In this episode we’re sharing the magical world of lounge life and how to get into airport lounges. We share some of our best airport lounge experiences from Dubai to London to Mexico City and detail the differences in perks and freebies you can expect.

We are priority pass lounge members, which is provided complimentary through the Chase Saphire Reserve travel credit card. It’s one of the best travel credit card perks we use every single time we travel. For those of you without this credit card we also share how to get into airport lounges the paid or guest way. For those that do have priority pass lounge access we also share some of the other perks like dining credit at restaurants and mini suites for airports that don’t have lounges or are so big they have multiple options.

Airport lounge perks you can often find are comfortable seating and couches and less crowds than the general airport areas. This is a huge underrated perk of lounges! Most lounges also offer some type of free snack from peanuts to a full on buffet or menu to order from. Most lounges offer free drinks from water (even bottles to-go!), soft drinks, beer, wine, and cocktails. Many of the best lounges have full bar service.

Lounge access takes a long layover from a miserable delay to a luxurious experience that makes the trip that much better. since having access we find ourselves going to the airport earlier just to spend more time in the lounge.

Lounge Life – Episode Transcript

3 (56s):
Welcome to this week’s episode of the Travel Squad Podcast. Today we’re gonna talk to you guys all about Lounge Life. And when we say Lounge Life, we’re talking about airport Lounge, having that luxury right before your flight. The pros cons, everything in between. Lounge Life is king, though I won’t lie. Love it. And we’re gonna dive deep in this episode for you guys.

1 (1m 19s):
Gosh, I love Lounge Life, like I can’t remember traveling without Lounge Life. Like once you have Lounge Life and experience it like you always look forward to going to those lounges, going and relaxing in a more peaceful setting and environment. Maybe kick back a few drinks while you’re in

3 (1m 37s):
There. Complimentary drinks too. Real fucking hard milk. Ooh,

2 (1m 40s):
Yeah.

1 (1m 40s):
And I can’t imagine traveling any other way. I highly recommend to you guys if you haven’t tried Lounge Life for you to do it as well. They do sell day passes, so it’s definitely worth it if you know it’s a good airport and they have a good Lounge to try out

2 (1m 55s):
A hundred percent. So I first went to Lounge Life as a guest of yours, Jamal, and when I saw it I was like, how the fuck have I been living and did not know this existed?

3 (2m 8s):
This is how the other half live, huh?

2 (2m 9s):
Yeah. I was like, I wanna be over here. But earlier this year I got a travel credit card which gave a free membership to Priority Pass and so I was able to go on my own and my God do I love Lounge Life. I just feel like move it coming through, got my Lounge passed. Oh yeah. It’s fucking amazing there. I will never go back just like you. Yeah.

1 (2m 35s):
And there are a ton of different lounges. We all have access to the priority pass lounges and so we’re gonna focus mostly on those. But there are different credit cards that do offer different Lounge access, Lounge Life, or if you fly business class or first class on an airline, they invite you to have a day at their Lounge. So we’re primarily gonna be talking about the ones associated with Priority Pass because that’s what we have known and

3 (3m 3s):
Traveled with, right? And there’s lots of ways to get Lounge access. One of them again is by having Priority Pass, like you said, flying business class. And depending on the airline you’re with, if they have a Lounge then they have it. So there’s all sorts of ways, even if you don’t have Priority Pass or not flying business class utilizing that day use. But do keep in mind, not every airport even has a Lounge and even if you have Priority Pass or flying business class, depending on where you’re flying out of, they might not even have a Lounge available for you either. Right. So it’s not like every time we’re at the airport Uhoh, we’re living it up like in a Lounge, but when it’s there and you can utilize them, they are freaking awesome. Yeah. So again, focusing really on the usage of Priority Pass.

3 (3m 44s):
And there’s two types of lounges really. There’s airline lounges and you know, we’ll know that there’s an American Lounge, a Delta one, British Airways, whoever you name an airline, they’re a big one, they have a Lounge. And there’s also lots of chain lounges and I hate to use that term, but lots of times like the club is a very common one, right, where they’re not necessarily associated with an airline, but they are chains within airports that have designated lounges. And those are more often than not the ones that you’re really gonna find in Priority Pass. Although depending on at the airport you do have some airline lounges, et cetera. Like recently when we were in Amsterdam, they have the British Airways Lounge at the Amsterdam airport associated with the Priority Pass.

3 (4m 25s):
It just happened to be closed at the time that we were then weren’t able to use it. So you do have those really reputable ones of the the airlines, not to say that the other ones aren’t, but you get the gist of what I’m trying to say and what’s available to you through these priority passes.

2 (4m 39s):
And Priority Pass is a membership that was included with our Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card. It’s an amazing travel credit card if you travel enough to make it worth it. So it’s included. But you can purchase a Priority Pass membership on your own without having a credit card. Probably the best option would be about a $300 annual fee and that gives you 10 free visits. So that would probably cover you. Or if you wanna go up and have unlimited free visits, it’s at about 4 29 at the time of recording this. So it’s a hefty fee, but if you’re traveling frequently, it could be worth it because of everything you get in the Lounge on top of all of the other little luxury.

3 (5m 19s):
Right. And I want to just reiterate too, I mean obviously you know, I’m just throwing random ones out there, but just so you could get the gist on all the ways that you could potentially utilize and get access to a Lounge, if you have the high end Delta credit card, it gives you access to like SkyTeam lounges, cuz Delta’s part of like SkyTeam Alliance. So they’ll have the Delta lounges and then you could go to Delta SkyTeam partner lounges in other airports. So it gives you that American Express. Lots of people know they have the Centurion Lounge or American Express lounges, although those lounges are very few and far in between at certain like airports. But a lot of those credit cards have their own lounges just as well and their own affiliated networks.

3 (5m 59s):
So lots of ways that you can get in on the The Lounge game.

2 (6m 3s):
Yeah. Oh and then of course you can always pay for your Lounge entrance. Of course if you don’t have a membership it ranges like what’s he like 30, $30 depending on the Lounge.

