I just visited a lounge at LaGuardia Airport using Priority Pass, and it had a la carte dining, amazing cocktails, complimentary 30-minute facials, and the friendliest service imaginable.
Continue reading: Review: Chase Sapphire Lounge New York LaGuardia Airport (LGA)
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
A few things
1) A lounge like this actually has the ability to shift what airlines people book. American Airlines, JetBlue, even Spirit/Frontier and such should benefit from this lounge as Terminal B now has a much stronger lounge offering. Delta's Terminal C is also attractive, but this club seems to offer an experience that the other lounges in Terminal B don't. It also may drive more sign ups to the CSR
2) It's pretty amazing how much NYC airports have improved in terms of lounge space the past couple of years, with more to come this year. Flying in and out of NYC has massively improved
3) This lounge seems like it will get massively crowded soon though
Does anyone know if the CSR or Amex plat is more popular in terms of number of card holders?
Do we have any idea how many users of the Sapphire Reserve there are vs. Amex Platinum? I feel like the former has (rightly) kind of lost its luster. (This also seems to be bigger than Centurion lounges but could be wrong.)
@ dn10 -- The Amex Platinum has been around a lot longer, so I have to imagine there are still more users. Purely speculation on my part, though.
@ dn10 -- So the QR code on the tables doesn't change day-to-day, if you have the URL. However, you need to have location services on to access that URL, so I don't think you could make a reservation before you're at the airport, even if you had that.
@ Anthony -- Oh for sure, NYC has a VERY high concentration of cardmembers, given how much New Yorkers spend on dining and travel, and how good the card is for that.
@ Dominos -- In fairness, there have already been reports of the lounge having a waitlist on a Thursday or Friday afternoon. LaGuardia is ultimately an airport with highly variable traffic throughout the day and based on the day of the week, so I suspect the lounge will consistently be packed during peak hours and days, but otherwise quite pleasant.
@ JetAway -- I'd say the busiest times would be on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday evenings, as well as on Monday mornings.
Looks very nice and along with the Centurion Lounge and the new SkyClub in Terminal C, flyers have excellent lounge options at LGA. I still shudder to think of the old days in those dark, claustrophobic lounges at Terminal B.
But while they have done a bang-up job aesthetically with LGA's renovations, flying out of there last week I was struck by how inconvenient the design of the new Terminal C is. It's a *really* long slog to get to the gates from security and while it's fine by me to get in a couple thousand extra steps, I can't imagine what it might be like for those with small children, those with mobility concerns, or the elderly. There had to have been a better design option than this one.
But that's NY in a nutshell. Even when they pull off big things, it ends up being lipstick on a pig.
Centurion lounge 2.0
This place is going to be so crowded with all of the dweebs who have the Sapphire Reserve. Plus all the hype it's getting cause LGA never had a legit lounge of this caliber.
If we have multiple priority passes through multiple Plats, Venture X, etc, will each one get an individual entry?
Great review by the way, thanks Ben.
Ben, what would you say was the best Priority Pass lounge in the world before this one? And does this lounge now take over the Capital One lounge in DFW as the best credit card lounge?
Impressive. Looks like they took all of the best ideas from the competing lounges in the US, including a little touch of the the Private Suites. If they continue the investment and don't start making cuts on staff and food & bev, should remain a winner. Sadly, I imagine crowding will quickly become an issue.
Looks nice, enjoy it before the employees get jaded. What's the tipping culture like in the lounge? I assume tips are expected for cocktails and for facials? Are others expecting tips?
@ Mantis -- There was absolutely no pressure to tip, which is to say that there weren't tip jars anywhere, and bartenders weren't conveniently placing dollar bills all around the bar as a way to prime people to tip. However, the service here is really great, and I did see a lot of people tipping, so I suspect that there's above average tipping going on here (compared to an Admirals Club, for example).
Personally, I tipped the guy who aesthetician and the nice guy who kept checking on me to see if I needed anything, as I was there for quite some time.
@ Tej -- I think one visit per Priority Pass card should be fine, since ultimately that's the only way that you can be tracked. I'm not sure that's the official policy, but I suspect that's how it works in reality.
@ Luis -- Great questions, though you're really challenging me here, because I'm not sure I have a great answer. :p
Previously I'd say the Chase Sapphire Lounge Boston might be the best Priority Pass lounge, and I think the LaGuardia location is a bit better. Otherwise, I really love the Primeclass Lounge Muscat, random as that may sound.
As far as the Capital One Lounge DFW goes, that's a real tough one. Goodness, I do love Rumana (who works there), and the grab & go feature. I'd say each lounge has its pros and cons, though I think the facials in this lounge are a competitive advantage, and I also slightly prefer the aesthetic of Chase Sapphire Lounges.
There are astonishingly great PP lounges all through Asia and Europe. The two best I visited (recent memories) were in Guangzhou and at SVO. Fantastic views, seating, food/drinks, huge spaces, rooms on par with hotels, etc. Haven't been back to either the past few years for obvious reasons, sadly...
What a time to be alive! I can't help but assume this place will be swapped for the foreseeable future but mamma mia it looks great.
I was there the past Monday morning around 7:00 and it wasn’t crowded at all. Great breakfast options and beautiful lounge!
Looks great but let's see if it will be maintained when after more people use it and they have over crowding issues as other lounges.
Everything looks absolutely incredible.... Except for the kids room which was clearly an afterthought. I see one toy?
Regarding the first point, it would affect which airline a CSR user (like me) would use out of LGA. Also Spirit/Frontier doesn't go out of LGA Terminal B only Terminal A.
Can you clear the Terminal B TSA security checkpoint if you're on a flight from Terminal C?
Lounge looks amazing. Now I'm excited for my first ever layover at La Guardia. Amex is going to have to step their game up as these C1 and Sapphire lounges have been upping the ante.
Almost makes me want to upgrade from CSP to CSR (after downgrading a few years ago due to the high annual fee). It wouldn't take many lounge visits per year to make it worthwhile.
This makes me excited for the upcoming Sapphire Lounge at Sky Harbor airport, if the trend continues, I might have to consider cancelling my Amex Plat, very little reason to keep both. Loving this competition!
I just hope that the quality stays high. I remember with the Club lounges opened. I used to frequent the one at SJC. It was incredibly nice (not as nice as this, but still excellent, especially for a PP lounge. Slowly but surely, it got worse and now all it has going for it is that it's clean and I see that in many of the clubs. The exception is the club at ATL which isn't even clean. I was sent there by BA before a flight in F... I mean talk about a fail!
AMAZING SPACE - only thing missing showers! Right next to the Centurion lounge (also great). While not in the same league - the AC MLL and UC in terminal B are very pleasant outstation lounges for Air Canada and United
Was there this Sunday morning at 8am and thought I was in heaven. Service, food, atmosphere and design were out of this world
Did you leave a tip when you got a facial (directed to anyone that used this service).
dhammer53
I had a really bad experience here yesterday, and fear that the experience at opening is not going to last. The lounge was very crowded (no free seats on the first floor except at occupied tables, and only a handful on the second), but more important, almost no food. The kitchen was backed up with orders taking over an hour, and consequently all the self service food was picked over, almost entirely gone and not replenished. They were not limiting occupancy when I arrived, but were when I left with a 1 hour wait (so 1 hour to get in and another hour beyond that to get food).
The Boston Sapphire lounge, for what it's worth, has been great, with none of these problems.