ONCE UPON A time, it was the height of business class luxury to stroll into the serenity of the airport lounge. You kick your feet up, grab a coffee or perhaps a glass of bubbly and leave the chaos of the economy masses behind.
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But lately, that has changed. The lounges always seem full, and you can’t get your work done in there because all the outlets are taken. Everybody and their dog seem to have scored entry into the premium lounge. What’s the point anymore?
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If you’re looking for someone to blame, it might be the credit card companies, wrote The Globe and Mail’s Barry Choi. “What was once an exclusive privilege has become a standard benefit for dozens of credit cards in Canada,” he noted. “That means more people with lounge access — a lot more.”
And if you’ve travelled lately and noticed an increase in construction inside terminals, this is likely the reason: now that everyone is cramming into the lounge, airports need to create new lounges that are even more exclusive than the other lounges. Some airport lounges have lounges within lounges, like in Vancouver, where you can pay to enter the Plaza Premium Lounge, and then pay again to enter the Plaza Premium First Lounge. At Toronto’s Pearson International, there’s now the Air Canada Café, which is basically a lounge, and the Signature Suite, a lounge with à la carte dining.
It’s reflective of what some observers are calling an Airport Lounge War, underwritten by what seems like unlimited demand for lounge space. Airports and airlines have sought to satiate that demand, but have screwed up the core product in the process. “Most people at an airport don’t visit a lounge. If they did, it would kind of defeat the purpose,” wrote Zach Helfand. “But we’re getting there.”
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So, if you’re planning a little bit business-class travel in 2026, the message here might be to temper your expectations. If your last business trip was pre-pandemic, expect the airport lounge to be a little less exclusive than you might expect — but it also might be a lot more glam than you remember.
“With interest through the roof, little wonder that the lounge industry is becoming embroiled in something of an arms race,” said David Mack in The New York Times. “Credit card companies race to erect fancier lounges to satisfy increasing domestic demand. If the people in economy found out how the one per cent were being pampered, there would probably be another French Revolution.”
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