- Introduction: Good Morning Milan, Goodnight Moon
- Emirates A380 First Class With Dad: So Fun That I Needed A Day To Recover
- My Furious Emirates First Class Seat Mate: Fair Feedback, Unfair Delivery
- Emirates First Class Menu & Food: Fine Dining, Or Just Fine?
- Review: Park Hyatt Milan, Italy (Stellar, Central Hotel, But Missing Desks)
- Drinking Buy On Board Espresso In Air Dolomiti Economy…
- Review: Falkenstein Grand Koenigstein, Marriott Autograph Collection (Unique!)
- Review: Villa Rothschild Koenigstein, Marriott Autograph Collection (Cute!)
- Ugh: Misdirected Delay Frustration In The Lufthansa First Class Terminal
- Am I A Lufthansa Fanboy Or Hater? Let Me Set The Record Straight…
- Review: Goodnight Moon Suite At Sheraton Boston (INCREDIBLE!)
- Review: Four Seasons Philadelphia (One Of The Best US City Hotels)
- Review: Chase Sapphire Lounge Philadelphia Airport (PHL)
- Review: American Flagship Lounge Philadelphia Airport (PHL)
At the tail end of our Good Morning Milan, Goodnight Moon trip, I was excited to fly out of Philadelphia Airport (PHL), and check out a couple of lounges that have been on my radar. In this installment, I’ll be reviewing the Chase Sapphire Lounge, and in the next installment, I’ll be reviewing the American Flagship Lounge.
The Chase Sapphire Lounge Philadelphia opened in early 2025, and I must say, it’s a spectacular facility. The Chase Sapphire Lounge network in general is awesome, and I’d say this is among the best lounges the card issuer has, with great food and drinks, plus some unique amenities, including a wellness area with spa treatments.
In this post:
Chase Sapphire Lounge Philadelphia location
The Chase Sapphire Lounge Philadelphia is located in the connector between Terminals D and E. I cleared security in Terminal D at one of the main checkpoints, and then spotted the entrance to the lounge immediately ahead.
The lounge is located one level above the concourse, so you can reach it either via elevator or staircase inside the entrance.
All gates at the airport are connected airside, so this lounge is easily accessible to all passengers, regardless of which airline you’re flying. One thing worth noting is that Philadelphia’s terminals are really spread out, so if you’re leaving from Terminal A or Terminal B, definitely plan a good amount of time to get to your gate.
Chase Sapphire Lounge Philadelphia hours
The Chase Sapphire Lounge Philadelphia is currently open daily from 5AM until 10PM, covering a vast majority of departures from the airport. This is among the longest hours you’ll find of any lounge in the airport.
Chase Sapphire Lounge Philadelphia entry requirements
The Chase Sapphire Lounge Philadelphia is a Priority Pass lounge, though it works a bit differently than other Priority Pass locations. Here are the entry requirements for all Chase Sapphire Lounges:
- Those with a Priority Pass™ Select membership through the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card (review) and Sapphire Reserve for BusinessSM (review) can access the lounge an unlimited number of times, with up to two complimentary guests; this also applies to those with the Ritz-Carlton Credit Card, which is no longer open to new applicants
- Those with a Priority Pass™ Select membership issued through any other means can access any Chase Sapphire Lounge once per calendar year at no additional cost (that’s one visit across all lounges, not per lounge), and guests aren’t complimentary; subsequent visits, as well as guests, will be charged an entry fee of $75
- If you don’t have a Priority Pass™ Select membership, you can outright buy access to the lounge for $100 per person per visit, subject to availability
- Chase Sapphire Lounges are only accessible within three hours of departure, unless you’re connecting, in which case you can access earlier
So as you can tell, while all Priority Pass members can visit this lounge once, those who have a membership through Chase’s premium cards get unlimited visits, and can bring guests.
Chase Sapphire Lounge Philadelphia layout & seating
The Chase Sapphire Lounge Philadelphia is roughly 20,000 square feet, making it the second largest lounge in the network, after the one at New York LaGuardia (LGA). The lounge is essentially set along a long hallway, and as you enter, you’re right in the middle — you’ll find the bar straight ahead, the dining area to the right, and more seating and the wellness area to the left.
Chase Sapphire Lounges are incredibly consistent when it comes to decor and design, and this location was no exception. Right at the entrance I saw the typical bar, with high-top seating, plus plenty of cafe-style tables with chairs and banquettes.
When you turn right, you’ll then yourself in the lounge’s game room and beer garden area. The lounge has a variety of local beers on tap, with several seating options, including benches, high-top seating, and more.
Next to that is the retro arcade area, along with a large multi-screen wall with chairs. This is intended so you can play games, watch sports, and more. I appreciate how Chase Sapphire Lounge locations all have a lot of similarities, but also have their unique, local touches.
As you go deeper into the lounge, you’ll find the main dining area, which is where the buffet and drink stations are located. This area has a good number of dining tables, plus some communal seating as well.
