Luxurious Travel
It’s a known fact first-class travelers get better amenities than coach, more leg room, better peanuts, and fine wines. But it doesn’t end there. In some airports, first-class clients now get to enjoy private nap rooms, spas and catered meals. Read more below from Travel and Leisure’s article, The World’s Most Amazing Airport Lounges.
“Just a few years ago, the comforts that could be found in high-end airport lounges were pretty much the same all over the world. Comfortable chairs (other than the molded-plastic variety); plasma-screen TVs; an open bar; free Internet access…these were the amenities that first- and business-class travelers could expect to find, from New York to Paris to Sydney.
No longer. In these times of heretofore-unheard-of airplane luxuries (fully reclining massage chairs, sleep pods, in-flight manicures), airport lounges have had to step up their game, too. In fact, with amenities like full-fledged spas, private nap rooms, and meals catered by celebrity chefs, airport lounges have become less of a place to kill time and more of a place to linger. Welcome to the age of the happy layover.
Travel-industry insiders see the evolution of the airport lounge as a natural phenomenon. Premium travelers now “have higher expectation…and expect a higher level of personalized service,” says Breda Walls, a customer service executive in the Americas for British Airways. Jennifer Wilson-Buttigieg, co-president of New York-based luxury travel agency Valerie Wilson Travel, agrees: “Lounges are no longer just a spot for travelers to wait in between connections; they’ve become an oasis away from the masses.”
Of course, airlines are acting in their own self-interest by furnishing their customers with massage therapists, cigar lounges, and private concierges to arrange restaurant reservations and theater tickets. After all, flights are fuller than ever, and delays are rampant—so to keep travelers satisfied, airlines need to keep raising the comfort bar. Part of this equation, suggests Susan Weissberg, chief executive of Wylly’s Professional Travel in Coral Gables, Florida, is the increasing popularity of private planes: “If the airlines want to keep high-end travelers as customers, they have to cater to them or risk losing them to private jets,” she says.”
For more check out, Travel and Leisure.
