
America's Love Affair With Crowded, Crummy Airport Lounges
After 20 minutes of standing around, we gained entrance to what looked like a breakfast buffet at a budget hotel: beige walls, tired carpets and a small selection of food that looked far less appetizing than the options at Bahama Breeze, the wonderfully tacky, Caribbean-themed restaurant in the terminal. Sipping on a weak gin and tonic, and picking at a sad cup of gummy bears, I had to ask myself: Why exactly was I so desperate to be here?
There have never been more airport lounges. Yet there also have never seemed to be more lounges that are not worth the hassle. Many are forlorn. Many others are overcrowded; sometimes the lines for the lounges are the longest in the airport. Yet we all still fight to get in. Many of us will choose to fork over too much in credit card fees or commit to flying on one airline to gain entry to these spaces, because we still believe they offer a taste of luxury amid the stress of travel. In our iPhone age, we have been sold on the idea that travel is no longer just about the act itself, but about being seen to be traveling — and being seen to do so in style. Just don't tell those sitting at Bahama Breeze that they're probably having a better time.
A month after my sojourn at Orlando Airport, I would question my lounge loyalty again, this time after receiving an email alerting me that the annual fee for my Chase Sapphire Reserve card — a premium credit card favored by my fellow millennials, which comes with access to lounges around the world — was jumping from $550 to an eye-popping $795.
This new fee was accompanied by a confusing raft of other changes designed to justify the bump: a $500 resort credit, $300 to spend at a list of restaurants, membership to Apple Music, etc. But even as I dived into this complicated mental math and debated whether I was ready to leave Spotify, my eye fell to the photo embedded in the email of the new, convolutedly named Chase Sapphire Lounge by the Club at the Philadelphia International Airport. Although I had flown through the City of Brotherly Love only once in my lifetime, I still found it alluring. The space resembled a sexy bar in a ritzy hotel lobby, complete with plush furnishings and mood lighting that appeared flattering enough to make even the most weary traveler look like James Bond sipping a martini.
While Chase has built a handful of fancy clubs (with plans for more), most of those my card gives me access to are decidedly less glamorous. In some of them, with their cubed cheese and powdered eggs, I've felt less like Bond and more like Melissa McCarthy's frumpy cat lady in the 2015 action comedy 'Spy.'
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