The Airport-Lounge Wars
November 25, 2025 at 04:40AMI believe without reservation that an airport lounge, like first-class travel, nourishes the worst impulses in us. I also believe without reservation that traveling without airport lounges is far worse than the alternative. Zach Helfand proves me right on both counts by dutifully chronicling (and experiencing) the most exorbitant airport perks that air travel currently has to offer, from tarmac Porsches to Phantom-roofed sleeping suites. If you need me, I’ll be outlet-hunting next to a Vino Volo.
Everyone at the Capital One Lounge at J.F.K. called me Mr. Zach, which made me feel like a preschool teacher, only wealthier. Capital One was a late but enthusiastic lounge-war combatant. Last year, it opened a lounge at Washington National Airport which included a kitchen custom designed by José Andrés, who oversees the food. One company executive told the Times, “If there was a budget, I was not aware of it.” There’s a little cart, which is wheeled around to deliver cones filled with caviar. In New York, it’s used for a sunset champagne service. There’s also a counter meant to evoke a bodega, stocked with fresh Ess-a-Bagel. I spent a delightful forty-five minutes at the cheesemonger’s bar, where I was served a personalized flight consisting of a Swiss cows’-milk cheese shaved into little bouquets, a deep-orange cheddar, and a black-truffle sheep-milk cheese from Italy, along with sherry and wine, with limoncello to clear my palate. When I was done, I moved to hand my plate back to the cheesemonger. “The cheese attendant will take care of that, Mr. Zach,” the cheesemonger told me. Out of the wall taps flowed regular water. A Capital One travel employee told me that fresh-fruit-infused water can be a pain—everything has to be cleaned constantly and kept at a low temperature, and the fruit clogs up the spigots. “I just want a glass of water,” she said. “We don’t need all that stuff.”
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2025/11/24/the-airport-lounge-wars/
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