1 (6m 11s):
Yeah. Which

2 (6m 13s):
Could be worth it. If you’re gonna really use what they’ve got inside, fuck

1 (6m 17s):
Them hard, you might use it. That might be a good option for you. But we’re gonna start this episode. I know we’ve kind of dived in a little, but we’re gonna start with some of the tips that we have for you. And we’ve talked a lot about priority Pass and one tip to know is that if you do have priority Pass, you can add the digital card to your phone wallet so you don’t actually have to have the physical card on you.

2 (6m 39s):
Oh, mine came in so Clutch because I had gotten this credit card and the Priority Pass membership I think around March 22. And I was taking a trip in April 22 and then another trip in May. So I was like, please, please come in. I need this card. I was so excited for Lounge and it got to the day we were leaving and the card had not come in mail yet. Oh no. And so I logged on and I didn’t even know about the digital card but I was just looking like maybe, maybe, maybe. And I saw the digital card and I was able to add it to my wallet and then use it

3 (7m 10s):
That day. Very nice. And see even with the digital wallet, it’s through the app and then on the app you can put in what airport you’re in, see if they have lounges and everything like that too. So that’s a really good solid tip about the digital card. And another thing to note regarding the priority pass is most lounges will give you access for yourself and two guests. Oh hell yeah. A couple times we’ve actually been able to sneak in extra people, like one extra person and they say if you go over two they’ll usually charge your credit card that’s associated with that pass. I haven’t seen it happen, don’t violate this too much and have them take that away. But just throwing that out there like I’ve seen them not, or we’ve gone to some places and they say, oh you’re only allowed two guests and they really don’t let people in.

3 (7m 58s):
So it’s really hit or miss on

1 (8m 0s):
That. And Priority Pass doesn’t just include lounges. There are other perks as well. Like sometimes if they don’t have a Lounge they offer restaurants. And so restaurants though, you get a price per person that you get off the bill and so you don’t get two free gas, you get yourself and one gas, you can have more people on that bill and the amount that they give you, it’s $28 per person. You can use that to cover what you can for multiple people and then everyone can split the bill afterwards on that. But it’s not yourself and two guests if you’re using it on the restaurant. But front of things.

2 (8m 35s):
And I’ve noticed that the restaurants are more strict than the lounges

3 (8m 39s):
Definitely. So, but a couple locations where we’ve actually been able to use that and it was really awesome. San Francisco, there was two restaurant locations, we ate some food, we had a long flight in front of us, we’re like let’s pick up some more food with it and used our priority pass there. So I mean we at $28 each, we had $56 to spend between two people. And I guess that airport’s food is expensive no doubt. But that $58 goes a long way to get some decent food for you in there. And I really loved it And it’s one of the great features. Unfortunately when there is no Lounge, at least you can eat on their own dime sometimes too with this card,

2 (9m 16s):
When you think about the cost of priority pass, if you are thinking about buying it and it’s not just included with a credit card and you’re trying to do the math to weigh it, you have to think about how much food am I gonna eat, how many times am I gonna travel? And from my experience over the handful of months that I’ve had my own card, I think it would have more than paid for itself.

1 (9m 35s):
Oh absolutely. Easily for sure. Another cool thing about the priority pass is they list all of the lounges in an airport and there’s no limit on how many lounges you can visit while you’re at that airport. So you might go to the nearest one and be like, let me check out this vibe. Could be a little crowded in there and you might be like, okay, I have time to go further down the terminal or into another terminal and check out another Lounge and that might have better vibes or offer different amenities. And so there’s not a limit of how many lounges you can use per visit.

3 (10m 8s):
Even listed with the Lounge access through priority pass and other credit cards was the minute suites. I’m sure we’ve all seen these ones. And airports, some of them have them where you can actually rent a room. The minute suites for literally an hour, hour and a half, it has a couch that pulls out to a bed a little tv. Now we’re, we haven’t really gotten into the amenities and the goodies that are inside the Lounge and we will get there. But one thing about the minute suites, it’s a nice place to go where you’re alone, have a bed, can lay down, but they don’t give you free drinks and food like they do in the lounges. But if you’re on a long leg and want that little bit of privacy to really lay down and sleep, the minute suites are awesome and a real solid clutch thing that they have with the priority passes part of the Lounge access.

3 (10m 55s):
Oh

2 (10m 56s):
Yeah. I think that would come in. So clutch if you did a red eye flight or you had to be up really early for a flight and we’re on a layover, those come in very clutch. And then what else is cool about the app is it lists all of the lounges but it also says the terminal and then gives you directions to find it. So you may be flying into a very large airport in terminal A, but then they have the lounges in terminal C and so you’re like, shit, how the hell do I get there? Well you can plot your whole journey and maximize your time before you even arrive.

3 (11m 27s):
And they’ll tell you the hours of the Lounge too. Like sometimes maybe you’re getting at 6:00 AM but the Lounge doesn’t open till eight or it closes this and that. So you can really figure it out through the app. But I wanna talk a little bit about some of the cons before we get into the goodies. Cause we’ve mentioned kind of like a little bit of the highlights haven’t really gotten to our Lounge experience and what you can truly expect. So let’s hit the cons first. Cause I want to end on a high note with the real solid stuff of the Lounge.

1 (11m 52s):
Well I think you kind of just brushed over it a little bit. You said it says the hours of the Lounge, the lounges aren’t 24 7 and so if you do have an early morning flight or a red eye flight, you may not have access to a Lounge. Yeah cuz they’re not open in the middle of the night or they might open a little bit later in the morning. Yeah,

2 (12m 10s):
Sometimes they close like nine or 10:00 PM and that’s pretty early.

1 (12m 14s):
And some of them don’t open till like eight or nine. But if you’re getting to an airport beforehand and you have a 7:00 AM flight, you won’t have access to a Lounge that early. And

2 (12m 24s):
Then even if they are open, sometimes they don’t have full services. I remember being in a Lounge once and wanting a either mimosa or Margarita I asked for and because of the hours they only had beer and wine.

1 (12m 36s):
Oh okay.

