After visiting the Delta Sky Club® San Diego Airport for the first time, I decided to quickly swing by the Airspace Lounge, which is my go-to lounge at the airport. However, I’ve never reviewed it before, so figured I’d get some pictures.
While I haven’t reviewed this lounge before, Tiffany did write about it earlier this year in a post titled “Is This The Most Generous Lounge Access Policy Ever?”
What makes the Airspace Lounge so unique is that it’s also operated partly as an American Airlines Admirals Club, so there are many ways to access the lounge, particularly with a credit card with lounge access.
The lounge can be accessed the same way as any Admirals Club, meaning:
- Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Legend Mastercard® cardholders have an Admirals Club membership, so you can access the lounge regardless of which airline you’re flying; you can also bring in either two guests, or immediate family members (spouse, domestic partner and/or children under 18 years of age).
However, the Airspace Lounge also has a partnership with American Express, whereby Platinum cardholders can access the lounge as well.
- This means that whether you have American Express Platinum Card® or The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, you can access the Airspace Lounge regardless of which airline you’re flying
- Authorized users of the above cards can leverage this benefit as well, which is a nice perk.
- As opposed to the Priority Pass™ Select benefit, you don’t have to activate anything prior to using the Airspace lounge — it’s not a separate membership, so you can just present your card at the entrance for access.
Through this agreement, you can bring in up to two guests or your spouse and children.
In my case I accessed the lounge thanks to American Express Platinum Card®. Why? Because when you enter through any means other than an Admirals Club membership/access perk, you get a $10 gift card for each member of your party, which can be redeemed in the lounge. These don’t expire, so you can save them for future visits if you want.
Airspace Lounge San Diego Airport $10 gift card
Anyway, on to the actual lounge review, now that the complicated access policy has been explained.
The Airspace Lounge is located in Terminal 2 at San Diego Airport, between Terminal 2 East and the bridge to Terminal 2 West.
Airspace Lounge San Diego Airport location
Coming from the SkyClub and main security checkpoint, it’s located just past gate 33.
San Diego Airport terminal
San Diego Airport terminal
The entrance is to the left, right next to a monitor with all the information about ways to access the lounge.
Airspace Lounge San Diego Airport exterior
There’s a poster indicating that this is also the lounge that British Airways and Japan Airlines use for their premium passengers.
Airspace Lounge San Diego Airport entrance
The sign also indicates that access to the lounge can be purchased for $25, which includes a $10 gift card. That’s not a half bad price as far as buying lounge access goes.
Airspace Lounge San Diego Airport signage
Anyway, at the entrance there are both Admirals Club and Airspace Lounge associates. An Admirals Club agent is typically sitting at the desk closest to the door, while the Airspace agent sits behind them.
If you’re entering as if it were an Admirals Club, you’d see the American agent. Meanwhile if you’re entering it any other way, you’d see the Airspace agent.
So even when flying American I see the Airspace agent, since I access the lounge using American Express Platinum Card®, in order to get the $10 gift card.
For what it’s worth, I find the Airspace agents to consistently be extremely friendly (they’re almost all Japanese, for what it’s worth, I think partly because of the JAL flight), while I’ve consistently found the Admirals Club agents to be downright bitchy and unhelpful.
The lounge itself is quite nice, with tarmac views on two sides. The centerpiece of the lounge is the bar area, which features about a dozen seats.
Airspace Lounge San Diego Airport bar
Then around the bar are booths and a couple of high-top communal tables, which is usually where I sit.
Airspace Lounge San Diego Airport seating
Airspace Lounge San Diego Airport seating
The rest of the lounge has more traditional lounge seating, with a variety of seats facing one another.
Airspace Lounge San Diego Airport seating
Back in the front corner of the lounge is a TV area.
Airspace Lounge San Diego Airport seating
Airspace Lounge San Diego Airport seating
There are a variety of newspapers and magazines available. Since this lounge is used by both British Airways and Japan Airlines, you can expect a good number of trashy tabloids and also Japanese newspapers.
Airspace Lounge San Diego Airport newspaper
The tarmac views from the lounge are pretty cool, even if the gate closest to the lounge belongs to Spirit (I sort of dig their livery). 😉
Airspace Lounge San Diego Airport view
Airspace Lounge San Diego Airport view
The self service food spread is just past the entrance, and is very basic. There’s Peet’s coffee & tea, as well as an espresso machine (which isn’t very good, unfortunately).
Airspace Lounge San Diego Airport buffet
Airspace Lounge San Diego Airport buffet
Airspace Lounge San Diego Airport buffet
Then there’s some whole fruit as well as a variety of cookies.
Airspace Lounge San Diego Airport buffet
And then as you’d expect from an Admirals Club, there were the Snack Towers Of Sadness (a term coined by Tiffany).
Airspace Lounge San Diego Airport buffet
Self serve soft drinks are available out of a fountain.
Airspace Lounge San Diego Airport soda
As I explained earlier, most people entering this lounge receive a $10 gift card, which can be used towards food and drinks.
Here’s the Airspace Lounge menu:
I ordered The Airspace Continental, which was pretty not-great. The cheese wasn’t especially tasty, though the bread was fine and the plain yogurt was… plain.
Airspace Lounge San Diego Airport food — “The Airspace Continental”
The lounge also has decent restrooms, though doesn’t have showers, as far as I know.
Airspace Lounge San Diego Airport bottom line
This is usually my “go to” lounge in San Diego, though that’s largely a function of me usually flying American out of San Diego. This is the lounge closest to their gates, and also the lounge they use.
The hybrid Airspace Lounge/Admirals Club setup is an interesting one, and I think it works pretty well in this case. The $10 gift cards they give you whenever you enter is a nice touch, especially since you can keep them for future visits.
For that matter, I think the $25 per visit price tag they charge for a day pass is much more reasonable than what some other airlines charge.
All that being said, I was especially impressed by the SkyClub San Diego Airport, so if flying Delta would definitely use it again.
Have you been to an Airspace Lounge? What do you make of the concept?
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