Going back to the center of the lounge and moving in the other direction, you’ll find a room with seating that’s more designed for relaxation and productivity, including a communal workstation, some individual loungers facing a faux-fireplace, and also a couple of private workspaces, which are great if you need to hop on a call or video meeting.
There’s another room with a couple of banquettes, booths along the wall, sofas, and chairs.
Then there’s another area which also has the kids play room, where you’ll find a limited number of additional seats. It’s really pretty awesome how the lounge is broken up into so many small areas.
The rest of the lounge is dedicated to the wellness area, bathrooms, and showers, which I’ll talk more about in a bit.
Chase Sapphire Lounge Philadelphia food & drinks
Chase Sapphire Lounges are known for their excellent selection of food and drinks, and the Philadelphia location is no exception. This includes a buffet, some a la carte items, and a selection of cocktails and other drinks prepared by bartenders.
I visited over breakfast hours, and found the buffet selection to be good. Breakfast options included pomegranate parfaits, cantaloupe with Thai basil, bananas foster Belgian waffles, vegan chorizo migas, shredded potato casserole, crustless veggie quiche, salmon plates, and avocado and pickled red onion toast.
On top of that, there were a variety of muffins, pastries, croissants, biscottis, and more.
The lounge had two self-serve drink stations, with drip coffee, espresso machines, cold brew, tea, juice, and other canned non-alcoholic drinks.
I thought the food tasted great, and I love the food presentation in Chase Sapphire Lounges, with each dish being individually plated, and then there being trays so that you can easily transport multiple things.
One thing I found strange is that the lounge was using disposable plates and cups. All the food was served on paper plates, while most drinks were served in paper cuts (the exceptions being a limited number of water glasses, plus alcoholic drinks).
Is this some temporary issue, or could they just not keep up with the amount of plates and glasses that need to be washed? It definitely doesn’t give a very premium feel, though the great food does make up for it.
Beyond the buffet selection, there are also QR codes all over the lounge so that you can pull up the a la carte selection. Below is what the food selection looked like.
Then below you can find the cocktail list, along with the wine selection.
Chase really knocks it out of the park with lounge catering, if you ask me!
Chase Sapphire Lounge Philadelphia wellness area
The Chase Sapphire Lounge Philadelphia is among the best in the network in terms of the amenities that it offers. The lounge has a wellness area in the back left of the lounge, which offers both rest pods and facial treatments.
There are six rest pods, which have to be reserved. Don’t get too excited, as these aren’t beds, or anything. However, they are a nice, private space, in which to unwind, as curtains can be drawn around each of them.
On top of that, there are two facial treatment rooms, with 30-minute treatments available, in partnership with Face Haus.
You can choose from five different treatments — The Refresher, The Soother, The Clarifier, The Illuminator, or The Jet Setter.
All services can be reserved via the same webpage that’s used for ordering food and drinks, with the QR codes available on most tables in the lounge. There’s also a reception area for the wellness space, so you can reserve in person.
As you’d expect, given the number of people using this lounge, plus the very limited capacity of spa treatments, don’t count on being able to snag one unless you’re really lucky. Also note that the spa area only opens at 8AM, three hours after the lounge otherwise opens.
Chase Sapphire Lounge Philadelphia bathrooms & showers
The Chase Sapphire Lounge Philadelphia’s main set of bathrooms are located near the wellness area. They’re quite elegant, with the men’s room having sinks, toilets, and urinals.
The lounge also has two spacious shower suites. I took a shower in one, and it had a sink, walk-in shower with good shower pressure, and a toilet.
There were also a variety of amenities (like dental and shaving kits), along with reusable toiletries from APOTHEKE.
Bottom line
The Chase Sapphire Lounge Philadelphia is an absolutely stellar lounge. It’s spacious, with good food and drinks, and great amenities and design. If you ask me, Chase really knocks it out of the park with its lounge network, and this is among my favorite lounges in the issuer’s network.
In particular, Philadelphia is an airport that has otherwise used to have a limited number of nice lounges, so this really raises the bar there. If you have the chance to check it out, I highly recommend it.
What’s your take on the Chase Sapphire Lounge Philadelphia?
The other thing in Philly is unless you walk to AA land in terminals A and B, you don’t have a lot of good food options. There is some good fast food in terminal F. But this lounge is probably the second best overall food from terminal C and over.
A family member (Reserve cardholder) was recently turned away from this PHL lounge on a long layover. The rationale provided was that Reserve Lounges' policy does not expressly allow entry on connections over 3 hours (though agents can use discretion).
Do they offer champagne in this lounge ? If so, which one ? You did not mention :-O
Love the FS Philly and chase lounge Philly. Always a tempting combo!
I was there last week and it was an absolute zoo! Loud, poor quality food, little room to sit anywhere, and a kid running through the food area vomiting en route to the bathroom. Next time I'll take the terminal instead.
