Category Archives for Lounges.
With an increase in Admirals Club membership fees and premium credit card annual fee American Airlines is investing more in the food in its lounges. The offerings still significantly lag what you’ll find in a Delta Air Lines Sky Club, but they’re better than they used to be.
The airline’s food (whether in lounge or in air) isn’t a reason not to book American, and I suppose that’s what they’re going for.
Traditionally airport lounges have offered snacks, but you’re not supposed to take food with you for the flight. That’s to limit costs. Hotels with club lounges frequently have drinks, but many make a point not to offer bottled water – knowing that their beverage costs would skyrocket.
Without to go containers, though, passengers and hotel guests get creative. Where there’s free food, some people are going to go wild.
In January 2021 I reported that American Express would open a Centurion lounge at Washington National airport, near the southern end of the B concourse. The entire terminal, with the exception of the A concourse (“banjo”) is connected behind security, so this will be accessible to eligible passengers flying on most airlines (all except Southwest, Frontier, and Air Canada). It’s been more than two and a half years, though, and there’s mostly been crickets.
In 2019, the oneworld alliance which includes American Airlines, Alaska, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and more, announced plans for its first alliance-wide lounge. This was going to be at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport. The pandemic and then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine put that plan on hold, with Russian carrier S7 suspended from the alliance.
However construction is now underway on a oneworld alliance lounge in Seoul.
American has opened its second Admirals Club that follows the elevated design template pioneered at Reagan National. The Newark airport Admirals Club by gates A7 and A8 is 7,050 square feet – not large, but hopefully capacity for 137 seats is large enough given the carrier’s wholly domestic footprint at the airport.
The new Capital One Lounge Washington Dulles has finally arrived. Capital One opened its first airport lounge at Dallas – Fort Worth in November 2021. Since then we’ve been awaiting expansion and it’s about to happen. The Washington Dulles lounge opens Thursday, September 7. Then we’re about a month away from Denver opening. Then next year we should see Capital One’s new restaurant concept with Jose Andres at Washington National and New York LaGuardia next year. I got a sneak peak of the Washington Dulles airport lounge. It’s really good, with I think the best food at the airport. But it’s too small, because cardmembers are going to want to visit and spend time here. And when you build a good airport lounge, passengers are going to stay longer and eat more. That’s true when…
In the face of overcrowding of Delta’s Sky Club lounges, last year the airline limited lounge access to within 3 hours of departure. Then they made several more changes. But These measures haven’t been enough.
Capital One currently has just one airport lounge that’s open, at Dallas – Fort Worth. However we know several additional projects in the pipeline. Both the Washington Dulles and Denver lounges are expected to open in September.
The new Chase Sapphire Lounge Boston Logan airport is better than expected. I visited just before noon on a Friday and it was busy but not overcrowded. The food and drink options were good. There was too long of a wait for a shower and a ‘wellness room’ but otherwise the first U.S. Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club is an absolutely great addition to the pantheon.
Like American Express, Capital One is building out its own network of lounges. Chase has their lounges in partnership with Collinson Group, which owns The Club and Priority Pass. So far, though, there’s only one Capital One lounge – at Dallas – Fort Worth airport. That opened about a year and a half ago.
Fortunately we’re getting a better sense of what’s happening with future projects.
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 »
