Most people looking for the stars in SoCal head to Hollywood. But when we were in town recently, we headed the exact opposite direction and made a beeline for LAX. That’s because we were on the hunt for one particular star. The northern star, AKA Polaris. United Airlines has been making gradual but steady headway with the rollout of both the Polaris seat (now on its 787-10 Dreamliners in addition to many of its 777s and 767s) and its top-of-the-line Polaris lounges. We’ve already been to the Polaris lounges at SFO, Newark, and Chicago. And we hear great things about Polaris Houston. So when Polaris LAX opened earlier this year, we knew we had to swing by.
We found a lounge just as impressive as the other stellar Polaris lounges we’ve seen before, though with a smaller footprint. With plenty of sleek decor, amenities, and local flavor, Polaris LAX is definitely worth visiting. Read on for the full details and prepare to be starstruck!
I’m biased as a Bay Area resident, but I think San Francisco SFO offers some of the best casual plane-spotting in the country, thanks to its two set of parallel runways located relatively close to the terminal buildings. Many of the airport’s premium lounges are located on the floor above the general concourse, giving lucky lounge-goers some especially good views. As if the lounge life wasn’t already awesome enough.
Delta doesn’t have a formal hub in San Francisco. But as an endpoint of the airline’s premium transcontinental service from New York JFK, SFO is important enough to earn a Delta Sky Club. I dropped by recently and found a lot to like, from fresh decor and furniture, solid food and drink, and (most importantly) great views of the ramp and runways through floor-to-ceiling windows. Read on for an overview of what you can expect if you drop by Delta’s Sky Club at SFO.
As the main international gateway for America’s capital, Washington Dulles is served by a ton of foreign carriers. Many offer lounges for their premium cabin passengers, and a few of them are part of the global Priority Pass network. Dulles’ slice of that network got a new addition last year: the Turkish Airlines lounge, which opened in 2016.
I’ve visited Turkish Airlines’ insane flagship lounge at its hub in Istanbul; definitely check out that story, if you haven’t already. While its Dulles lounge obviously can’t compare in terms of size or perks, it’s still solidly above average for airport lounges in the U.S. The food scene is solid, there are showers for travelers looking to freshen up, there are great views of the ramp, and the decor is pretty stylish. However, the crowd factor can be very high. But even so, it does well enough overall to get a thumbs up from me.
Read on for our detailed take on Turkish Airlines’ Washington D.C. lounge.
An Emirates Airbus A380 at the new concourse in Dubai.
An excerpt from David Parker Brown’s story on APEX Editor’s Blog:
DUBAI: How does one go about making the world’s largest airliner, the Airbus A380, look small? Park it at the new Concourse A at Dubai International Airport, which was designed to handle the giant aircraft and all the high-end passengers who will fly in its premium cabins.
Earlier this year Emirates and Dubai International Airport opened the new concourse. David Parker Brown, a contributor to the APEX editor’s blog was invited for a tour of the Emirates Airline first and business class lounges.
Concourse A opened on 2 January 2013 and is the world’s only dedicated and purpose built concourse for the Airbus A380. The rest of the airport is able to handle the aircraft, but the new concourse was purpose-built with the A380 in mind. A formidable undertaking for the airport and airline, US$3.3 billion terminal required 159,572,880 man-hours to build.
Continue reading Emirates Shows Off Lounges in New Airbus A380 Concourse on APEX
See more photos of the Concourse A in Dubai
