The World’s Best Airport Lounges Are Hard To Access. Here’s How You Can Actually Get Into Them

The best airport lounge in the world is probably the Air France La Premiere lounge at Paris Charles de Gaulle. It has true gourmet dining, a spa, and a car service to take you to and from the plane. However, almost nobody can use this.

You have to be a Flying Blue Platinum member to book an award in first class.

• To buy access without being an Air France first class passenger the pricing is insane.
  
• I recall in the past about a thousand euros without suites, but published pricing now only shows suites packages at €3,500 or 700,000 points for a single passenger.
• Also, the lounge is currently closed for renovations for departures after 2 p.m., except Sundays.

Outside of paying for a first class ticket, the best bet most people have is to redeem for business class and hope to be offered a cash upgrade to first. However there are many great lounges that most of us have real world access to. These are my favorites.

• Most gorgeous lounge. I think that aesthetically the very best lounge is the Qatar Airways al Safwa lounge in Doha. It’s their first class lounge, available to Qatar Airways first class passengers (and to business class passengers on Qatar-issued tickets for a cash supplement). You don’t have to fly on one of their limited A380 widebodies with first class to access the lounge though! Short haul premium cabin flights within the Mideast are marketed as first class. So a flight that’s just a few hundred miles, booked on points, can get you in.

  

  

  

  People often comment that the lounge looks like a museum. It doesn’t just look like one! They have pieces on loan in the lounge from the Museum of Islamic Art.

  

  The food is good. There are buffets everywhere as well as a sit-down dining restaurant with good champagne. There are dessert rooms.

  

  

  And there are nap rooms. The spa though has treatments for pay, which I’ve always found odd.

  

  

  For aesthetics, I’d give Virgin Atlantic’s London Heathrow Clubhouse honorable mention. It’s an Austin Powers marvel, but too busy to be a top lounge.

• Best lounge a coach passenger can access with status. Cathay Pacific’s The Pier first class lounge in Hong Kong has a lovely restaurant, gorgeous bar, and curtain-drawn nap rooms. It’s open to oneworld emerald members (like American AAdvantage Platinum Pro and higher) even flying coach.

  

  

  

  

• Best lounge dining a coach passenger can access with status. The Qantas first class lounge in Sydney (and Melbourne) is notable because, like Cathay’s first class lounges, it’s available to oneworld emerald members.

  

  So a top American Airlines or Alaska Airlines elite flying coach out of the airport can use it. And the lounges are available to oneworld passengers with status flying partner airlines. For instance oneworld emeralds and first class passengers can use the Qantas first class lounge in Sydney when flying American Airlines out of that airport.

  I absolutely love the old school departures board, in fact you’ll see it as the top of this blog.

  

  The salt and pepper squid here is famous.

  

  A pro-tip for dining here is that if the dining room is busy don’t worry about it, you can actually order a la carte from anywhere in the lounge. They are also usually decanting an unusual or special bottle of wine off-menu at the bar. Ask them what it is when you’re there. For the holidays they were pouring Penfolds Grange but only for Qantas A380 first class passengers.

  The Qantas first class lounge in Sydney has a spa, and their 20 minute massages are amazing. Qantas first class passengers can reserve a time a day in advance. Everyone else is first-come, first-served.

  

• Best lounge dining in the United States. Inside the American Airlines business class Flagship lounges in Dallas and Miami are Flagship First Dining rooms open only to those flying long haul first class on a limited set of flights, or those Platinum Pro AAdvantage members and above who redeem miles for access (an Executive Platinum with a family of four can gain access to Flagship First Dining for 20,000 miles).

  There’s still a First Dining room at LAX, but it remains closed though there have been rumblings for a year about re-opening it.

  The service is excellent. The space is peaceful. And the food and beverage program is very good. On my last visit I began with a glass of Laurent Perrier Grand Siecle. And, of course, you can order whatever you wish and as much as you wish.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  I’ve been to the United Polaris lounges in San Francisco, Newark, Houston, and the American Airlines Flagship First Dining at New York JFK as the top lounge and food in the United States, but that no longer exists. It’s been functionally replaced by the joint American-British Airways Chelsea lounge which is not as good – fewer food options, lower quality, and a unique selling proposition of great champagne that unfortunately they cannot manage to keep in stock.

  Some people like the Delta One lounges, but part of what makes Flagship First Dining special is that so few people have access that it’s never crowded. It’s actually a peaceful respite from the terminal, while at peak times there can even be lines to get into Delta One and once inside it can be a zoo.

