Downgrade: How Travel Credit Cards Have Ruined Airport Lounges

The first time I heard about airport lounges, they sounded amazing. A quiet, comfortable place to relax at the airport? With free food and drinks? When you're used to noisy boarding areas and overpriced snacks, airport lounges seem like heaven. They're practically marketed that way, too.

Now, quality has always varied from lounge to lounge. But airport lounges at least used to deliver on the basics. If you had access, you could normally count on getting into a lounge, kicking back, and enjoying a light meal. And some lounges went above and beyond, like the American Express Centurion® Lounges, which were known for being more luxurious and having much better food options.

Unfortunately, if you're looking forward to visiting airport lounges, it's probably time to recalibrate your expectations. While they can still be nice to visit, airport lounges have dipped in quality quite a bit in recent years. And the culprits behind all of it are those travel credit cards that so many people now carry.

Exclusivity for everyone

Airport lounges used to only be available to passengers with a business-class or first-class ticket, and those who purchased a membership to an airline's lounge program. Lounges were effectively reserved for a fairly small portion of travelers.

Eventually, credit card issuers began offering airport lounge access as a feature on their best credit cards. It quickly became one of the most common perks available on premium travel cards. The most expensive airline credit cards now include memberships to the airline's lounge program. Many travel cards that aren't affiliated with an airline offer a Priority Pass membership. Then there's The Platinum Card® from American Express, which offers access to over 1,400 lounges across several programs (select enrollment required, terms apply).

What started as an exclusive benefit is now anything but. If you're willing to pay the annual fee on a high-priced credit card, you can get access to airport lounges around the world. This has led to a massive influx of visitors. There are several consequences of how popular airport lounges now are:

• They're often busy: You might need to wait 30 minutes or longer in line to get in. And when you do get in, it could be packed, with few places to sit and anything but a relaxing vibe.
• The service has gone downhill: That's bound to happen when there's two or three times as many people to serve.
• Lounges get worn out more quickly: When a lounge gets more traffic, the furniture and amenities will get more wear and tear.

There are plenty of reports online, including on travel blogs and Reddit, about the declining quality of airport lounges. Travelers have shared pictures of lines stretching out into airport terminals and complained of lounges with nowhere to sit. It's often particularly bad at American Express Centurion® Lounges, which have become victims of their own success. After all the talk about how great these lounges are, everyone with the right American Express card wants to visit.

It's exciting to get airport lounge access through your credit card. But the secret is out, and more travelers than ever know they can get into lounges this way. American Express has reported that its number of Platinum cardholders doubled in recent years, even while it raised the annual fee from $450 to $695 (see rates and fees). And that's just one card offering lounge access.

A better time at the airport, with or without lounge access

If you're not interested in waiting in line for a packed airport lounge, I don't blame you. I'm not either. There's not a lot you can do if a lounge is busy, short of pulling the fire alarm (just kidding). But there are a few ways you can enjoy your time at the airport anyway:

• First, make sure you know all your lounge options. Depending on your credit card, you may have access to multiple lounges at an airport. Even if one's busy, you can visit another one. You also might have better luck if you're flying business class or first class with an airline, because these tickets sometimes provide access to different lounges than what's available through credit cards.
• See what the airport offers and plan alternatives if the lounge is full. For example, you could grab a bite at an airport restaurant or shop at the duty-free stores. At medium- to large-size airports, there are usually lots of other things you can do besides sit in a lounge.
• Don't arrive super early just so you can visit a lounge. When you're only looking to kill time, it's not a big deal if a lounge is busy. When you build your plans around visiting that fancy lounge you heard about, it's a whole lot more disappointing to see a line or get in and find that all the seats are taken.

Airport lounge access can still be a fun benefit, when you're able to use it. Just keep in mind that you might not always be able to use it, and even when you can, lounges might not be as luxurious as you'd expect.