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| Airport lounge bonanza |
| by Brian Kelly |
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Hi Everyone,
I hope you are all enjoying the weekend. I’m traveling in Finnish Lapland this week, so I’ve asked Zach Griff to share the best new airport lounges with you. I am personally really excited to check out the new Chase lounge at LGA — it looks amazing!
If you want to follow along on my trip — I’m posting on my Instagram @briankelly and I’ll share a recap soon.
Have a great weekend,
BK
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TPG’s Zach Griff here with an exciting update to start the year: I just visited one of the best airport lounges in the entire country.
This week, Chase opened its long-awaited Sapphire Lounge by The Club in New York’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA), and this space blew me away. So much so, that I wrote in my review that the battle of the airport lounges run by credit card issuers has a new battlefield (New York) and a new victor (Chase).
Chase’s new outpost in LaGuardia measures over 21,000 square feet and spans two levels. Not only should there be seating for everyone, but the space also offers a whole host of amenities that are sure to impress.
From free facials by Face Haus to a speakeasy-style arcade and family room, there’s something for everyone in this lounge. Even the food and beverage menus left me impressed. Chase teamed up with New York City’s Joseph Leonard for the food and Apotheke for the cocktails — all of which were delicious and refreshing.
The issuer even built a special lounge-within-a-lounge dubbed the Reserve Suites that offers perhaps the most luxurious experience you’ll find in any lounge in the county.
Each of these three suites requires reservations at least three days before your flight, and they offer a private living room and relaxation experience, complete with marble- and granite-clad restrooms and showers, Oribe bath products and much more.
Access doesn’t come cheap — Reserve Suites start at $2,200 for three hours, but at least there’ll be a caviar welcome service (and an entire special a la carte food and wine menu) waiting for you if you make the splurge.
As for me, you’ll likely find me camped out in the “regular” Sapphire Lounge. To get inside, you’ll need either the Chase Sapphire Reserve® (which includes unlimited access for you and two guests) or a Priority Pass membership from another credit card, which would give you one complimentary visit each year, followed by $75 per-visit charges after your first free entry. Be sure to check out TPG’s complete guide to Chase’s lounges.
While this week’s focus was LaGuardia, there’s even more exciting news on the horizon because Chase is actually opening another new lounge in Queens in New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) Terminal 4 on Tuesday. Stay tuned to see how that new location stacks up.
Though Chase may now be in the lead, Capital One plans to also open new dining-focused outposts, dubbed Capital One Landings, in LaGuardia and Washington, D.C., in the coming months, so we’ll have to see how they compare. Capital One lounges can only be accessed with select Capital One cards.
Of course, the incumbent, American Express, already operates a big network of Centurion Lounges, which is expected to grow this year with the opening of outposts in Atlanta and Washington, D.C.
As airport lounges keep getting nicer, it’s worth calling out one other domestic club that is absolutely worth visiting: Delta’s stunning 30,000-square-foot Sky Club in Los Angeles, which features some of the snazziest amenities you can find in an airport lounge.
My personal favorite is the massive, year-round, open-air Sky Deck that offers a retractable roof, edge-to-edge bar and endless views of the apron, runways and Hollywood hills in the distance.
To access the Delta Sky Club, I’d recommend using either the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card or The Platinum Card® from American Express.
There are several other U.S. lounges that are worth going out of your way for, and I’ve detailed all of them in my recent round-up.
Have a great weekend,
Zach
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| Photo Credit: ZACH GRIFF/THE POINTS GUY. |
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