Category Archives for Lounges.
I love that they’re refreshing the menu, and I understand they’ll be turning it over further for fall. Some of the plates do seem to be showing wear from use, scratches and design scuffed around the edges. But it’s a really nice restaurant in an airport and Capital One is doing a fantastic job with it – which makes me excited to see the LaGuardia location when it opens. I’d gladly spend time here over just about any lounge in the United States.
I’d take the Capital One lounge over this one in a heartbeat. The coffee here is going to be better than in the Chase lounge or Delta Sky Club. It’s decent as far as airport lounges go but I wouldn’t go out of my way to seek it out or spend extra time here.
This may be the strangest lounge review I’ve ever written. It combines two different lounges I did not visit.
The Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse JFK was once a truly fantastic lounge. Now it’s still a nice space, with big windows and plenty of light. It’s comfortable, though maybe with too much furniture? But it feels dated to me and could use a refresh.
Pondering this sent me down a rabbit hole, pouring through LA city documents about the upcoming Chase Sapphire Lounge at LAX in the Tom Bradley International Terminal. Ongoing operating costs for the lounge are about $20 million a year. But this one number stood out to me in particular.
I recently flew American Airlines first class between Los Angeles and Sydney with my family. We used the Qantas first class lounges in both cities. I’ve been to both many times, and reviewed them both, so I’ll write about them here together. That makes for a nice opportunity to compare.
This new lounge features ordering of hot items, rather than those being relegated to the buffet. There’s a cheese monger, offering 45-minute cheese tastings with paired wines, and a coffee shop that offers ess-a-bagels baked on premises with lox, pastrami, smoked whitefish and more.
Overall it’s one of the best credit card lounges in the U.S., though, and significantly better than the American Express Centurion lounge. It’s my favorite Chase lounge, edging out New York LaGuardia and San Diego.
I was through Philadelphia on a domestic itinerary, so I decided to redeem a Flagship Lounge single visit pass at the new Flagship lounge there to see what American had launched first-hand over in terminal A West between gates 15 and 16.
Chase’s Phoenix airport lounge will begin taking reservations starting June 23. This is their smallest club at 3,500 square feet and regularly has 30 – 60 minute waits to get in, even with many cardmembers not bothering to try given the crowding and the wait.
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 »
