Airport lounges

One night at 3am at T2 in Mumbai I was in a lounge queue. The whole airport was empty, but the lounge had a queue.

A few days before that I was at Heathrow on my Priority Pass, and the lounge was so empty I took a proper nap. So I wanted to know what a lounge even is now, and if it’s still exclusive.

A lounge, if you haven’t been in one, is a room after security with free food, a drink, wifi and a decent chair. Growing up I thought they were for other people. Rich people, or people the airline knew.

Turns out that’s how they started. The first one, at LaGuardia in 1939, was invite only. It took the US until 1974 to make lounges let in anyone who paid, and in India it took credit cards. Banks started giving lounge visits away free, and that’s how I got in at 3am for Rs 2.

Now loads of us have a card like that, so the lounge has a queue. And the people it was built for have moved into a new room, further in.

A quiet airport lounge in 1961, with rows of armchairs and a few passengers
The SAS lounge at Copenhagen airport, 1961. SAS Scandinavian Airlines, public domain

C.R. Smith

Ran American Airlines, New York, 1939

“You had to know people, or be known by people.”

American Airlines opened a private room at LaGuardia in 1939, and C.R. Smith, who ran the airline, decided who went in. Money didn’t get you in. Everyone else got the waiting room.

Waiting room, Washington National Airport, 1941. American’s second club was upstairs. Jack Delano, Library of Congress

Herbert Goldberger

Businessman, Providence, Rhode Island, 1966

“I felt like I’d been sent to the back of the bus.”

Goldberger got turned away from American’s club in 1965. By then four airline clubs had about 525,000 members between them, and the airlines picked every one. It took until 1974 for the US regulator to say anyone who paid had to be let in.

For every 200 US flights in 1966, there was one airline club member

Song Hoi-see

Banker turned founder of Plaza Premium, Hong Kong, 1998

“I founded this business out of my own bad experience.”

Song flew business class when he was a banker. Then he quit, started paying for his own economy tickets, and some days couldn’t even find a seat at Hong Kong’s airport. In 1998 he opened a lounge anyone could pay for. The one I napped in at Heathrow is run by his company.

1990200020102020491,900
1990200020102020491,900
Places a Priority Pass gets you into, 1992 to 2026

Me

With a credit card, India, 2026

“12 free domestic visits a year. No spending rule.”

Most people in India get in on a credit card, me included. The machine at the desk takes Rs 2 (about 2 US cents) to check the card works, and the bank pays the actual bill.

Your bank: Rs 1,032 (about $12.40)DreamFolks kept Rs 125 (about $1.50)The lounge got Rs 907 (about $10.90)
Your bank: Rs 1,032 (about $12.40)DreamFolks kept Rs 125 (about $1.50)The lounge got Rs 907 (about $10.90)
Where the money for one card visit goes, India, 2024
Indian flyers who use a lounge×7Credit cards in India×5.7Card lounge visits through DreamFolks×3
Indian flyers who use a lounge×7Credit cards in India×5.7Card lounge visits through DreamFolks×3
Lounge users ×7, credit cards ×5.7, card lounge visits ×3, India

Ryan

Waiting outside a lounge at JFK, New York, 2025

“We’re just waiting to get into the Virgin Clubhouse.”

When The New Yorker found Ryan at JFK, he was sitting in one lounge, waiting to get into a better one. In Orlando, David Mack had to queue just to get on a waitlist. And one lounge at Seattle’s airport was turning away 861 people a month in 2019.

52 in 100 people who fly twice a year use a lounge, across 16 countries

Preeti and Lamar Roper

At the lounge desk in Delhi, 2026, and in the kitchen in Newark, 2022

“Our job is to just check the cards with a machine.”

Preeti checks around 500 people a shift at her desk in Delhi. In Newark, Lamar Roper is washing up after 400 guests a day. My 3am queue in Mumbai was for a desk like hers. So I pulled up Mumbai airport’s departures board for the next day, hour by hour.

20midnight3am6amnoon6pmFrom 3am the lounge lets ineveryone on the early flights
From 3am the lounge lets ineveryone on the early flights203am6amnoon6pm
Flights leaving Mumbai T2 domestic each hour

I did get in, but I couldn’t find a place to sit. So I walked out and sat at my gate instead. It was empty, it had a charging point, and the chairs were more comfortable.

Ed Bastian

Chief executive of Delta Air Lines, 2019

“We’re a victim of our own success.”

He said that in 2019, about his own Sky Clubs being too full. The banks and airlines paying for all those visits have started pulling back. In India the biggest lounge companies stopped working with DreamFolks in 2025, and its revenue fell by 89% in a year.

3,20820243902026
3,20820243902026
DreamFolks revenue each quarter, Rs million

Vikas Sharma

Chief executive of Encalm, Delhi, 2023

“The Privé isn’t your mainstream airport lounge.”

Delhi airport’s fix was a lounge for the lounge. The Privé only lets in business and first class, which is about 6 in 100 international passengers. Turn up with a credit card and they send you to the other lounge, on the food court level.

