Airline marketing departments go out of their way to make their frequent flyer lounges appear attractive. Online text is peppered with words such as “tranquil”, “elegant”, “relaxed”, “calm” and “exclusive”. Once upon a time this was the case, before the sad decline we are currently experiencing.
For me, lounges are an important part of the overall travel experience. I’ve been known to arrive at airports early to maximise my lounge time, and I always looked forward to checking out a new lounge. Recent experiences have been far removed from what I have come to expect.
The Marketing Promise
I’ve taken the liberty of lifting some text verbatim from a variety of airline websites and these are the promises. First up, “our lounges offer a tranquil escape from the busy airport environment.” Sounds good, right?
So do these two – “Within this tranquil sanctuary, warmth and elegance converge in an atmosphere of effortless indulgence,” and “Escape the hustle and bustle of the airport and steal moments of calm in one of our lounges. Discover our tranquil oases and choose where to find moments of relaxation before take-off.” Bliss, just what everyone needs before a flight.
It all sounds peachy, doesn’t it? I’ll get to wander into an elegant environment, sit down, relax, maybe whip out the laptop and do some work, grab a bite to eat and chill out. And so it once was, the marketing speak lived up to the experience, but no longer.
The Sad Decline
The number one problem with airline lounges today is capacity. For example, when I last passed through London Heathrow Terminal 5 and visited the British Airways lounge, I was shocked at the experience. The first lounge I visited was heaving with people, so much so that I left and went to an alternate lounge which was also packed to the rafters. Certainly not the “tranquil oases” I had come to expect.
Why are lounges so busy?
I’ve noticed that quite a lot of lounges have not had any kind of expansion in years. For example, the British Airways lounges in T5 at Heathrow opened nearly 20 years ago. BA now carries 12 million extra passengers per annum, yet the facilities have not expanded in proportion to this.
More and more credit cards are providing lounge access as a perk. Some offer lounge passes, some offer straight up access and a lot of the time all you need to do is apply for the card. It really removes the “exclusive” part that the airlines are so fond of writing on their sites, doesn’t it?
That coupled with the fact that more and more people can afford to shell out for premium airline tickets these days has created the perfect storm. Crowded, heaving airline lounges, where frazzled staff struggle to cope with the cleaning and noisy children with tired parents run amok disturbing all the supposed “tranquility”. It can be quite unpleasant.
Overall Thoughts
The sad decline in airline lounges is pretty disheartening. I no longer look forward to visiting a lounge before I fly. Recently I booked business class tickets with Etihad. There’s no lounge access included and I don’t care. I’ll save my sanity and sit in the terminal, rather than endure the disappointment of full lounges.
It doesn’t really have to be this way. A lot of airlines have been making eye wateringly huge profits. Some of that should be invested in the ground experience. Some lounges need to be expanded, or additional facilities opened to cater for demand. Others are well overdue for a full renovation. Your design ethos is probably out of date and looking very sad after 20 years.
What’s your take on the sad decline of airline lounges? Are you finding similar issues to what I’ve described here? Are there any lounges you know of that still live up to the marketing hype? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
Like planes? See my “Does anyone remember” series.
Flight reviews your thing? Mine are all here.
Follow me on Facebook, X and Instagram.
Some lounge users have no manners whatsoever. Some treat it like a fraternity flop house. Bare feet on furniture, sleeping on couches taking up multiple seats, the list goes on + on.
It does indeed, the things I’ve witnessed…
As long as money can be made at the idea of a premium experience, it won’t get better. Only option is private flying.
Now if only I had the money for that… my reviews would be very different!
The only real people with a right to complain are those who actually pay for membership to the Clubs. The rest are free loaders of 1 type or another, including myself
There’s no way I’d be paying for membership considering the current state of affairs. You do have an interesting point though, that’s for sure!
Has it crossed your mind that when you pay a huge annual credit card membership fee that a big chunk of that is for lounge access ? So there is no such thing as being a free loader and no such thing as free lounge access. We are all paying for the lounge access through our credit card fee. So that does not make us freeloaders and we have every right to complain
That’s a negative, Ghostrider. I spend a lot of time, money, and effort to get top tier status on my airline of choice and the promised benefits include lounge access. Likewise for my very pricey credit cards that include access to other lounges. Airlines are just cheaping out when they’re getting the hefty revenue but don’t want to carry their part of the resulting load.