Airport lounges have gone from bad to worse

Travelling by air could be stressful. Catching a flight involves standing in queues, going through checks and if you are unlucky, long delays. After checking in your luggage and passing the security check, all you want is a peaceful and comfortable place to sit and relax or work. You might even want to have a good meal. This is not always possible as the seats near the boarding gates and restaurants are taken. You might also encounter some noisy folks.

Many years ago, lounges were introduced at airports. To get access to these lounges, one needed a membership, premium credit card or qualifying airline ticket (business / first class). In return, he/she got a quiet place with comfortable sofas and good food to pass his time and complete some work peacefully. The lounge was an exclusive place where only the affluent could enter. It was an aspirational place.


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Of late though, things have changed. These lounges have become accessible to many more people and as a result, see long queues for entry. With just about everyone who walks into the airport getting access, lounges are losing their appeal. The last time I sat in a lounge was in June this year. It was pretty crowded and getting a good place to sit took time. With many people around, it was certainly not a peaceful or exclusive place. Some people were talking loudly on their phones, children were shouting and running around and only a few of the dishes on the food menu were palatable. What's more, pigeons were flying in and out of the place. All in all, the experience was not pleasant let alone premium.


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With airports getting larger with more places to sit, I have quit using lounges and just opt for a corner seat with a charging point at hand. The number of restaurants and options available at food courts is also healthy.

Why has this happened? One of the reasons is that air traffic is increasing massively. Most fliers use low-cost airlines that do not serve meals on the flight. Food is priced exorbitantly at the airport as well. Those who have access to a lounge, get access to a buffet at a nominal price. As a result, the lounges drew crowds.

Credit card companies started offering complimentary entry into airport lounges. Many new cardholders got access to lounges even with cards that do not have an annual fee. Most people who fly have a credit card and with banks offering lounge access so easily, almost anyone walking into the airport could use the lounge. This made the cardholders happy, and banks, which were coming out of the COVID-19 slowdown were getting business. According to data from the Reserve Bank of India, over the last 5 years till March 2023, the number of credit cards had almost doubled to 85 million.

The number of people who visited lounges rose from 3.5 million in the financial year ended 2022 to 8.5 million in the financial year ended 2023. Dreamfolks, which claims to be India’s largest airport services intermediary, claims that 2.73 million people used lounges through their services in the July–September 2023 quarter, and 2.63 million people used lounges in April–June 2023. That is a total of 5.36 million people accessing the lounges using credit cards, operating on the Dreamfolks platform in six months.

However, not many of these cardholders are actually using credit cards to spend money, while the banks have to foot the bill for offering complimentary lounge access. It costs them ~Rs. 800 per person for domestic lounge access and ~Rs. 1,500 for international lounge access. Therefore, banks are now planning to cut lounge benefits. They are planning to offer spend-based access to their cardholders. This way, they hope to cut lounge usage by 20%. They also hope that lounges will start getting their premium feel back.

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Lounges had become like langar's, with most of them there for the free food. With anybody with a credit card (heck, even some Debit Cards) being allowed entry, it got too crowded for its own good.

I have come across people sitting with their feet up on the opposite sofa as if its a bus depot. It's a good thing that banks are finally cutting back on this freebie.

Lounges at least in India's domestic terminals are not worth the hassle IMHO. I prefer, like Aditya above, to find a seat near the gate and read a magazine. Once in a rare while I visit the Air India or Vistara lounge which as of now has entry based on ticket/frequent flyer status. On international legs I use those lounges which offer a shower & a private toilet - that is real value IMHO. For a lot of folks still relatively new to the whole flying business access to a lounge is a new experience and has a novelty value. In a decade this excitement will pass.

It is a legit langar service. While in Bangalore we have Zero Eight Zero, which is saner, I have given up on Delhi's Plaza launge on T3 or T1.

Even when I go, I come out immediately after grabbing some food and 'lounge' in some empty corner of airport for most part.

Airport lounges have become Y-U-C-K! Instead of joining the line to get in, indulging in free all-you-can-eat buffets of cheap food and jostling for space, I use the DigiYatra app, get to my boarding gate early, and enjoy the calm. My laptop is usually on, with a snack & a coffee. It's not uncommon for me to reach my boarding gate 90 minutes before the flight time.

