Forget The Bishops Avenue in north London, Billionaire’s Row in Manhattan or Mount Nicholson in Hong Kong. The most expensive real estate in the world can be found on an aeroplane.Every inch — from the cardboard excuse for a seat in economy class to the luxuriant flat beds in first — must be accounted for. Still, in terms of price per square foot, airport lounges ought to be in the top 10. And they are booming.
There are more than 3,200 in the world, with Heathrow alone home to over 30. For the uninitiated, lounges are not just a nicer waiting room. The best ones offer free bars, spa treatments and restaurant dining.
Back in the day, the lounge model went something like this: passengers travelling in business class and those holding status with an airline received automatic entry. The food wasn’t always hot and the drinks rarely top-shelf, but you could find a seat and get some work done before the flight. Access also made patrons elite by definition, the distance between them and the riff-raff screamed exclusivity. But things have changed.
A recent study by Airport Dimensions, a lounge provider, found that more than half of frequent flyers around the world visit a lounge at some point during their trip. And while a quarter do so thanks to their class of travel, another fifth get in via programmes such as Priority Pass.
Today, there are many more ways to get in and for free. Or at least free at the point of consumption of mid-range prosecco. All you need is the right credit card. It doesn’t come cheap — the American Express Platinum Card has an annual fee of £650 but for many, this is worth it for the benefits, including complimentary access to more than 1,400 airport lounges across 140 countries. Airlines want to make the lounge another, perhaps even the primary, reason for passengers to fly with them. And for credit cards, it is often the sole purpose for signing up.
Lounge access, like speedy boarding, doesn’t work if everyone has it
And there’s good reason to join. I mean, have you been to an airport recently? The post-Covid recovery in air travel seemed to surprise everyone except the people stuck indoors with their children and laptops for months on end. They’re noisy, you can’t find a seat and the catering options are confined to four WH Smith, two WH Smith Bookstores, a Wetherspoons and a Dixons. Who wouldn’t want to dodge this hellscape?
Airlines instinctively understand the craving for exclusivity. They are experts in eking money out of their customers through unbundling. Not only via the traditional class system on the plane, but the proliferation of boarding groups (early entry being vital in the battle to get your bag in an overhead locker) and countless other amenities. But lounge access, like speedy boarding, doesn’t work if everyone has it. Sometimes life really is a zero-sum game.
And so the airlines are fighting back. First, by trying to find more space, not easy (or cheap) at an airport with finite capacity. And second, by making it harder to get in — tightening the rules of entry, much to the horror of frequent flyers.
Covid changed the way we fly. For those who survived, kept their jobs and saved money, they now more than ever want to travel in comfort. But there’s a problem. Well, two problems because flying regularly is just about the worst thing you can do to the planet. The lounges are practically as busy as the main waiting areas. And that’s the thing about exclusivity — it only works if other people are being left out.
