“You can eat and drink your money back, and maybe it’s less crowded and you have a power port to plug into.”īeyond complimentary gin and tonics, flyers in a booking jam may find it valuable to pay the fee at an airline lounge to get prompt airline assistance. “On a one-off basis, with a long connection, you can make the math work for you, depending on how much you would otherwise spend,” Leff said. Delta does not offer paid access.Ĭonsidering the high prices of airport concessions - a vendor at LaGuardia was recently censured for selling a $27 beer - hungry travelers may find admission worthwhile. American Airlines also sells one-day passes to its Admirals Clubs for $59 or 5,900 miles. Annual memberships cost $650 or 85,000 miles for most frequent flyer members. United offers day passes to its United Clubs for $59 on its app. Among lounges with similar amenities at, for example, London Heathrow - such as Wi-Fi and free food and drink - the site offers $39 passes to Plaza Premium Lounges and $74 to the Lufthansa Business Lounge. It sells no memberships and runs strictly on a pay-per-use basis at $45 a visit (free to Priority Pass holders).įor one-stop shopping, the website and app Lounge Buddy sells airport lounge passes starting at $25. JPMorgan Chase has announced it will open its own brand, Chase Sapphire Lounge by the Club, with six global locations, including Boston, Phoenix and New York’s LaGuardia Airport beginning next year and available to holders of its Chase Sapphire Reserve card ($550 a year with benefits, including $300 in credits on travel purchases and Priority Pass membership).Īnother option, the Club, has 16 locations in the United States, including New Orleans and Seattle, and two in London. Entry is restricted to owners of the bank’s Venture X card, which costs $395 a year, and their guests the card’s perks include credits up to $300 for travel purchases. Now other banks are getting into the lounge game, including Capital One, which opened its first lounge - with a stationary cycling room, showers and craft cocktails - in November at Dallas-Fort Worth, with follow-ups planned for Denver and Washington Dulles, in 2023. The card costs $695 annually, with credits up to $400 a year in hotel and airline expenses, among benefits. “It’s a way of selling cards and retaining members.”Īmerican Express Platinum cardholders have access to many airline lounges, as well as the company’s own Centurion Lounges, which are found in 13 American cities - with new ones coming to Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta and Washington’s Reagan National in 2023 - for a total of more than 1,400 lounges globally. “It’s become popular to bundle lounge access with a premium credit card,” said Gary Leff, who writes the airline blog View From The Wing. Increasingly, lounge users are not airline devotees, but holders of expensive credit cards. In this case, a lounge might be an actual airline club, such as the Plumeria Lounge from Hawaiian Airlines that Priority Pass members have access to in Honolulu public airport restaurants that offer a food credit, such as Stephanie’s restaurant at Boston Logan International Airport other club brands, such as Minute Suites, which are private rooms, at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport or airport amenities such as the Be Relax Spa at Los Angeles International Airport, where members get credit for a chair massage.
These include Priority Pass, which offers access to more than 1,300 lounges in more than 600 cities (membership plans include 10 visits for $299 a year).
Their offerings sometimes include standard clubs (such as United Club at United) and more exclusive ones for forward-class flyers on long-haul international flights (United Polaris).Īnother class of clubs welcomes members flying any carrier. Historically, legacy carriers, including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines in the United States, have operated lounges for passengers flying in first and business classes, as well as frequent flyers who qualify for membership.
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