I passed through the Boston Sapphire lounge last week and they had partially paper plates (exact same ones). My first time seeing these after passing through that lounge half a dozen times. For one of the desserts it was first paper bowls and then later on they brought out normal bowls. So seems like a temporary issue / they’re struggling with normal plate inventory across the board.
Any word when the Chase lounge at DFW will open ?
One of my favorite lounges in the US. It’s airport food so I don’t expect restaurant quality. What I liked was how they laid the space out to facilitate areas with more energy and activity, areas for productivity and areas for relaxation. Felt like they did it right at this club. By far the best airline lounge in PHL.
Will be curious to see how busy it becomes as Chase adds more lounges and more card holders.
The PHL Sapphire lounge is nice, although I prefer the Boston one myself.
PHL is my closest major airport. I generally try to avoid it - approximately 80% of my travel happens via EWR, the rest is split between JFK and PHL. I am really looking forward to the Centurion at EWR.
The Sapphire lounge does raise the bar for PHL - the PHL Centurion is a dump, and the BA business lounge is worse....
The PHL Sapphire lounge is nice, although I prefer the Boston one myself.
PHL is my closest major airport. I generally try to avoid it - approximately 80% of my travel happens via EWR, the rest is split between JFK and PHL. I am really looking forward to the Centurion at EWR.
The Sapphire lounge does raise the bar for PHL - the PHL Centurion is a dump, and the BA business lounge is worse. That said, the sheer incompetence of everyone and their brother at PHL more than cancels this out. By way of an example - I was returning from Mexico City last Saturday, and it took the fine gentleman driving the jetway half an hour to connect to the aircraft. Par for the course at PHL.
Would have loved to have checked it out, but on December 18 at 4pm we were told there was no availability for our Priority Pass vouchers, just Reserve cardholders.
Have visited this lounge a number of times and have not had paper plates. Hope that was just a temporary issue and not a long term change!
I was here during Christmas week and enjoyed this lounge.
Food ordered at the table was not great. Had the cornbread and the breakfast bao bun. But with it being "free", it was serviceable. Also the cold brew was not too good either.
Doing everything through their website was nice. Ordering food, scheduling a shower, ect. Bathrooms are also super nice and spacious.
Definitely try to schedule a facial as soon as...
I was here during Christmas week and enjoyed this lounge.
Food ordered at the table was not great. Had the cornbread and the breakfast bao bun. But with it being "free", it was serviceable. Also the cold brew was not too good either.
Doing everything through their website was nice. Ordering food, scheduling a shower, ect. Bathrooms are also super nice and spacious.
Definitely try to schedule a facial as soon as you enter. The front desk attendant was very sweet and put me on the waitlist and even came to the relaxtion room to ask if I wanted to grab an opening. Now that's service! Not a bad idea to have cash for a tip either.
When I was there early December the plates were not paper, so probably just a temporary thing.
I spent 8 hours in this lounge back in August due to a long rolling delay on AA. It was quite a treat in an otherwise unfortunate day. Flight ultimately got cancelled, so I rebooked on the app and stayed in the lounge until closing for dinner, and then made the trek to one of AA's horrible complementary hotels.
Many of the design elements (particularly the bar area) are similar to the Centurion lounge in Atlanta. Both were designed by Corgan, which apparently has a limited imagination.
"Served in paper cuts" lol
You’re welcome, Ben.
Are kids (<18) considered complimentary guests? In other words, can I bring my spouse, 2-year-old and 4-year-old to the lounge with one my CSR?
I did not like this place. Buffet was mostly pretty but shitty food (vegan stuffs or gluten-free pancake etc) and made-to-order took too long. Made-to-order bagel was just an individually packed factory-made bagel that could easily placed in buffet/pastry area. Capital one lounge is also filled with pretty-but-shitty-food but at least to-go section has good sandwich / wrap / granola yogurt / fruit that people actually consume inside because buffet section isn't good. This mini-dish...
I did not like this place. Buffet was mostly pretty but shitty food (vegan stuffs or gluten-free pancake etc) and made-to-order took too long. Made-to-order bagel was just an individually packed factory-made bagel that could easily placed in buffet/pastry area. Capital one lounge is also filled with pretty-but-shitty-food but at least to-go section has good sandwich / wrap / granola yogurt / fruit that people actually consume inside because buffet section isn't good. This mini-dish thing should go. Amex lounge is the best with basic fulfilling food, no trendy menu or mini-dish, all good-taste.
I love how the arcade room has separate displays for all the Philadelphia sports teams - really appreciate the local touches!
@Ben- So if you have multiple PP accounts, based on different credit cards (like one with Amex and one with Capital One), do you get a free visit per account? (so two per year in my example)
@ NomadDC -- The only way they can track you is via your Priority Pass membership, so yes, each membership should come with access once annually.