With crowding becoming an increasingly big issue for airport lounges, we’ve seen the introduction of more creative lounge concepts. In particular, we’ve seen more grab & go lounges introduced, with the idea being that those short on time can grab a drink and snack, rather than sitting around a lounge for an extended period of time.
Along those lines, it looks like airport lounge operator Airport Dimensions (the operator behind “The Club” lounges) is joining the trend, and has opened its first own grab & go lounge in the United States.
In this post:
Atlanta Airport gets new grab & go lounge concept
Airport Dimensions has recently opened Poppin at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), which is the lounge operator’s first-ever grab & go lounge concept. Poppin is located next to The Club ATL, airside in Concourse F, on the mezzanine level.
It’s open daily from 11AM until 10PM, so it has much more limited hours than The Club. The lounge is accessible up to 2.5 hours before departure, and offers a variety of drinks and snacks, including sandwiches, salads, fruit, snacks, sweet treats, and ice cream, along with soft drinks, coffee, beer, and cider. Guests can take all of these options with them, and there’s also a limited amount of seating available.
Poppin is accessible with Priority Pass, so guests have the option of whether they’d like to visit The Club ATL or Poppin, though guests can only visit one or the other under the same Priority Pass membership.
Below you can find some pictures of the lounge. It definitely looks functional and not terribly high end, a bit like the public areas of a limited service property, but that’s of course fine for this kind of concept.
This is a huge value-add for Priority Pass members
Admittedly not all airport lounges are created equal, and there’s a big difference between first class lounges, business class lounges, Priority Pass lounges, etc.
Lounge access has been hugely democratized over the years, and in many ways, that’s a good thing. However, the core value proposition of lounges has also massively shifted as a result of this. As I see it, lounges used to be a quiet place to escape to, whether you want to relax or work. Nowadays lounges are often the most crowded places you’ll find in airports (and there are often even lines to get in), and they seem to be all about eating and drinking.
So while there are still lots of incredible lounges, your average Priority Pass lounge in the United States can be pretty grim. Quite frankly, nowadays if I’m traveling domestically, I’ll often just try to find a quiet place in the terminal where I can sit, as I find that to be more pleasant than being in an overcrowded lounge.
As I see it, these grab & go lounges give you the best of both worlds. Even if I’m not short on time, I’d rather grab a drink and a snack and find a quiet gate area, rather than spending an extended period of time in a crowded lounge, assuming I can even get in. I hope we see this concept spread.
In terms of economics, these lounges also seem like a win-win. Presumably these grab & go lounges can accommodate a lot more customers than standard facilities, given the pace at which people move through them. And the margins are still there, since the lounge operator is being paid for each person who visits the lounge.
Bottom line
Airport Dimensions has opened Poppin at Atlanta Airport, located immediately next to The Club ATL. The idea is that this is a grab & go lounge, where Priority Pass members can help themselves to drinks and snacks, as an alternative to the traditional lounge experience.
Given the current reality of airport lounges, which includes a lot of waitlists, I’d say these kinds of facilities are a huge positive, and I hope we see this spread.
What do you make of this grab & go Priority Pass concept? Would you like to see it expand?
Just getting food or drinks is often not the main reason to go to a lounge. The goal for most travelers is having a quiet and comfortable place to relax and charge your devices. Outside of lounges, this is often quite difficult to find at most airports and the Grab and Go concept does not meet these criteria.
Priority Pass has a use. That use is when I'm flying AA out of MSP. I don't want a Grab and Go if I have to sit in a gate area with the human garbage that flies these days. I'd rather be in a lounge where the clientele is slightly more refined.
The democratization of lounges is a shame. They should be an elite space.
There should be one of these where you just pop in and grab a free $10 Visa gift card from the shelf for the lounger operator to trace the PriorityPass arbitrage to its logical end
@ Will -- LOL. I can't say I disagree, that seems to be the direction things are headed...
@Ben, where is it stated that you can only visit Poppin or the Club? Is it just that the front desk is shared, and you have to choose?
@ Tennen -- I'll try to clarify whether this is written as intended, but Priority Pass' announcement says the following:
"On each visit, members can choose either Poppin or the neighbouring full-service lounge."
The way I interpret it, the two spaces are probably considered to be one in terms of the way that guests are scanned in, and it's normal for only one visit per day to be allowed with Priority Pass for a given lounge.
ok, positive indeed - but another first one from Priority pass: being able to visit just one, not both. I do not think this exists anywhere else. How do they even enforce it?
@ polarbear -- In fairness, I think this is the first sort of dual-branded Priority Pass lounge facility that we've seen. I'd view this concept as being similar to the Escape Lounge and Amex Centurion Lounge PHX, where eligible Amex cardmembers have to choose one facility or the other.
But what's the point of an airport lounge? Food or a quiet place to relax? If a Priority Pass membership essentially becomes a voucher for some food items before flight, would it still be valuable?
@ Tony -- Well it doesn't have to be one or the other, right? The limiting factor in the opening of new airport lounges is typically available real estate, which is hard to come by. If you have only 1,000 square feet, this will be able to serve a lot more customers than a traditional lounge.
Hmm. I actually think many would prefer to sit in the crowded lounge versus a quiet gate area. Would be a fascinating readership poll!
VFTW touched on this concept last night as well in his nightly roundup when amusingly discrediting the Swissport lounge in terminal 5 at Chicago O’Hare. As an aside he then writes: "I’ve often thought of a sequel to Waiting for Godot where Valdimir and Estragon have Priority Pass and must wait...
Hmm. I actually think many would prefer to sit in the crowded lounge versus a quiet gate area. Would be a fascinating readership poll!
VFTW touched on this concept last night as well in his nightly roundup when amusingly discrediting the Swissport lounge in terminal 5 at Chicago O’Hare. As an aside he then writes: "I’ve often thought of a sequel to Waiting for Godot where Valdimir and Estragon have Priority Pass and must wait for the noodle cups to be replenished, or Kafka’s The Castle reimagined so that elite status merely grants entry to a smaller bureaucratic room. In the Rawlsian Original Position, no rational traveler would permit this lounge to exist."
@ Peter_ -- For sure many people would (or at least do, based on their actions). That's why I think it's good to have different options, with both full service and grab & go lounges.