Few places feel as engineered to remind you of your social standing as the airport. Each of its protocols, from check-in to security to boarding, imposes a hierarchy. Are you Executive Platinum? Premier? Do you have T.S.A. PreCheck? Global Entry?

The peak of that pecking order has long been the airport lounge, which allows elite passengers a cushioned escape from the tumult of the terminal. Now, even as airline stocks have tumbled and ticket demand slows, American airlines and credit-card companies are reaching for an ever-higher level of luxury and exclusivity — particularly when it comes to food.

At the year-old Delta One Lounge at Kennedy International Airport, it’s common to hear an employee ask passengers, “Would you like an ounce of caviar before your flight?”

At the lounge, which includes a full-service brasserie with leather banquettes and gold finishes, the menu of complimentary offerings features sirloin steak with red wine jus and salmon sashimi with blood orange ponzu. (The caviar will run you an extra $85, or 8,500 miles.)

Amble around the rest of the 40,000-square-foot space and you might spy Japanese cheesecakes and Earl Grey lemon shortbread cookies peacocking behind a glass pastry case. Or a spa-goer nursing a pineapple, lemon and butterfly pea flower juice after a massage. Or a bartender pouring a nip of rare Japanese whiskey at the gold-lined Art Deco bar.

To enter, you’ll need to flash a business-class ticket for a long-haul flight on Delta or a partner airline. (A one-way business-class ticket on Delta to Los Angeles on a recent Friday cost $1,599. To get your money’s worth, you could linger in the Delta One Lounge at Los Angeles International Airport, which has a sushi bar and chefs who make fresh pasta on site.)

Airport lounges were once pit stops where business travelers could grab a paper cup of coffee and a handful of wasabi peas before a flight. Now they dangle wood-fired pizza ovens, seafood towers, sushi bars and espresso martinis on tap.

Next week, lounges operated by American Express will introduce menus by the award-winning chefs Kwame Onwuachi, Mashama Bailey, Michael Solomonov and Sarah Grueneberg.

The escalating opulence of lounge food — and the mediocrity of the other offerings in airports — is a sign of just how wide the American wealth gap has grown, said Cecilia L. Ridgeway, a professor emeritus of social sciences at Stanford University.

Airline travel itself used to be a symbol of luxury. As more people fly and it becomes less expensive, she said, the wealthy still want to feel distinguished from the general public in visible ways. “We need more signs and symbols that you are doing OK, that people are seeing it, that you are moving up.”

Over the last several years, Delta, American Airlines and United Airlines have opened separate lounges for international business class travelers with more restricted access than their standard lounges, which are open to anyone who buys a membership or has a certain credit card or frequent-flier status.

In a time of economic uncertainty, one thing airlines know is that well-heeled travelers are still spending, said Heather Garboden, the chief customer officer at American Airlines. She said American and other carriers see “strong demand when it comes to our most premium and most loyal travelers. So that is something that we are focused on.”

And what those premium customers care most about, she said, is distinctive food.

How distinctive? I made a quick tour of seven of the country’s glossiest new airport lounges, and learned that the quality of food more or less resembles what you’d find at a wedding buffet — ranging from lackluster to surprisingly satisfying.

A salad of radicchio and roasted peaches at the United Polaris Lounge in Houston was cloying, yet the French toast at the American Express Centurion Lounge in LaGuardia Airport had a shatteringly crisp exterior and subtle sweetness that help explain why it has an online following.

But taste may matter less than the fact that the food is free, fancy and makes the lounge guest feel important. The sit-down restaurant at American Airlines’ Chelsea Lounge in Kennedy Airport feels like a lavish library — hushed, with lots of gold and glass.

“We like exclusivity,” said Laura Parkey, a luxury real estate adviser from Marco Island, Fla., who was eating there before flying in business class to Switzerland for a river cruise. She sipped Moët & Chandon Champagne and eyed the pommes Anna with caviar at the next table.

Compared with the terminal outside, she said, “the food is better, and you don’t have to deal with the masses.”

These luxe touches are nothing new for international airlines like Emirates and Cathay Pacific, which for years have accessorized their lounges with dim sum, cocktail pairings and cigar bars.

Their American counterparts have only recently approached that caliber. But today, adding a full-service restaurant has become “a base-line part of the expectation” for lounges in the United States, said Aaron McMillan, the managing director of hospitality programs for United Airlines, one of the first American carriers to offer an in-lounge restaurant.

