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Capital One joined the lounge scene in 2021. Almost four years later, there are still only a handful of locations. Unfortunately, my travels rarely take me near any of them. I was excited to check one out today, but excessive wait times made me abandon that plan and just head to my gate. The lounges are plenty lauded, but at what point has the hype gotten to be too much where those with access have to wait forever to get in?
I was traveling from Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) today and excited to check out the Capital One Lounge. I had visited the location at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) twice (review here) and attempted (unsuccessfully) to check out the lounge at Denver International Airport (DEN).
Even though it was nowhere near my gate, I took the train over and attempted to access the lounge. The app told me that the wait was 60 to 80 minutes and an agent checking credentials confirmed that it would be more than an hour. I thought maybe they were exaggerating and waited 30 minutes before departing for my flight.
The line of people waiting to get into the lounge reminded me of what I have seen many times outside of American Express’ Centurion Lounges. People sat on the floor and stood around waiting to gain entry to the lounge. Many complained loudly to the agent that they were already waiting close to an hour and would need to leave to catch their flights.
The demand for lounges in the United States is still surpassing the amount of space available for guests. This has become a serious issue at airline lounges as well as those developed by credit card companies. Having to wait an hour to get into a lounge is ridiculous. More than that is even more laughable. I got to my gate and received a text that my turn had come. This was around 50 minutes after I joined the waitlist. I was at my gate and found a seat to work from there as I was not trekking back to the Capital One Lounge. Ten minutes later, I got the follow-up text that I was removed from the list.
This is hardly a problem that Capital One faces alone. American Express, Chase, and many Priority Pass lounges are packed to the gills with travelers. The number of people taking to the skies was supposed to die down this year, but it doesn’t appear that people are cutting back travel at all if holiday travel estimates are any indication of how it’s going.
The credit card issuer is trying. It raised the cost to enter by nearly 40% for non-cardmembers and pulled access away from those with lower-end cards next year. Hopefully these moves will thin out the herd and make the lounges places you can get into in a reasonable amount of time.
Anthony’s Take: I would have loved to have checked out this lounge and reviewed it for this site. Maybe I should have stayed and waited to go in, but I’m sure it would have all been unpleasant and picked over with the size of the crowd that was packing the lounge, the hallway in front of it, and every bit of space nearby.
(Featured Image Credit: Capital One.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
11 comments
It’s unfortunate that the lines were so long but I wouldn’t read too much into it. You’re likely just hitting the holiday rush. I was in the same lounge a couple of months ago before my Turkish flight and it was half empty. Maybe give it another shot once the holidays are past.
Yeah. I’m sure holiday travel played a role, but I have not had good luck with CapitalOne when I’ve tried in Denver, Dallas, and Dulles now.
This is why I don’t need to pay high AF for a Crap1 card. Amex has 2 dozen lounges and there is rarely a line except at LAS
I got rid of all my lounge cards due to this issue. While on a few rasing the annual fees and getting rid of benefits.
Bummer the waiting time was so long at the IAD Cap One Lounge. Been there several times and definitely enjoyed it. Given that you had so little time (30 minutes) and the published waiting time was 60-80 minutes, you made a low probability bet on getting in and lost. Probably would have been better to try the Turkish Airlines lounge (although that’s often full also) or other Priority Pass lounge there at Dulles.
My flight boarded at 5:00 PM. I got there around 3:25 PM. I figured that would be enough time.
I was there on Sunday, no wait at all and plenty of available seating.
Also plenty of data points that real waits are often much less than what’s shown in the app, so ymmv. But yes, peak travel times the place can get packed.
This is a (too-) small lounge. Worth checking status as you head to the airport. If you’re with a spouse or partner who’s an authorized user on the card, you can each add yourself to the wait list at different times.
I’ve similarly been in the too small Chase lounge at Dulles when it’s empty, but it often isn’t.
I’m sure early holiday travel played a role, but I have tried multiple times in Denver, Dallas, and now Dulles and never been successful in finding anything but hour-plus wait times.
I’ve canceled my Amex Platinum because I can’t recall the last time I even tried to get into a lounge. I’m not wasting time to travel across an airport to join a waitlist, or go in to one and find nowhere to sit, a line for food to get restocked, etc. As far as the other benefits of the card, I can take the $800 annual fee and more than come up with the ones that apply to me.
20 – 30 min waits are standard at Denver in the morning peaks. I usually start checking as i get near the airport and preemptively join the waitlist and usually end up inside without much of a wait
I have tried to get in there numerous times with huge wait times. I think the big issues is that a card holder can bring in multiple guest. The priority pass lounges usually easier to get into the the cap one lounge at iAd