• Best credit card lounge. The only credit card ‘lounge’ with food better than what you’ll find in the terminal is Capital One Landing, which you’ll find at New York LaGuardia and at Washington’s National airport and that you can access with a Venture X card.

  

  

  

  

  And I’ve much enjoyed the Ess-a-bagels with smoked salmon, with whitefish salad, and with pastrami at the New York JFK Capital One lounge.

  

  

  They also have an excellent cheese counter where they’ll do tastings and customize a charchuterie plate alone with paired wines.

  

  

  I do like the Chase Sapphire lounges in Philadelphia and New York LaGuardia, but the food at those doesn’t come close.

  

• Best business class lounge. Air Canada has two “Signature Suites,” one in Toronto and one in Vancouver. These are business class dining lounges, and are supplements to the airline’s standard lounges. They don’t feature showers or other lounge amenities that customers can access elsewhere. However paid business class passengers, and those on business class awards who have paid extra miles to make their tickets refundable, have access when flying long haul.

  

  My last visit was in Vancouver and I had an amazing meal featuring a tomahawk steak on special.

  

  

  The United Polaris lounges are great business class lounges. I’d add the Turkish Airlines lounge in Istanbul, the Qatar Airways al Mourjan lounge in Doha and the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse at London Heathrow to that list.

  I’d rate that food at the Air Canada Signature Suites as best in the world for business class, although I did have a disappointing experience in Toronto last year which I chalk up to their simply having been too overwhelmed before peak transatlantic departures. Fortunately they’re doubling the size of the lounge into the Plaza Premium space next door. You need to be on a paid business class long haul ticket, or book an award and pay the extra 15,000 miles for one that’s refundable.

• Best lounge you can actually gain access to. The Lufthansa First Class Terminal is a standalone building. You don’t have to mix with the business class riff raff even inside the terminal. There’s a separate private security screening. They are so polite! They’ve helped me with my jacket.

  

  You’re greeted by a personal assistant, who will come back to get you when it is time to board. It is not your job to watch the clock. In the meantime, enjoy the lounge area or dining room. Enjoy a cigar or choice of endless supply of drinks or even waters to select from. Pick up a souvenir rubber ducky.

  

  And then when it’s time to leave, you’ll be fetched to proceed down an elevator to private passport control, and then driven across the tarmac to your aircraft.

  My favorite thing? Arriving in Frankfurt in Lufthansa first class on an award ticket – but having no business class space available for the connecting flight within Europe. So you head over to the first class terminal for your layover, and get driven to the aircraft at an apron position – while everyone watches you board, and you proceed to the back of the aircraft in coach. Keep them guessing!

  Sadly Lufthansa first class awards are much harder to get than they used to be, but as travel dates approach unsold seats do still open up sometimes. If you’re set on booking Lufthansa first class awards in advance, using their own Miles & More miles can mean much better availability – and they have a U.S.-issued credit card for racking up those miles.

I haven’t yet been through the Singapore Airlines Private Room since it’s been renovated. It looks nicer and more comfortable than before, and the food there has always been pretty good (though not as good as it should be).

I don’t expect it to rise to the level of my favorite lounges, though I’d expect it to be on par with the new Etihad first class lounge in Abu Dhabi which I visited recently while flying Etihad’s First Apartment from Abu Dhabi to London Heathrow, on an American AAdvantage award ticket. I really liked being escorted through the business class lounge to my boarding gate inside the lounge.

And it should be on par with the Emirates B concourse first class lounge in Dubai and with their first class level of the A concourse which features boarding gates inside the lounge. I found more buffets in that lounge than passengers, and staff just waiting (on their phones) for someone to come for service.

I’ve visited both of those lounges while traveling on Emirates first class award tickets. And remember that Emirates has the single best upgrade program from business class to first class, you can upgrade award tickets and all open first class seats are available for upgrade at the airport.

I like bank lounges generally, but they are too busy and that makes them anything but relaxing. One of the hallmarks of a great lounge is that it’s genuinely a retreat from the busy airport terminal. So while the Delta Sky Club at LAX is one of the best regular clubs by a U.S. airline, I actually prefer the American Airlines Admirals Club on the E concourse at Washington National because it simply isn’t as busy. The food isn’t as good! But it’s the perfect atmosphere for me to sit and work for hours.

And the VIP room in the lounge is perhaps the most exclusive space of any airport lounge in the United States.

Miles and points aren’t just about access to the best travel, and most comfortable flights. They mean some of the best and most discrete service on the ground, too. I’ve been able to visit some of the best airline lounges, and that’s made journeys all the more relaxing and sublime.