Competition is intensifying as credit card companies enter the lounge game, unburdened by the logistical challenges and costs of running an airline and seeking to attract frequent travelers as cardholders.

The Chase Sapphire Lounge in LaGuardia Airport — accessible to those who have the Chase Sapphire Reserve card (with an annual fee of $795), the J.P. Morgan Reserve card ($795) or the Ritz-Carlton Credit Card ($450) — looks like a chic hotel lobby. Its centerpiece is a circular bar with purple velvet chairs; the cocktail menu comes from the popular New York bar Apotheke, and the baristas can make you a sea-salt-and-oat-milk latte. Each table has QR codes for guests to order gnocchi with zucchini and mint, or marinated beets with whipped feta — both created by Fairfax, an all-day cafe in Manhattan.

The Capital One Landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington has a full-service tapas bar created by the chef José Andrés. Crisp jamón croquetas and gambas al ajillo with a pleasant kick are made to order. Negronis and espresso martinis are available on tap.

While most airport food comes from the same roster of approved suppliers, Mr. Andrés gets his Iberian ham and picos from the purveyors who supply his restaurants. Each of these vendors had to be approved by airport security, with background checks and X-ray scans. The 1,200-square-foot kitchen was custom-built to Mr. Andrés’s specifications. One of his company’s culinary directors, Patri Blanco, works at the lounge full time.

“If there was a budget, I was not aware of it,” said Charisse Grey, the company’s senior director of research and development.

The lavish menus in these lounges speak to a new class of affluent travelers, said Ben Schlappig, the founder of the travel website One Mile at a Time.

“It used to be that lounges were thought of as stuffy and for business travelers,” he said. Today, the clientele “skews much younger, and the increased focus on food and drink and partnering with cool brands is part of that.”

A Capital One spokeswoman contended that her company’s lounges were more approachable for everyday travelers, who don’t need a first-class ticket to experience the luxury amenities — just a Capital One Venture X card, which costs $395 a year. But at lounges with that easier accessibility, customers often wait in long lines, or are denied entry because the spaces get overcrowded.

This has prompted some credit card companies to tighten lounge access, just as airlines have. Capital One, which currently allows cardholders to bring in a certain number of guests without charge, will charge for most additional visitors starting next year. This year, Chase increased the annual fee for its Sapphire Reserve credit card by more than $200.

Mitch Radakovich, a data scientist from Cincinnati who was spending his layover en route to Copenhagen in the Capital One Lounge at Kennedy Airport, said it felt almost too good to be true to enjoy such amenities — cheesemongers who will customize a charcuterie board, and freshly baked bagels from Ess-a-bagel — with just a $395-a-year credit card.

“I’m sure the price will go up,” he said. “It’s an interesting math problem: exclusivity versus luxury.”

With all the money being poured into elite lounges, he wondered what airlines and airports were doing for the average traveler, who has to contend with shrinking onboard amenities, long security lines and thronged terminals. “I used to fly Cincinnati to Atlanta, and now soda isn’t even an option — it’s coffee or water,” he said. “The overall quality has decreased for the general public.”

In interviews, airline executives touted various upgrades they’ve made for economy passengers, including more legroom, better snacks and screens at every seat. But some of those perks still come with a fee.

Even at the luxury level, money can always buy something nicer. At the Chase lounge in LaGuardia, for $2,200 to $3,000 more, you can book a suite with an exclusive menu of caviar and blinis and a seafood tower with king crab, shrimp and tinned fish.

The monetization of every aspect of air travel could be seen as egalitarian, Dr. Ridgeway said, since travelers can choose whether they want to splurge for luxury or economize.

But the reality is that not everyone has that choice.

“Equal opportunities for unequal outcomes,” she said. “That is the American bargain.”

A correction was made on July 21, 2025: An earlier version of this article, using information from a company representative, misstated the annual fee for the J.P. Morgan Reserve card. It is $795, not $695.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5753020&forum_id=2/en-en/#49119177)

>Airline travel itself used to be a symbol of luxury. As more people fly and it becomes less expensive, she said, the wealthy still want to feel distinguished from the general public in visible ways. “We need more signs and symbols that you are doing OK, that people are seeing it, that you are moving up.”

it's quite the opposite. that they made the regular air travel experience so miserable, that people seek basic dignity

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5753020&forum_id=2/en-en/#49119208)

I don't understand how any of this shit is supposed to work though. Seems impossible to make money.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5753020&forum_id=2/en-en/#49119355)