Chase’s airport lounge network is expanding with the addition of an outpost in one of the nation’s busiest airports.
The issuer shared on Tuesday that it would open a “new” lounge in New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK).
The Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club in JFK will open on Tuesday, Jan. 23, and it’ll be located in Terminal 4, home to Delta and a variety of other international carriers, such as Aeromexico and Singapore Airlines.
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Unlike the three other Sapphire Lounges (Hong Kong, Boston and LaGuardia) that were specially built by Chase, the one in JFK will be different.
That’s because Chase is teaming up with Etihad Airways to jointly operate this lounge. It wasn’t immediately clear how the arrangement would work, but Chase’s JFK location will occupy the space of the former Etihad Airways lounge at JFK. (Etihad’s lounge has been closed since the pandemic, so this will mark the outpost’s first reopening since then.)
It will be located post-security in the mezzanine level above Gate A2 and adjacent to the two-story Amex Centurion Lounge.
No further details were shared about the upcoming JFK location, but TPG will be there with first-look coverage when the lounge opens.
In recent years, Chase has been aggressive about quickly building out a network of lounges that cardholders will want to visit. This includes opening three new outposts, debuting a terrace in Austin and sharing concrete plans to open four more lounges across the country in Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Diego and Philadelphia.
Expanding the Sapphire Lounge network comes as Amex, Chase and Capital One are now in a rat race for wooing premium cardholders with fancy airport lounges.
Amex is the incumbent in the market with its expansive Centurion Lounge network that will continue growing with the addition of outposts in Atlanta and Washington, D.C., later this year.
Meanwhile, Capital One debuted its first lounge in Dallas/Fort Worth in 2021 and has since opened locations in Denver and Washington Dulles. The issuer plans new “landings” — food-focused outposts — in New York and Washington, D.C., as well.
As the competition intensifies, it will be interesting to see how the airport lounge wars evolve. The real winner in all of this, however, is the cardholder, who will enjoy newer, nicer and larger spaces than ever before.
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