The Lounge Battle Royale Coming Soon to Your Airport

BOSTON—The never-ending fight for the hearts and wallets of big-spending travelers has a new battleground overlooking Boston Harbor.

The 12,000-square-foot lounge that opened at Boston’s Logan International Airport in May is an exclusive escape for travelers paying $550 a year for the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card. There’s a taproom with local beer, as well as Osaki massage chairs, a playspace for kids, showers, a coffee bar with cold brew on tap and made-to-order meatball sandwiches from Boston chef Douglass Williams.

JPMorgan Chase is playing catch-up in an arena where the stakes are high. Frequent fliers who choose one high-fee card over another tend to spend big. Getting them to love a lounge could be what clinches them as longtime customers. The Boston lounge is the first full-service U.S. outpost for the bank, with plans for several more.

The field is crowded—sometimes literally. Chase enters a world dominated by American Express, the lounge pioneer, which has 15 such facilities, plus fellow newcomer Capital One and airlines with extensive lounge networks. Veteran fliers have grumbled in recent years about waiting in line just to enter these havens of free food, drinks and comfortable workspace.

“Lounge access has become table stakes,” says Dana Pouwels, Sapphire Lounge general manager and head of Chase Sapphire Partnerships.

A bigger Sapphire Lounge is due to open later this year at the renovated Terminal B at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Several others are on tap, including locations in Philadelphia, Las Vegas and Phoenix, whose lounge will feature an Airstream trailer. The first Sapphire Lounge opened in Hong Kong in 2022.

Travel perks are reasons travelers get and keep the premium credit card, Pouwels says, with lounge access ranking in the top three. Chase executives say 70% of demand for cards with fees is driven by millennials and Gen Z. The bank says it is too early to disclose any increase in card member sign-ups or renewals with its foray into lounges.

Upping the ante

Chase cardholders haven’t gone loungeless since the card was introduced in 2016. They have had access to the broad Priority Pass network of airport lounges. (Priority Pass is also a perk for other cards, including American Express’s top-of-the-line Platinum card. Priority Pass members get one free visit to Chase Sapphire lounges each year.) 

But most Priority Pass lounges aren’t of the same caliber as the American Express Centurion lounges or the new Capital One lounge at Dallas/Fort Worth. 

Brandon Hughes and his husband, Henry Lopez, 28-year-old Washington, D.C., residents, signed up for Chase’s priciest card a few years ago for the travel rewards. They have visited a handful of Priority Pass lounges but were unaware Chase was developing branded lounges until they happened upon the Logan outpost traveling home from Provincetown, Mass.

They were quickly spoiled.

Hughes, who works in nonprofit management, plugged in his electronics at a long workstation overlooking the airfield and made himself a decaf oat milk latte at the coffee bar. Lopez tried the Korean BBQ croquettes and whipped lemon mascarpone parfait.

“I was like, ‘Wow, we’re in the future,’ ” Hughes says.

Lopez tried to snag an appointment for the massage chair, but the earliest opening was after their flight departed.

The Osaki massage chairs have become one of the most popular features at the new lounge—Chase is considering them for other lounges, Pouwels says. Lounge guests can reserve them for 30-minute increments, but reservations are only available once you’re there. Same with the showers.

I reserved a spot during my visit and briefly felt as though I were in a spa, even though a busy terminal roadway was just outside the window. (I couldn’t figure out how to get out of the high-tech antigravity chair, so I had to wait for the attendant to come in to tell me my time was up.)

Wellness features are among the best perks at airport lounges. I had a chair massage at an American Express Centurion lounge in Las Vegas last year—with an attendant.

Unlike Centurion lounges, where no guest is free unless you spend $75,000 a year on your American Express card, all Chase Sapphire cardmembers can bring in two free guests. Beyond that, the biggest difference I noticed was the option for restaurant-style service in addition to a buffet and bars. Food and drink are just a QR code away.

Personal space

I pounced on a large, cozy booth when another traveler left—and I ordered a burger and fries. Lunch arrived in under 10 minutes. Later that day, I ordered a signature cocktail with mescal.

Other travelers ponied up to the showpiece bar with purple cushioned stools. Still others grabbed a soda, Spindrift seltzer or a kid-size Mott’s apple juice box from a minifridge and retreated to a different area. The nooks and crannies are by design.

“Oasis can mean different things for different people, and we want to make sure we are checking the box on what oasis means,” Pouwels says.

Andrew Bick, who lives in Quincy, Mass., and works in hedge-fund accounting, visited the Chase lounge in June before a trip to London, using his Sapphire Reserve card. He ordered the Dan Dan noodles and a signature cocktail with Maker’s Mark bourbon.

Bick usually flies Delta Air Lines, whose flights depart from a different terminal at Logan. But he says the new Chase lounge might tempt him to consider another airline on future trips. American Express platinum cardholders get access to Delta’s Sky Club lounges, but Chase cardmembers don’t.

“Two drinks anywhere in the airport will run you 50 bucks,” he says.

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Write to Dawn Gilbertson at [email protected]