UNITED STATES – Few places feel as engineered to remind you of your social standing as the airport. Each of its protocols, from check-in to security to boarding, imposes a hierarchy. Are you Executive Platinum? Premier ?

The peak of that pecking order has long been the airport lounge, which allows elite passengers a cushioned escape from the tumult of the terminal.

Now, even as airline stocks have tumbled and ticket demand slows, American airlines and credit card companies are reaching for a higher level of luxury and exclusivity – particularly when it comes to food.

At the one-year-old Delta One Lounge at John F. Kennedy International Airport, it is common to hear an employee asking passengers: “Would you like an ounce of caviar before your flight?”

At the lounge, which includes a full-service brasserie with leather banquettes and gold finishes, the menu of complimentary offerings features sirloin steak with red wine jus and salmon sashimi with blood orange ponzu. The caviar will run you an extra US$85 (S$109) or 8,500 miles.

Amble around the rest of the 40,000 sq ft space, and you might spy Japanese cheesecakes and earl grey lemon shortbread cookie s behind a glass pastry case ; or a spa-goer nursing a pineapple, lemon and butterfly pea flower juice after a massage. You might even catch a bartender pouring a nip of rare Japanese whiskey at the gold-lined Art Deco bar.

To enter, you will need to flash a business class ticket for a long-haul flight on Delta or a partner airline .

Airport lounges were once pit stops where business travellers could grab a paper cup of coffee and a handful of wasabi peas before a flight. Now, they dangle wood-fired pizza ovens, seafood towers, sushi bars and espresso martinis on tap.

Lounges operated by American Express are introducing menus by award-winning chefs Kwame Onwuachi, Mashama Bailey, Michael Solomonov and Sarah Grueneberg.

A seafood tower order in the Chase Sapphire Lounge at Laguardia Airport in East Elmhurst, New York.

PHOTO: AMIR HAMJA/NYTIMES

The escalating opulence of lounge food – and the mediocrity of the other offerings in airports – is a sign of just how wide the American wealth gap has grown, said sociologist Cecilia L. Ridgeway, who is a professor emeritus of social sciences at Stanford University.

Airline trave l u sed to be a symbol of luxury. As more people fly, and as tickets become cheaper , she said, the wealthy still want to feel distinguished from th e public in visible ways.

“We need more signs and symbols that you are doing okay, that people are seeing it, that you are moving up.”

A quick tour of seven of the US’ new airport lounges showed that the quality of food is similar to what you would find at a wedding buffet – ranging from lacklustre to surprisingly satisfying .

A salad of radicchio and roasted peaches at the United Polaris Lounge in Houston was cloying, while the French toast at the American Express Centurion Lounge at LaGuardia Airport had a crisp exterior and subtle sweetness that explain why it has a following.

But taste may matter less than the fact that the food is free, fancy and makes the lounge guest feel important. The sit-down restaurant at American Airlines’ Chelsea Lounge at Kennedy Airport feels like a lavish library – hushed, with lots of gold and glass.

“We like exclusivity,” said Ms Laura Parkey, a luxury real estate adviser from Florida, who was eating there before flying in business class to Switzerland for a river cruise. She sipped Moet & Chandon Champagne and eyed the pommes Anna with caviar at the next table.

Compared with the terminal outside, she said, “the food is better, and you don’t have to deal with the masses”.

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These luxe touches are nothing new for international airlines such as Emirates and Cathay Pacific, which for years have accessorised their lounges with dim sum, cocktail pairings and cigar bars.

Their American counterparts have only recently approached that calibre. But today, adding a full-service restaurant has become a baseline part of the expectation for lounges in the US, said Mr Aaron McMillan , managing director of hospitality programmes for United Airlines. It was one of the first American carriers to offer an in-lounge restaurant.

Competition is intensifying as credit card companies enter the lounge game, unburdened by the logistical challenges and costs of running an airline, and seeking to attract frequent travellers as cardholders.

The Chase Sapphire Lounge at LaGuardia Airport – accessible to those who have the Chase Sapphire Reserve card (with an annual fee of US$795), the J.P. Morgan Reserve card (US$795) or the Ritz-Carlton Credit Card (US$450) – looks like a chic hotel lobby.

Its centrepiece is a circular bar with purple velvet chairs. The cocktail menu comes from the popular New York bar Apotheke, and the baristas can make you a sea salt and oat milk latte.

Each table has QR codes for guests to order gnocchi with zucchini and mint, or marinated beets with whipped feta – both created by Fairfax, an all-day cafe in Manhattan.

The Capital One Landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington has a full-service tapas bar created by chef Jose Andres. Crisp jamon croquetas and gambas al ajillo with a pleasant kick are made to order. Negronis and espresso martinis are available on tap.

While most airport food comes from the same roster of approved suppliers, Andres gets his Iberian ham and picos from the purveyors who supply his restaurants. Each of these vendors had to be approved by airport security, with background checks and X-ray scans.

The 1,200 sq ft kitchen was custom-built to Andres’ specifications. One of his company’s culinary directors works at the lounge full time.

Ms Charisse Grey, the company’s senior director of research and development, said: “If there was a budget, I was not aware of it.”

The lavish menus in these lounges speak to a new class of affluent travellers, said Mr Ben Schlappig, founder of the travel website One Mile At A Time.

“It used to be that lounges were thought of as stuffy and for business travellers,” he said. Today, the clientele “skews much younger, and the increased focus on food and drink, and partnering with cool brands is part of that”.

A Capital One spokesperson contended that the company’s lounges were more approachable for everyday travellers, who do not need a first-class ticket to experience the luxury amenities – just a Capital One Venture X card, which costs US$395 a year.

But at lounges with that easier accessibility, customers often wait in long lines, or are denied entry because the spaces get overcrowded.

This has prompted some credit card companies to tighten lounge access, just as airlines have. Capital One, which allows cardholders to bring in a certain number of guests without charge, will charge for most additional visitors starting 2026 .

Mr Mitch Radakovich, a data scientist from Cincinnati who was spending his layover en route to Copenhagen at the Capital One Lounge at Kennedy Airport, said it felt almost too good to be true to enjoy such amenities – cheesemongers who will customise a charcuterie board and freshly baked bagels from Ess-a-bagel – with just a US$395-a-year credit card.

“I’m sure the price will go up,” he said. “It’s an interesting maths problem: exclusivity versus luxury.”

With all the money being poured into elite lounges, he wondered what airlines and airports were doing for the average traveller, who has to contend with shrinking onboard amenities, long security lines and thronged terminals.

“I used to fly Cincinnati to Atlanta, and now soda isn’t even an option – it’s coffee or water,” he said. “The overall quality has decreased for the public.” NYTIMES

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