I Have a Love-Hate Relationship With This Popular Travel Perk

When I started traveling often, I made sure to get a travel card with airport lounge access. Waiting around for flights is normally one of the worst parts of traveling. Waiting around for flights in a high-end lounge fixes that problem.

Or so I thought. Being able to get into airport lounges can be nice, but it's also overrated. If you're thinking about getting a credit card with lounge access, or buying a lounge membership, it helps to have an accurate idea of what lounges are like.

The airport lounge experience isn't as amazing as it sounds

I'm generalizing here, to be fair. There are thousands of airport lounges in the world. Some of them are incredible, with gourmet food and gorgeous designs. Some are lousy, with old, beat-up furniture and hardly any amenities.

But the vast majority fall firmly into the "decent" category. They have comfortable places to sit. There's free food and drinks, although usually nothing special. The food at most lounges is more buffet-quality than Michelin restaurant.

Lounges also get packed, especially at popular airports and during busy travel times. There may even be a line to get in, if the lounge is at capacity. This has become more common as people take advantage of credit cards that get them into airport lounges. When a lounge is bustling with people and there's hardly anywhere to sit, the experience becomes far less relaxing.

If your expectations are too high, you might find that airport lounges don't measure up. I've been to plenty of lounges that didn't impress me. The more you visit, the more it takes for a lounge to stand out. Even though the experience isn't always the best, I still think it's good to have lounge access for one reason.

It still beats the boarding area

I was recently at an Air France lounge in Paris for business-class passengers. While it was comfortable and well-designed, it felt like a typical lounge experience. Find a place to sit, browse the internet, have a few snacks and a cappuccino from a machine.

It was a long wait, and the lounge filled up with a ton of people. By the time my flight was ready to board, I was getting tired of being there. And then I got the perfect reminder of why I shouldn't take it for granted.

The boarding area was a disaster. Forget about finding a place to sit -- there was barely room to stand. It was a mass of people and noise, with long boarding lines that wrapped around the room. I felt like I'd descended from airport purgatory into a circle of Hell. This was the ground floor boarding area at Charles de Gaulle Airport, so I'm barely exaggerating.

It was far worse than the normal boarding area, but the point remains. Even if an airport lounge is only OK, there's a good chance that the boarding area is much worse. Seats are uncomfortable, if you can even find one. Many passengers seem to think that every jacket and bag they own deserves their own seat, too. And if you want something to eat or drink, be ready to pay three times the usual price for it.

How to get airport lounge access

There are a few ways to get into airport lounges:

• Open a credit card with airport lounge access. Many of the top travel credit cards offer this perk. The most common options are a membership with Priority Pass (a program with over 1,300 lounges worldwide) or with a specific airline's lounge program.
• Buy a lounge membership with an airline. If you're a frequent flyer with an airline, you could buy a lounge membership. However, some airline credit cards include a complimentary lounge membership as a perk. The annual fees for these cards are often similar to or even less than the cost of a membership.
• Buy a day pass at the airport. Not all lounges offer day passes, but many do. The price is normally about $30 to $60 per person. This can be a good option if you don't fly enough to make a lounge membership worth it.

If you fly multiple times a year, I'd recommend looking into travel cards with airport lounge access. These tend to have high annual fees, just to warn you. But they normally also have spending credits to help balance out the cost of the fee, and other useful travel perks. Plus, they earn points that you can use to pay for travel.

Airport lounges might not always wow you, but they beat the alternative. If you have realistic expectations, you'll probably enjoy your time waiting for your flight there.