An Encalm Privé lounge, Hyderabad. Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0
Card loungeabout 2,800 sq ftPrivé, business and first class onlyabout 22,000 sq ft
Card lounge2,800 sq ftPrivé, business andfirst class onlyabout 22,000 sq ft
The card lounge and the Privé at Delhi T3, to scale

Santosh Desai

Author and social commentator, India, 2026

“Now there is a search for better spaces where the mainstream audience isn’t allowed.”

BA counts how many people are in its Heathrow lounges with sensors. On an average day its busiest club lounge is 55% full. The Concorde Room is at 27%.

fullClub Lounge North54.6%Galleries Club South50%Galleries Club, B gates44.1%First Lounge31.2%Concorde Room27%
fullClub Lounge North54.6%Galleries Club South50%Galleries Club, B gates44.1%First Lounge31.2%Concorde Room27%
How full BA’s Heathrow lounges are on average. Brass is first class.

1939 to 2026

1939
One room at LaGuardia, and C.R. Smith picks who gets in.
1966
One airline club member for every 200 US flights.
1974
Anyone who pays has to be let in.
1998
Song opens a lounge anyone can pay for.
2024
52 in 100 people who fly twice a year use a lounge, and 51 in 100 of them say it’s often too crowded.
2026
A Priority Pass gets you into 1,900 places. Delhi’s Privé is for the 6 in 100 who fly business or first, and BA’s Concorde Room is 27% full.

Getting into the ordinary lounge is getting harder too. Delta gives Amex Platinum card holders 10 Sky Club visits a year, unless they spend $75,000 on the card. ICICI Bank only lets you in if you’ve spent Rs 75,000 (about $870) on its card in the last three months.

My HDFC Marriott Bonvoy card doesn’t have a rule like that. It gives me 12 free domestic lounge visits a year, and that’s how I ended up in that queue at 3am, in a lounge where I couldn’t find a seat.

So is it worth the wait? At 3am in Mumbai it wasn’t. My gate had a charging point and better chairs, and I didn’t have to queue for it. At Heathrow it was, because the room was empty and I slept. I think a lounge is only a lounge when it’s quiet, and the more of us who get in, the less quiet it gets. That’s probably why the people who can pay more keep building another room.

How I did this, and sources

The Mumbai chart counts every flight on the airport’s own departures board, on the domestic side of Terminal 2. It’s for Saturday 31 October 2026, the day after my queue. When two airlines sell seats on the same flight, I count it once.

The cost of one card visit is an average. I took DreamFolks’ revenue and costs for the year to March 2024, and divided them by the 11.0 million visits it billed. Dollar amounts use about Rs 83 to $1 for 2024, and Rs 86 for 2025.

The “in 100” numbers come from different groups, and the page says which each time. One is Indian flyers, from DreamFolks. One is people who fly at least twice a year in 16 countries, from Airport Dimensions. One is international passengers, from IATA. The BA numbers are averages from BA’s own lounge sensors, collected by Pointszilla.

The floor sizes are rough, from Delhi airport and a lounge review site. All photos are free to use and credited under each one. The font is Atkinson Hyperlegible Next, made by the Braille Institute. I redrew its zero without the slash.

Sources

  1. TIME, “Airlines: Toward Equality for VIPs”, 15 July 1966
  2. Kevin James, historian, interviewed by Marketplace, January 2026
  3. American Airlines newsroom, Admirals Club history
  4. Civil Aeronautics Board order, 1974, as reported by The New York Times, 10 October 1982
  5. Forbes, “How Plaza Premium Lounge’s Song Hoi-see transformed the airport experience”, March 2020
  6. Hong Kong Business, “Meet the man behind the airport pay-in lounge concept”
  7. Priority Pass newsroom; Aviation.com, October 2007
  8. DreamFolks Services investor presentations (Q1 FY25, FY25) and annual reports (FY23, FY26)
  9. Reserve Bank of India card statistics, via Business Standard
  10. Zach Helfand, “The Airport-Lounge Wars”, The New Yorker, November 2025
  11. David Mack, “Airport Lounges Sound Luxurious. I Keep Getting Duped.”, The New York Times, 3 August 2025
  12. Letters, “Gripes and Grumbling at the Airport Lounge”, The New York Times, 24 August 2025
  13. Port of Seattle Commission memo, item 10d, 14 December 2021
  14. Airport Dimensions, Airport Experience 2024 survey (9,306 travellers)
  15. Stela Dey, “India’s new class war is on display in airport lounges”, ThePrint, 22 June 2026
  16. “Airport lounge workers call for better working conditions”, Prism, 1 November 2022
  17. Mumbai airport departures board, 31 October 2026
  18. Mumbai airport lounge rules (Adani Airports)
  19. Ed Bastian to The Points Guy, October 2019; Delta Sky Club access rules
  20. Delhi airport on the Encalm Privé, July 2023, via Aviation A2Z
  21. Live From A Lounge, review of the Encalm lounge, Delhi T3 domestic
  22. Vikas Sharma to DailyO
  23. IATA World Air Transport Statistics 2024
  24. “Deep data dive: how busy are the BA lounges at Heathrow?”, Pointszilla, December 2025