2 (12m 37s):
So darn it. Do you remember that? I had to have free beer and wine. Do you remember

3 (12m 41s):
The airport and what Lounge

2 (12m 43s):
That was? That was Mexico City. Oh they have a lot of lounges

3 (12m 47s):
But they have tons in Mexico City. Yeah, tons in Mexico City. I know, absolutely. When we were there we had a whole list of lounges to choose on. It was almost like hard, like fuck, fun to choose.

2 (12m 57s):
Well and they’re kind of close together too, so that makes it nice to be able to bounce around if you

3 (13m 2s):
Want. Absolutely. Another con is, you know they do have the departure screens and most lounges, but sometimes don’t take those a little bit too seriously versus what’s displayed outside. Just really keep track on your phone or maybe if you’re with somebody, step outside, see a screen. And we mentioned this because one time when Brittanie and I were in Cancun, they had the departure screen up there but it was definitely wrong. They given us wrong information and if Brittanie didn’t have like a sixth sense intuition, we would’ve missed our flight. So that’s one of the cons of them. Like even though they’re affiliated with the airport and supposedly give you updates, you can’t necessarily trust them. So do look at the outside and keep track on your phone or on the website with the free wifi that they give from the airline.

3 (13m 47s):
Hey, is my flight delayed? Am I boarding this, that and the other? Yeah,

1 (13m 50s):
That way you don’t told us that our flight was delayed. And so it said what time we were going to board and all of that. And so I was like okay. And so we stayed in the Lounge longer because our flight was supposed to be delayed and then all of a sudden I just had this overwhelming sense to like why don’t you just check on the airline website? And I did and when I checked it said that we were already departed. Oh

2 (14m 13s):
Shit. And I

1 (14m 14s):
Was like, no. So Jamal and I like book it over to the gate and as we’re pulling up they’re calling like last call for us. Wow.

3 (14m 23s):
My my final boarding call, they were calling our names.

2 (14m 26s):
Oh my gosh. And

1 (14m 27s):
We were the last people to board the plane

3 (14m 30s):
And yet in the Lounge it said the flight was still delayed. Oh

2 (14m 33s):
Well that’s weird. But I was in a Lounge once in Tijuana and we had time to spare.

3 (14m 38s):
I love the TJ Lounge by the

2 (14m 39s):
Way. It’s a great one. Yeah. So we are there. We are just had ordered another beer. We had probably another 10 minutes or so and it changed quickly from boarding to last call. Oh my gosh. So we forgot about the beers we ordered, we just jammed out of there. But when we got to the gate, it was not last call. We still had another like 20 minutes of boarding. Really 30 minutes of boarding.

3 (15m 2s):
So like we said, take that with a grain of salt. Even though they’re in the airport, their boards aren’t necessarily as up to date as what you’re gonna find on the outside. So just keep an eye on your flight and take with what they save with the grain of salt. A couple last little bit of the cons here before we get into the good stuff about it. Sometime these lounges could be really busy. I mean travel credit cards are a big industry right now and a lot of them are offering free Lounge access more particularly with priority pass, right? So they can be very, very busy. So even though they are a lot quieter and less secluded than having to sit outside with the general public, it could still be a little bit more crowded than you would hope.

3 (15m 42s):
And a couple times because of this that Brittanie and I have actually been in Amsterdam, one Lounge has specifically said they’re turning away priority pass members. Wow. And only accepting business class people in this Lounge but we’ve only encountered that in Amsterdam. And the same Lounge Amsterdam has like three lounges, but just that one is the one turning away priority past members jerks. I know. Buck ’em, right? So yeah

1 (16m 7s):
And you walk up there and they ask you like how you were invited when we say a priority pass and they’ll turn you away. But if someone has gotten invited by the airline cuz they booked business class, they let them in.

2 (16m 16s):
Wow. One time I went to a Lounge, I think it was in Portland or Seattle and they had a wait cuz it was too full and there was a lot of people trying to get in and they said it was gonna be maybe about 30 minutes, but I only ended up waiting like maybe 15 to 20.

1 (16m 32s):
Okay.

2 (16m 32s):
Not

3 (16m 33s):
Too bad. Not too bad. Yeah. And some of them again will definitely have a wait at that point

2 (16m 37s):
In time. Which is another con is if you’re really excited to use a Lounge but your layover is a little too short because maybe you’re in terminal A but the Lounge is in terminal D and it’s gonna take you a while to get over there and get back and you don’t have enough time. I always hate when that happens because I’m like, yes Lounge. And then,

3 (16m 58s):
And that happened recently to us in Amsterdam. Like I said, they had multiple lounges. The British Airways one was closed at that time. The one that was closest to the gates where we land was turning priority past people away. They had another Lounge that was available that was a little bit further, but it was like by the time we walk through that big airport and get there, how much time are we gonna have to pour? We have to turn back around and get that. And it was an annoying thing too. I was really disappointed that we didn’t get to use that. So those are some of the cons. Again, multiple ways to get Lounge access if you aren’t actually flying business class, which most people you know, there’s more quote seats than business class seats, right? So most people aren’t wait for you to get Lounge access. Again other than buying per time that you go, which I don’t necessarily recommend is to get credit cards.

3 (17m 43s):
Several credit cards that are offering Lounge access these days as part of their membership include the Capital One Venture X Chase Sapphire Reserve, which Kim you and I have that gives it to us. The City Prestige, the Platinum Card by American Express Business Platinum Card. Although I have looked at Platinum Card for individuals versus Business platinum, if I’m gonna be honest, platinum Card is better than Business Platinum. Just fyi, if you are a business person, Hilton Honors, Nario Bonvoy, brilliant card, US Bank Altitude Reserve card, and a couple other Hilton honors cards that they do have. So just look at their cheered categories. But those are some of the big name ones that’ll give you Lounge access if you’re interested.

1 (18m 27s):
And if you

2 (18m 27s):
Think about it with our card, for example, the Chase Sapphire Reserve, I think the annual fee is 500.