On the other hand, "business class" only lounges (especially when flying international) are spectacular!

Not really a very active flyer (that a word?) but whenever I have, I never really bothered about lounges. Find my gate (if I have time, take the long way there, through all the shops) and find a nice seat near the gate where I can see the boarding information.

Noise cancelling headphones and music on and it's a peaceful enough wait.

For some reason this thread reminds me of the old blackberry ad. When it was used by boys in suits at one time and suddenly it became accessible to everyone...Oh well.

The credit card companies (HDFC Regalia) have made some recent changes. They no longer offer free lounge access. We need to spend at least a lakh in a quarter to gain one free lounge access.

Priority pass lounge (T1 Bangalore) is still a nice place to walkin. It's less crowded and have a good menu.

I recently dropped into 080 lounge terminal 2 Bangalore. It was less crowded and fewer menu options. The interior decor was amazing.

Was traveling a lot till 2018 and then stopped. In a year I would be out of the country for at least 5 to 6 months which meant multiple flights, and multiple trips to the airport. My firm gave us a Corp card from American Express and lounge access was free. I used to use lounges for medium hauls for a shower, shave, and to use the toilets. That was absolutely brilliant.

Lounges in India are like a big mess in a college. Free food, maximum footfall, and loud noises.

Once I stopped my frequent flying, the rare flights I take - reached the airport early, finished security, got a cup of coffee, and enjoyed with my book and some earplugs. If I can find a Starbucks, then sit there with a cup of coffee, free wifi, and spend time on Team-BHP

I think this situation is an effect of banks going out of their way to acquire credit card customers during the pandemic. Even low end entry level free cards were offering lounge access. Post pandemic when everyone starting travelling we landed up in this situation.

This is now being reversed as the banks are feeling the pinch of the lounge access fees they are having to pay. Most recent was the HDFC Regalia change where lounge access is linked to acheiving a quarterly spend target.

Having said this, airport pricing for F&B is quite ridiculous to be honest. One needs to pay 800-1000 INR per head for the most basic meal and I can't remember a single time when the food tasted great.

I still find the experience at lounges like 080 in BLR to be good as access is via the premium cards, hence not so crowded and the food quality is also quite good. I expect the overall situation to improve slightly as banks reverse free lounge access.

Apart from Credit Cards, HDFC Platinum Debit Card holders can also avail lounge benefits twice per quarter.

I agree with what Aditya has said and I believe the domestic lounge crowd is largely due to the sharing of Debit/Credit cards to one' child too. As a student, I too admittedly availed these benefits of having a Debit card of my father when I used to fly to Chennai for college. Some friends had multiple such cards and thus another friend could tag along with him/her too. Apart from planes taking off, the food prices at airport were also rising high! So this came in very handy.

Another important factor is which Airport it is. The Mumbai T2 Airport also has departures for domestic flights and there I always prefer to find a seat near the gate and scroll throught the net. The Chennai Domestic Airport was never the same case as it was always crowded and the lounge access was a boon.

The decline in international business class lounge quality has been happening for some time now. Folks who had flown business on Emirates before they got taken over will remember the superlative quality of F&B in the lounges.

This has also crept into in-flight quality and services. Partly because most airlines have more business than earlier. Its a take it or leave it attitude and F&B almost looks a forced affair.

The issue here is the earlier experience for the same class of travel which stands out whenever one enters the business class lounges now.

It isn't going to change unless there is another disruptive situation and that doesnt seem likely in the near future.

On top of all this, economy on international travel now costs the same as business did about 4 years ago.

I think the CC free lounge access is the culprit here. Every decent CC has free access and this is being used to the fullest mainly for the free food.

Airports need to have at least couple options with reasonably priced food. Everything is 5-10X the price; you cannot even get a pack of chips that isn't exorbitantly marked up. We need to reconsider the perception of airports as 7-star destinations and instead view them as public transit spaces.

Were you able to leverage the Regalia card at the 080 lounge at terminal 2? Am conscious the HDFC comms on the lounge access change do not cover the 080 lounge at T2 in the list.