrian.
There’s even first class lounge access for Black Card cardmembers.
Just a few days ago I asked if Centurion lounges have gotten so crowded no one goes there anymore. The lounges are nice, an improvement on their US airline lounge alternatives. They’re stylish spaces with decent food and beverage programs.
Ultimately there are too many people who have been eligible to use the lounges, who have wanted to use the lounges, relative to the size of the lounges. There’s only so much they can do to expand capacity in the airports they work in (and larger lounges are going to attract more people who still stay longer, since currently some people – like me – often stay away precisely due to the crowding).
I was in the Phiadelphia airport’s Centurion lounge this past week. I hadn’t been since the lounge’s pre-opening event in October. It was packed.
They’re popular with travelers because they’re better than the lounges that were already in the airport before American Express opened them. However with high demand comes real wear and tear on the spaces.
American Airlines Admirals Club have had a hit with their made to order guacamole in the afternoons.
Unfortunately it’s not available at my home airport in Austin but I’ve sampled it all around the system. Here it is in Dallas prior to the renovation of the ‘A’ Club there.
They’ve also rolled out made to order avocado toast in several lounges. Someone must have made a bit bet on avocado futures.
Currently Phoenix Airport’s terminal 4 B concourse has a Priority Pass-accessible “The Club” lounge. It opened in 2014 and it quite small, 2985 square feet. It has food and drink, but the furniture is dated and there are no restrooms inside the lounge.
This space — and an additional 7000 square feet — will be turned into a new lounge. The airport’s RFP provides clues as to whose lounge it will be.
Last month I wrote that a new Minute Suites was about to open in Charlotte. I suggested that since the existing Minute Suites locations accept Priority Pass, that this one would too. It would be the first Priority Pass lounge in the Charlotte airport.
However Minute Suites opened but didn’t take Priority Pass. They do tomorrow and they just schooled Priority Pass about it..
There’s an axiom on the internet that the answer to any question in an article title is always “no.”
And that’s just the case here. The Wall Street Journal thinks otherwise but fails to make the case, though there’s certainly more crowding in some lounges that’s difficult to manage.
The case the Journal makes is that the rise of Priority Pass cards distributed with credit cards, especially Chase, have led to a decline in quality of airport lounges. That’s false. The other major claim is they’ve made lounges more crowded, and that’s true with some lounges.
Newark is going to open in a few weeks’ time and Houston will open over the summer. The Los Angeles Polaris lounge is supposed to open later this year. So if they stick to that schedule United should have 5 Polaris lounges open by the end of 2018.
However we’re not going to see any more in 2019. The next batch won’t open until 2020, which considering these were announced nearly two years ago seems insane.
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 »