3 (18m 35s):
It’s 5 50, 5 55 50. When we first got it, it was four 50 or 4 75. They raised it my first year when I had it. But they gave me a complimentary renewal at my original rate. But since then it is the five 50, which seems really, really steep. But beyond the Lounge access, there’s lots of features that help pay for it,

2 (18m 54s):
Right? If you’re really wanting Priority Pass and it’s already 4 29 for the year membership and your Chase Sapphire Reserve annual, your fee is five 50. Chase also gives you 300, I believe

3 (19m 6s):
It’s statement credits every year, travel,

2 (19m 8s):
Trout redeeming travel. So if you book a flight for 300, they’ll not, they’ll give you that 300 back plus the free priority pass membership. So it is a pretty good deal. And

3 (19m 19s):
I feel with lots of the perks that they have, it really pays for itself. It is a very steep cost and a lot of people will think like, oh I don’t wanna pay that much. But if you’re gonna actually utilize the benefits traveling enough to for Lounge access. But even other things which we’re not gonna go into that cart specifically cuz we’re talking Lounge here, but pays for itself.

2 (19m 38s):
It really does. So

1 (19m 39s):
We’ve, you know, hinted about it, but what are the Lounge amenities that you get when you enter, let’s

3 (19m 45s):
Talk about highlife now let’s talk about the highlife.

1 (19m 47s):
Well one, you get wifi for you, that’s your,

2 (19m 50s):
That’s your number one highlight.

1 (19m 52s):
No, but like, you know, sometimes the airport wifi is really shitty

3 (19m 56s):
Poor shit and it’s maybe not secure, at least in here, you know you have secure wifi too. So there’s that. I

1 (20m 2s):
Mean the the highlight is definitely the free food and drinks. Yes. And typically the drinks are better than the food, but sometimes the food can be good. Yeah,

2 (20m 9s):
The, I mean if you think about, say you have one margarita 10 bucks and that’s cheap for,

1 (20m 15s):
You say that’s really cheap,

2 (20m 16s):
Let’s just say 10 bucks, you would have to have 40 margaritas a year to pay for the priority pass. So let’s say 20 round trip flights, there’s meth for you.

1 (20m 29s):
But

2 (20m 29s):
Anyway, the free drinks are amazing and when you have free drinks, you’re drinking more than one

3 (20m 34s):
Margarita. Not only that, I mean we’re talking alcohol of course. I mean you could have mixed drinks, margaritas, beer, wine, champagne, wine, soda, champagne. If you want coffee, it’s specialty coffee. All you can can drink all you want. Sodas, tea,

2 (20m 49s):
Sometimes water bottles.

3 (20m 51s):
Exactly. Water bottles or like spa water where it’s like cucumber flavored or lemon flavored and they actually have them in pitchers and stuff like that. So free drinks galore. One thing I just want to say too is I would wager to say better bathrooms. And by that I mean realistically to some degree they’re private. It’s not like even though they’re public bathrooms that everybody in the terminal is actually using. And so it’s a little bit more relaxation. And it amazes me how many times I go to big airports and in the terminal area, I’m surprised with how small the restrooms are in terms of like number of stalls or urinals or things like that that they have. And so here, you know, it’s a little bit better bathroom environment in these lounges.

2 (21m 34s):
And when we say better bathrooms, so your typical airport bathroom has several stalls. The open space on the edges of them. So you accidentally make eye contact with strangers. Please fit

3 (21m 44s):
In real awkward. I don’t wanna look somebody in the eye one while I’m doing that, let alone I’m about to get on a plane and they may be sitting next to me, right?

2 (21m 50s):
They’re like, I know what you just did and then you, you know, wash your hands, whatever get out. But a Lounge bathroom typically has those large doors,

1 (21m 60s):
Top to bottom space

2 (22m 2s):
On top. Bottom sides. They have maybe free lotion, mouthwash, really nice paper towels for your hand.

3 (22m 10s):
You know what, we didn’t say showers in those

2 (22m 13s):
Bathrooms. Sometimes. Sometimes,

3 (22m 14s):
Sometimes. But they sometimes have ’em showers. We’ve utilized it before.

1 (22m 19s):
Yeah, some of them do have showers, but at some of the locations you have to pay to use the shower.

3 (22m 23s):
That’s true. But at the Rome location we did not have to pay to use it that one time.

2 (22m 28s):
Yeah, bye.

1 (22m 29s):
It’s luxury because just imagine you’ve already been traveling, maybe your flight was 10 hours, you get to the airport, you just wanna refresh because you might have another leg later

2 (22m 39s):
Or maybe you had an easy day and you were go, go, go, went straight to the airport and couldn’t shower before your flight. You

1 (22m 44s):
Know who didn’t shower before the flight? The chick that came back from Africa.

3 (22m 48s):
Oh god,

2 (22m 49s):
That saving grace was the blank killer.

3 (22m 51s):
16 hours of full B sitting next. I’m terrible. So she could have used a Lounge bathroom for a shot.

2 (22m 57s):
She shouldn’t have gave her a pass.

3 (22m 59s):
I know I didn’t have it at that point in time. But you know, bathroom situation is clutch free drinks the wifi. Just to recap a little bit, food. Now I will say since Covid the food game and the lounges serious has been a little ugh ugh. They’re stepping it back up right now. That is for sure. And again, it really depends on the Lounge and where you’re at. A lot of them sometimes will have small bites and plates where you can serve yourself or during Covid they were like pre-packed and maybe it was like vegetables and hummus or cheese plates and some fruit, this stat and the other. And again, depending on the Lounge, maybe it’s a QR code where we’ve utilized it before, ordered food and they have it coming fresh out the kitchen in Dubai.

3 (23m 42s):
That one time like we had a full blown menu in the Lounge that we got to pick from, let alone what was available for everyone to just go up and help themselves. But then they had a specialty menu to order from. Yeah. And I just wanna reiterate everything we’re fucking talking about in here free. If you’re in the Lounge, your food is free, your drinks are free, you know, obviously be sure to tip of course. But free.

2 (24m 2s):
So I mentioned earlier you have to take 20 roundtrip flights with one marg in each leg. Now if you add food into that, you’re probably spending about 20 bucks of food plus your $10 mark. So now that’s 30 bucks. So now if you do that on five roundtrip flights on each leg, what does that equal? That equals 300 bucks. So you’re almost paying for your card now. Just five flights.

