Are Airport Lounges Still Worth It?

Asian airline lounges are much, much better than North American ones. That’s my experience. Not every lounge on earth. Just the ones I’ve actually sat in.

Empty armchairs in an airport lounge — Empty lounge seating (Lufthansa, Frankfurt). Not one of mine. Photo: W.baermann / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5.

The card lounges

I’ve had poor ones. The Amex Centurion lounge at LAX, and the one in Seattle. Food was poor. Service was poor. Both of them.

The staff had no customer service at all. As soon as you come in, they direct you to an empty seat. Seats get occupied lightning fast.

There’s a time limit on how long you can stay, too. I won’t guess the minutes.

If I’m being pointed at a seat the second I walk in, and there’s a limit on how long I can stay, I’d rather be at the gate. The gate has chairs.

My first time at the Centurion lounge at Hong Kong airport, and I was not impressed.

Empty seats at an airport gate, with a plane outside — The gate is underrated. Photo: Angelo DeSantis / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

The ones I still walk to

Then there’s the other kind. An airline’s own lounge, on a long flight, before the cabin rather than instead of a chair at the gate.

STARLUX’s lounge in Taipei is that. They opened it in February 2025. I called it a lounge they’re finally proud of, after the old cramped room they used to have. No line out the door in that caption. Just relief.

At Haneda I had my last meal in Japan in the ANA lounge. I won’t invent the menu. I remember it was a meal, sat down, before the flight. That’s the job.

Plaza Premium First at the Macau airport is newer. First time there. They serve EVA and STARLUX first and business class, and they’d opened the February before I posted about it.

Skyview sits at the very far opposite of the Cathay gates.

Same test I used for what makes a long-haul business flight actually good. Did it leave me rested, or did it spend the hour I was trying to save?

Rows of empty seats in a quiet terminal — Quiet is the whole point. Photo: Nic McPhee / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

That’s the gap. STARLUX in Taipei and ANA at Haneda were somewhere to sit before a long flight. The North American card lounges I’ve used were a seat you get pointed at, and a limit on how long you can stay.

Walk to the lounge when it’s the airline’s own room and you can sit down. Otherwise sit at the gate. You’ll board the same plane, and you’ll have sat down already.