Welcome

Friends,

Whether you like airport lounges or not, I think you are going too enjoy this column.

The links are also stellar (if I do say so myself), and I had a good laugh at the second video. More than all else, thank you for joining me here.

Let’s get going.

Links

Kai Tak is back (kind of).

This guy needs access to an airport lounge.

Delta’s real secret to profitability.

Bonus Loyalty Points on AA in March.

Promo on CapitalOne transfers to JetBlue; mine posted immediately.

$1900 round-trip business class fares from North America to Italy this summer.

Story

My brother and I landed in Asia in May of 2011 after spending two sequential nights on the Singapore Airlines 777 that connected Houston with Singapore via Moscow. That was a wild flight (FWIW: SQ51 now routes via Manchester in the UK, no longer traversing Russian airspace).

We landed just after six in the morning and proceeded to spend the entire day running around Singapore before returning to the airport to catch the nightly flight to Bangladesh. My United frequent flier status (Premier Executive, as it was called then) provided us access to Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer Gold lounge.

The kind staff at the reception desk welcomed us inside, we found two empty chairs, and then both promptly fell asleep in our seats.

Twenty minutes later I stirred and then looked up to find my brother gone. It was as if he had vanished. He was nowhere in the lounge, but I was carrying both of our passports so I knew he could not have gotten very far.

I found him ten minutes later sitting on a bench in a food court just down the concourse, completely lost. He had slept-walked from our seats and woken up in the terminal.

We both still laugh about it today.

In my last column, I started listing my favorite airport lounges, only to realize it was a long, subjective list. I used the backspace button liberally and moved on.

But there are a lot of great ones out there, so I am going to try to pick my favorite (at least in this specific moment) and also highlight the lounges I would like to visit. I hope this provides some helpful ideas on where to spend time before your next flight.

Here goes:

Lufthansa’s First Class Terminal in Frankfurt takes the tile for the best airport lounge I have ever visited.

It really is next level, combining the convenience of flying private with the facilities of a five star hotel. Per the name, it is a standalone terminal where all check-in, security, and immigration formalities are taken care of in the lounge. When it is time to depart, you are driven across the tarmac to the door of your airplane in a private car.

It is all a touch surreal.

The facilities themselves are unsurprisingly very nice, and include (among other things) a full restaurant, nap rooms, a cigar bar, and collectible rubber duckies. Everything is included in the price of admission, which is a same day first class ticket on Lufthansa or Swiss. Uber-frequent HON Circle members are also welcome.

Other honorable mention “best ever” lounges my travels have visited include:

• Cathay Pacific The Wing First Class Lounge, Hong Kong

• Qantas First Class Lounge, Melbourne

• Singapore Airlines Private Room, Singapore

• Finnair Platinum Wing, Helsinki

• Thai Airways First Class Lounge, Bangkok

• Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Business Class Lounge the Garden, Doha

• American Airlines Flagship First Dining, Miami

• Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse, London Heathrow

• United Polaris Lounge, Washington Dulles

Lounges I most want to visit:

• Air France La Première Lounge, Paris

• Emirates First Class Lounge, Dubai

• Qatar Airways Al Safwa First Class Lounge, Doha

• Swiss First Class Lounge, Zurich

• CapitalOne Landing at DCA, Washington D.C.

• JAL First Class Lounge Haneda, Tokyo

• Delta One Lounge JFK

• Air Canada Signature Suite Toronto

• United Polaris Lounge, Houston

As a sidebar, several of these lounges have multiple locations (for example, United operates multiple Polaris Lounges). Additionally, some great lounges—like American’s Flagship Lounge at DFW—did not make the list, despite being special to me personally. I mention this to emphasize the subjectivity of the above selections.

Bottom line: there is a lot more to review here.

Big Picture: The best lounges in the world are largely operated by airlines and tied to premium cabin travel. That’s no surprise, but it also creates an opportunity to rank the best lounges accessible with frequent fliers status, as well as those accessible via membership or a credit card. For now, though, this is a good place to start. What do you think?

Happy flying.

Forward

Please forward this article on if you know someone who it would help!

Also, you are wonderful.

Remember, this life you are living has meaning. Be well today.

-Tommy