1 (24m 26s):
Yeah, that’s a good way to look out and bring your down

2 (24m 29s):
In the Lounge like drinks you eat probably more than $20 worth of food because you’re like, hell yeah, I’ll try it all.

3 (24m 35s):
Oh yeah, they a little appetizer with many sandwiches, soups, veggie plates, soups, plates

1 (24m 41s):
Are always

2 (24m 41s):
Good. Handful of m and ms.

1 (24m 43s):
Like they usually have a creamy basil tomato soup. That’s

2 (24m 47s):
Great. Gumbo once.

1 (24m 49s):
Oh really? That sounds really good.

3 (24m 51s):
And minus the actual like real food that they do have. I’m glad you kind of mentioned the m and ms cuz it made me think, you know, I love, like if I’m in the Lounge and all I want is a beer and nothing harder or anything like that, like a bourbon or anything like that, they’ll have pretzels and like peanuts and just, it’s not like, ooh, I’m getting it in a little bag. Like they’re giving me on the plane like they’re good pretzels, good salted peanuts, maybe like even a cashew of some sorts or something. Right? So it goes great with my beer. You’re sitting there snacking and all makes it all better by knowing that the seats that I’m sitting in are way more comfortable seats than what’s out in the terminal also. Oh yeah. I mean lots of different variety. You could have a true seat, you could have a desk.

3 (25m 31s):
Ouch. They even have recliners depending on Oh yeah, the Lounge and location within the Lounge.

2 (25m 37s):
Even had them bring out a lap tray while I was on a recliner,

1 (25m 42s):
A tray.

3 (25m 43s):
So you didn’t have to sit up and it’s just coming out here and like, let me just see. That’s great. Yeah,

1 (25m 49s):
They also typically have outlets at every seating station and so you don’t have to search for an outlet or worry about in the middle of the airport is there gonna be outlets to charge your phone. Like they usually have a legit setup so you can plug in your phone or use a USB so that you have that as well.

2 (26m 3s):
And also that even if the Lounge is crowded because of the way the seats are spread out and they’re bigger, you’re not gonna feel as cramped up as you are if every seat was

3 (26m 13s):
Filled. Oh yeah. Sitting in the terminal waiting to board at the gate. Yeah, no that’s a terrible experience. So, very good point on that. Even though it is crowded, you do feel the, the space that is granted to you versus being outside the

2 (26m 25s):
Best lounges are definitely the ones where you can order off the menu.

3 (26m 29s):
Those are definitely the good ones. Oh so good. So I mean that’s what Lounge Life has in store for you. Free food. Free drinks. And again, let’s not get ourselves some of the food and certain lounges is better than the others. Right. You know, so I want to throw out that disclaimer cuz sometimes you can’t. Oh yeah, I know. But sometimes you can be like a little underwhelmed with the food. Let’s not put yourself Yeah, yeah, for sure. But if you want drinks, like you’re always going to get that.

2 (26m 53s):
The other thing about Lounge, Life just, you know, it has all of these amenities, it has all of these perks, but the feeling of going into the Lounge makes your trip that much more special. Where you’re just like, let’s go to the Lounge. Sometimes I even go early to the airport just to experience the Lounge. Like before I would get there like 40 minutes before the flight takes off, now I’m like, three hours, no problem. And you get in there and you just, it makes you feel like you’re taking a luxurious trip. Even if you’re gonna be in coach in the back of the plane in the next hour.

3 (27m 25s):
You know it’s really disappointing. As ever since. And terminal two in San Diego, they’ve put in a Lounge that is eligible through Priority pass Brittanie and I have not flown out of terminal two. Now we talked earlier about, oh terminal hopping the problem with the San Diego airport as it stands now and they’re actually redoing terminal one, which I cannot wait for it to be done, but the terminals they touch, but there’s no way to walk inside from one to the next. Right. And then that Lounge in terminal two is past security. So I’d have to go into security, get outta security, go into terminal one and go again. So I haven’t been able to use it because most of the time we fly Southwest and Southwest Terminal one and it is so fucking frustrating that I have a home Lounge and just the way our airport is set up that I can’t utilize it quite yet.

3 (28m 11s):
Otherwise I would be doing the same thing going three hours early. Yeah. Gimme my drinks, let me get some food and relax. So I’m, I’m stuck at this point, you know, with lounges outside of our home Lounge. But when Terminal one is redone, I’m hoping there’s good lounges on priority pass with that.

2 (28m 26s):
Nice.

1 (28m 27s):
It makes layovers go so much quicker. Like usually when you’re like I have a five hour layer, oh what am I gonna do now it’s like, oh I’m gonna go to the Lounge. That’s

2 (28m 36s):
What I’m gonna do Now I’m like, I leave a 45 minute layoff. What the hell? And kid.

3 (28m 40s):
I know. I know. Seriously. Seriously.

2 (28m 43s):
I’m kind of bummed because Austen doesn’t have a Lounge in its airport. Sucks. More airports need lounges. I’m like, I’m gonna drive over to Houston, three hours of Whitney go there, go to the Lounge there. But we’re recording this way earlier than it’s actually going to air. And I have a trip coming up very soon. We’re flying to Mexico City and we have a layover in Houston and both of those places have lounges. I’m so

3 (29m 6s):
Excited. Well are you flying into Houston Hobby or George W. Bush?

2 (29m 10s):
I don’t remember but I have checked and it is the one with

3 (29m 13s):
The lounges. Okay then I think you’re flying into George W. Bush. No, Javi doesn’t have it. Bush

2 (29m 18s):
Does. Yeah cuz we’re going international so

3 (29m 20s):
There you go. Hell yeah. Nice. Good for you. That’s

2 (29m 23s):
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2 (30m 31s):
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3 (31m 29s):
Be sure to head over to Travel Squad Podcast dot com to download your very own comprehensive travel itinerary today. Well we talked about the amenities and the luxuries that are bestowed upon us of the Lounge. Let’s talk about a few of our favorites that we’ve actually got to experience during Lounge Life.

1 (31m 47s):
Well we’ve all been to the V I P Lounge in the TJ airport.

3 (31m 52s):
TJ is Tijuana just in case you don’t know,

2 (31m 54s):
We’ve been there many times. Yeah

3 (31m 56s):
It’s almost like a home airport to us now because, well not for you anymore that’s you’re in Austin. But for us, when we fly within Mexico, I’m not flying from San Diego into Mexico, I’m going into Tijuana and that airport is closer to us than the San Diego we have.

2 (32m 9s):
So I remember the first time we all went together and they have the sign v i p and it’s like on a greenery wall and we took pictures by it. Yeah, I’m just like living it up with Lounge like

1 (32m 21s):
Yeah they have really good free drinks, margaritas, small bites, they have sandwiches and their chips are actually really good too.

2 (32m 30s):
I would say tip immediately because they can be kind of slow and maybe it’s just cultural or, or maybe short-staffed, that’s probably a piece of it. But tip when you first get there and you can order double drinks. So we always order two each because it can kind of take long. But I’ve gone for breakfast, midday quesadillas, mok.

3 (32m 50s):
Oh yeah, no they got good stuff in the v i p Lounge at the Tijuana airport. And I like your strategy of what you’re saying, tip the person first and obviously give them maybe a little something extra afterwards depending on how much you utilize them and what you order. But you’ll be more inclined to be like, oh yeah, I’m giving them a tip now and they’re gonna wanna take care of you cuz they think they’re gonna get more and you probably will give ’em more. Right. If they give you good service you’re gonna wanna reciprocate and give them something back in return. But very solid tip. And I think that goes to all the lounges really. It’s like tip them first and see what happens

2 (33m 21s):
Afterwards. Yeah because if, if you are on that short like one hour layover and you do wanna get everything out of it that you can order, double tip them first. So Mexico City, I’ve done, I’ve done a few different lounges there, I can’t remember all the names of them but Lounge 19 particularly sticks out because this was one where they had a menu you could order off of and it was amazing Mexican food and we had the recliner chairs with the lap tray and the giant thing of beer. It was awesome. And that was like at six in the morning. Holy

3 (33m 53s):
Shit. I feel like I remember, and I’m not looking at the priority pass now, but I felt like a lot of the Mexico City lounges are open 24 7 if not 24 7. They’re pretty much open like 20 hours a day and only closed for like that small little window. And I think the Tijuana Lounge is open 24 7 cuz ironically enough, a lot of the flights out of Tijuana leave like at 12:00 AM 1:00 AM 2:00 AM stuff like that. So it’s open 24 7.

2 (34m 19s):
There’s another Lounge in Mexico that I went to. This was probably the most unique experience I’ve had because the airport in Vera Cruz is very small. Like they only open the security line when they know a flight is about to happen. Oh wow. Yeah, we had to wait in the outside security area until it got an hour before.

3 (34m 37s):
Oh that sucked.

2 (34m 38s):
So we got dropped off a little bit early, had to wait a bit, but once it opened we went in, they had a Lounge there, which blew me away. Tiny little room. But the AC was blasting and they had so many snacks and beer and great seats. That was a good one.

1 (34m 54s):
We mentioned that in Rome they had showers and I remember that Lounge had pasta as well actually pretty good. So that was a really nice Lounge, I

3 (35m 5s):
Remember it was large and it was spacious and I really did enjoy that Lounge in Rome. And one of the few places that we’ve encountered that actually offered the free showers and like we had mentioned earlier, some places that have showers, they’ll charge you maybe like 10 bucks to do it if it’s not included. The Rome showers were included at that Lounge that we had utilized. But all around great Lounge, I mean Italy’s known for its pasta and here’s the Lounge, come in and clutch with the good pasta. Shout out to the Rome Lounge on that one.

2 (35m 35s):
I have a special place in my heart for the Cabo v i p Lounge because I probably spent like six hours there.

1 (35m 41s):
Oh my god,

2 (35m 42s):
That’s such a long time. We, this was the bachelorette party that we were on. There was a lot of us that were flying on the same flight back to San Diego. And so we had a lot of time to kill and the airport was crowded, there was nowhere to sit. So I already knew I was going to the Lounge, right. But everyone else actually paid to get in and we had our own little section and this Lounge we could see it get really crowded. People leave the next wave comes in and we saw it all. We

1 (36m 8s):
Ate well if you’re there for six hours you got all that time.

2 (36m 11s):
We had chargers, we had beers, we had chips, they had a few menu items like Mexican lasagna. It was, it was

1 (36m 19s):
A great experience. Good. One Lounge that we’ve all been to and all really enjoyed was the Dubai Lounge. Ooh

3 (36m 25s):
Yes. And there’s multiple lounges in the Dubai. As I was saying earlier, obviously you’re gonna have your airline lounges. Major airlines clearly fly in and out of Dubai, but a lot of chain lounges that were actually in there also. So like there’s multiple terminals and in each terminal there’s like of the two main chains that they have, each one of them has their own in there. I’m trying to remember which one we went in. But when you’re in the app and look at them like it’s Dubai, everything’s opulent, you know you’re gonna come across a good one. It was an amazing experience. Showers in there were free also. So another place where the showers were free and this was where we got to order off the menu. Oh yeah. As well. Obviously they had to serve yourself of what they had just for everybody in the Lounge.

3 (37m 8s):
They had a lot of good stuff. Yes they did. But then the menu stepped it up. Obviously it’s like an menu to order. Right. Great pastas, great wines. And it’s not like, oh you know a lot of places when they give you free, they don’t give you high end stuff. Well you’re in Dubai here, they were giving you good quality liquor and stuff like that top shelf stuff.

2 (37m 25s):
We order and we ordered drinks at the bar. But when we ordered the pasta, they brought out a little glass of wine with it. It was the tiniest little wine glass I’ve ever seen. And it was so cute.

3 (37m 37s):
It was like, oh you got pasta. Here’s your wine with it too. Yeah. Already included.

1 (37m 41s):
We also all went to the London Lounge and remember Jamal had a freak out in this Lounge. Oh well

2 (37m 47s):
I didn’t. We probably spent like six hours in this Lounge.

1 (37m 50s):
We had breakfast and Bo. Yeah, I mean this, we stayed for two meal a

2 (37m 54s):
Hole. We went Dubai, London and then we had a long layover.

1 (37m 57s):
Yeah.

3 (37m 59s):
And if you want to talk, it was a freak out Brittanie. It was. This was when we were leaving Dubai. This was from our Lebanon, Dubai trip,

2 (38m 8s):
January 2020s.

3 (38m 10s):
And this was the startup Covid had already locked stuff down in China where we were at in Dubai. It was Chinese New Year’s. Obviously it’s Chinese, new Year’s everywhere, but a lot of Chinese tourists were there. And obviously at that point it was really just in China.

2 (38m 23s):
They just locked down Hong Kong.

3 (38m 25s):
Yep. And I am telling you, and you guys know it too, don’t say he didn’t. Yeah. This person in this Lounge straight up had Covid. Oh yeah, he had covid. He was coughing up a storm. You could tell he was feverish and clamming. He

2 (38m 38s):
Was extremely sick.

1 (38m 40s):
Yeah. He shouldn’t have been in

3 (38m 42s):
That pub and he was sitting right by us. I’m surprised we didn’t catch it then. He for sure had covid. I’m,

2 (38m 46s):
I think maybe we did. We’ve been exposed to covid so many times and who knows if we got it or not. But we’re one of those.

3 (38m 53s):
Yeah, that’s word.

1 (38m 54s):
But anyway, you dialed it at a pack

2 (38m 56s):
Cow

3 (38m 57s):
For sure. Yeah. Because we didn’t know what was going on then. And then all you hear is body count, body count, body count coming out of China. And obviously that was early on when no one really kind of knew. And then I’m telling you, this guy was sitting one table away from us just hacking up a look.

2 (39m 10s):
Yeah, he never stopped coughing. No,

1 (39m 12s):
But there are other things to

3 (39m 15s):
Do. Yeah. But it was a great Lounge. I just want, I think,

1 (39m 17s):
Yeah, great. But there are other things to do that are included in the priority path that aren’t lounges. And we’ve kind of talked about it a little bit that there sometimes are food options through priority pass. Jamal in this a little bit earlier, but in the San Francisco airport there are two food locations.

3 (39m 33s):
Well two food the that we’ve used, there’s more. But in the terminals that we were in and close

1 (39m 39s):
And they’re actually pretty close to each other. So we always hit up both. Like we always go to one order, he gets some food there and then the second one that we go to, it’s like a more of a seafood place. They have like these lobster rolls and the lobster rolls are pretty pricey. But when it’s you get 28 bucks a person, hell yeah. Hell yeah. And a tip for you guys is to make sure you’re using your full $28. If you’re not using it, it just goes to wait.

2 (40m 5s):
So get some food to

3 (40m 6s):
Go look food to go get a bottled water, get a bag of chips, something like that. Right. I mean obviously don’t spend it to go over if you don’t want to go over, but you’re right. If I have 28 bucks and Brittanie has 28 bucks cuz I use her as a guest and we each use something that’s 14. Well now we’ve lost another 28 bucks. Well I could get bottled water, I could get chips, I could get a candy bar, I could, you know if that place is selling magazines by a magazine because we saw one place in the Portland airport where they were doing stuff like that and you could have utilized it there.

1 (40m 36s):
So yeah, the Portland airport that actually had a really cool setup. It wasn’t a restaurant, it was like this market and bar area. So we were able to go to the bar. They had some seating areas, you’re able to order drinks but then they also have like a little pantry around it where you can pick up like salads or sandwiches or chips. We got two sandwiches, four bags of chip, a chocolate croissant, pokey sticks. And we both got a drink and we were still under by $3. Oh,

3 (41m 3s):
Oh yeah. And then we were having to run total and we’re like, well how much do we have left? And we’re like, well yeah, I want my snacks for the plane, I want to utilize it. Like it may sound cheap but you know I definitely did want it in Seattle. I mean I know you mentioned you used a Lounge there. The last time we were in Seattle, the Lounge was closed at that time. But they had one of the restaurants that was included and it was right by our gate that we were taking off from. It was an amazing Asian like Vietnamese place. We had a nice cold noodle dish. I love Vietnamese cold noodle dishes. But we also got some fucking spring rolls that may be some of the best airport food that we’ve actually ever had. Like one, they were egg rolls, not spring rolls.

3 (41m 44s):
Oh excuse me. Egg rolls. And when we actually ate them on the plane, we both kind of looked at each other and we were like what the fuck? So good. Good. Oh yeah,

2 (41m 54s):
I think the restaurants are great because if you’re traveling alone, like the lounges lose a little bit of their flash. Obviously the drinks and food and all that are still there. But you wanna be there with someone else. So the restaurants are great. You still get the benefits of the free stuff. But you don’t have to like be sad because you’re not cheersing with someone in the Lounge

3 (42m 14s):
Who wants to talk about our Denver restaurant experience and mention what exactly that we did. Because ironically and there, here’s one of the things where priority pass kinda lets you down in terms of like Denver’s a big airport, there’s no Lounge but they have a restaurant in there, the mountain tap house where you can get beers as well as food included with that $28.

2 (42m 35s):
This is a place where they were strict on the one guest. Yes. And there were three of us. So we ended up just trying to stay under the two person amount. I

3 (42m 43s):
Think you didn’t have years at that

2 (42m 44s):
Point. Right. And so I think we were a little bit over but really great Philly cheesecake.

1 (42m 49s):
Yeah. So we did get Philly cheesecakes but we were hungry

2 (42m 52s):
And it was a long line. So it took a

3 (42m 54s):
Long time because it’s the only Lounge at the Denver airport and everyone using the priority pass one to come in and it was a good place to eat on top of that too in generalities.

1 (43m 3s):
And we, we come in really hungry and we saw that people were leaving food behind, like they weren’t touching like parts of their plate

2 (43m 9s):
And we’re already sitting down at our table.

1 (43m 12s):
So maybe one of us stole a chicken, chicken tender off of someone else’s plate when

3 (43m 17s):
They walked like a full untouched chicken tender. We’re like, dude, how can they let this go to waste? I mean we arm arm

2 (43m 22s):
Might’ve reached over and pulled it onto our table.

3 (43m 25s):
No judgment. No judgment that actually occurred at that location. It

2 (43m 30s):
Was just sitting there looking so good.

1 (43m 33s):
No,

3 (43m 33s):
I think there might have been two but we only had the balls to reach up and grab one.

2 (43m 37s):
Even whispered like they’re gonna leave that

1 (43m 40s):
They’re

2 (43m 40s):
Fucking hungry as they’re getting up. We’re like, they’re really gonna leave that

3 (43m 44s):
They did. Their loss is our game.

1 (43m 47s):
Could you imagine if someone else was watching us?

3 (43m 51s):
I mean they had to catch that on camera. It’s an airport. I, you know that’s on camera.

2 (43m 55s):
Someone probably did see it. I wanna see it. There were a

3 (43m 57s):
Lot of people I wanna see if one day we’ll end up on the internet like on YouTube. Like these dumb fucks stealing somebody else’s food as they leave at the airport. But yeah, I mean so again we highlighted a few of the, the lounges that are of remembrance to us so to speak. But again, the Lounge Life is the great life. If there isn’t a Lounge or even if there is some airports again do have the food locations. Every location that we’ve encountered, at least through priority Pass when they have the restaurants, it’s the $28 per person you plus your guest. Now keep in mind if you’re traveling alone and don’t have have somebody to register, they’re not gonna give you the 56 bucks. They’re not gonna give you the extra 28. So do keep that in mind.

3 (44m 37s):
But other amenities, we mentioned the minute suites, which is the hour in the private room, but a lot of other locations that we’ve seen, you know, a lot of places and airports where they have the massages that they give and things like that. Sometimes if there isn’t a Lounge or even if there is those massages are on there, maybe you’ll get like a 15 or 30 minute like back and neck massage. We didn’t get to utilize that the last time we were in LA flying out of la. But they had that also, there’s also lounges where people can go play like video games on big screens at airports. Again, had that in LA but ironically like we didn’t have time and where we were at in the international airport, those lounges and facilities were so far from where we were taken off that were just like, it doesn’t make sense to go do it.

3 (45m 25s):
But those are there and some of the other amenities that get thrown on with it.

2 (45m 28s):
All right.

1 (45m 30s):
Questions

2 (45m 31s):
Of the week. And we do have a couple of important questions here today. Question number one, is it rude to sleep in an airport? Lounge? No,

3 (45m 47s):
I don’t think so. At Ball,

1 (45m 48s):
No. Definitely not. Like you have enough private, it’s not private but there’s enough space for you where you’re not gonna be bothering anyone else. And sometimes they even have like those reclining chairs that are just lending themselves to be slept in.

2 (46m 0s):
I don’t think it’s rude to sleep anywhere in an airport or while traveling someone even, oh no that was me. I, I fell asleep on someone in shuffled on their

3 (46m 10s):
Airport. Why You about to say someone slept on you. But yeah, it was you on them.

2 (46m 12s):
It was me and I don’t think that was fruit. No, the lady was very nice. So no sleeping is encouraged.

1 (46m 21s):
Yeah, I just took a three hour flight, less than three hour flight to visit Kim here in Austin. And I had work at the night shift before 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM had a flight so really didn’t get much sleep. So on the airplane

2 (46m 34s):
I just

1 (46m 35s):
Slept like when you’re traveling it lends to be exhausting. Just traveling itself. I was extra exhausted cause I had work the night before, but you could sleep anywhere and if there was a Lounge, you could find me in that Lounge sleeping.

3 (46m 47s):
Yeah, all is fair in the Lounge to sleep. I think it’s different if you just lay on the floor in the middle of somebody or by somebody. But if you’re sitting on the chair, just want to sit back, close your eyes. Definitely not at all. Question number two, coming in hot, what has been your best airport Lounge experience? Ooh, that’s a really good question. Kim, why don’t you hit this one first.

2 (47m 9s):
Well, it’s between Dubai and this Mexico City airport we had with the menu and the reclining chairs and the lap

3 (47m 17s):
Table. Lounge 19.

2 (47m 18s):
Lounge 19. I think it’s because the food quality’s there and you know, there’s seeds, all the other stuff that’s there, but the menu with the food, it really makes it that much better. I

1 (47m 28s):
Will say the international lounges have better food than the domestic lounges. Yeah,

3 (47m 33s):
Definitely agreed on that one. I’m trying to remember if we’ve bitten to Lounge 19 when we were in Mexico City. And again, there’s several lounges and I know we’ve like hopped, like you said, they’re close. So, and that we were flying out late that night. So tough to distinguish in your memory is a little bit more recent than mine of your experience in Mexico City. But as it stands now I’m gonna go with Dubai. The Dubai Lounge experience was maybe one of the best experiences that we had.

1 (47m 60s):
I’d probably say Rome. We had a little pasta, had a little coffee, had a shower, good coffee. It was really refreshing. It was amazing.

2 (48m 8s):
You really can’t go wrong with a Lounge in general.

1 (48m 10s):
You really

2 (48m 11s):
Can’t. Well, Squatty, thank you so much for tuning into our episode this week. Hope you get out there and get to enjoy some Lounge Life. If you do, tag us in your adventures out there on Instagram at Travel Squad Podcast, and send us in questions for next week’s episode.

3 (48m 26s):
If you found the information this episode to be useful or if you thought we were just playing funny, please be sure to share it with a friend that would enjoy it too. And as always, please subscribe, rate and review our podcast and tune in every travel Tuesday for new episodes.

1 (48m 40s):
Stay tuned for next Week’s episode. We have some more amazing adventures and tips in store for you. Bye bye

3 (48m 46s):
Bye.