Turns Out Anybody Is Allowed in Airport Lounges???

the airport is a lawless place there's rude and then there's airport rude tired sleep on the floor hungry chips now cost $17 I just took out a second mortgage on my house in case I get hungry at the airport tomorrow I found these to be pretty true of my experience at airports but recently I found out that it doesn't have to be that way turns out there are these things called airport lounges and sure I'm fascinated by the nice chairs and the peace and quiet and the amenities but I'm also fascinated by the fact that these places allegedly have free snacks and drinks I've always thought you could only get into airport lounges if you had crazy status with an airline or like a bajillion credit card points but as it turns out there's another way so in this episode of The Studio review I'll be testing out three different airport lounges in three different cities to see what they have to offer what the food is like and whether they're worth the price of admission when I first looked it up online I found that my initial perception was partially right so you can get into an airport lounge by one buying a first class airplane ticket know those seats you see on YouTube that recline all the way I looked into it and they cost literally tens of thousands of dollars two achieving high mileage status with an airline for the United Club Lounge you need 75,000 mil to qualify for a membership I just checked and I have like 8,000 something miles and that's the most I've ever had so no shot there three paying for a premium credit card so a popular one is the American Express Platinum Card which has an annual fee of $695 and despite what this guy thinks I can't afford that so just for reference in the video he's commenting on I rented that van for $126 and that's only because I had a brand deal so where does that leave us if we're just normal men we're just normal men what do you mean normal men we're just innocent men it leaves us with option number four paying to enter and you guys I was shocked that prices weren't like that absurd check this out my journey begins at the Sydney airport as I was on my way back home from an Outback Steakhouse in Australia while I was at the airport I looked for the gate where the flight from Lost took off which was gate 23 but it was suspiciously missing they had up to gate 22 and then they skipped a few and picked up again at like 25 or 26 anyways I discovered this lounge called The Plaza premium Lounge so this is a chain of lounges that you can find at a lot of major airports and according to their website they provide services to all travelers regardless of Airline or class of travel that's good news for me and the rest of the plebians in economy class there was a sign at the desk that said they were only accepting some sort of member at that time but the guy didn't say no immediately he checked to see if there was space and then let me in and as I was going in I literally heard him tell the person behind me that they were full and I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting but as it turns out the price of admission includes unlimited food and drinks and Barista made coffee and for all of that I paid 35 Australian dollars which comes out to about 23 USD and just to be clear here this was just for an hour but the price of entry into this Lounge was less than I paid for a chicken Pary the night before as a side note if you book ahead of time online the minimum length that you can select is 2 hours but in person they let me just do an hour I found a seat to set my stuff down and then went straight for the buffet it was breakfast time and it looked amazing I immediately recognized the Australian bacon which if you don't know is kind of my arch nemesis but in addition to the food they also had free juice and sodas and then this pancake machine I didn't have any room on my plate but I knew that I would come back for that and I may just be a sucker for breakfast foods but I thought it was great I went back to grab some of those pancakes and I'm sure those machines are like fairly common but I had never seen anything like them before so I absolutely housed those pancakes and then went back for two more some other features in this Lounge included a view over the tarmac plenty of charging for my devices instead of you know that disaster of a charging station you see at like Delta terminals randomly by the drink station there was like a cookie jar a jar of tortilla chips and a jar of assorted gummy candy the three major food groups so I had a cookie and some gummies all right it was time to check out the bathrooms these things were single occupancy and I would say they weren't that much nicer than regular airport bathrooms so maybe just more privacy and a little bit cleaner the toilet paper said it was two but it looks pretty thin to me according to their website there are in fact showers in this Lounge but I didn't see where they were and I didn't need to shower since I had showered a couple hours before this as it was getting close to the end of my hour I saw that they were switching the buffet over to lunch but I wasn't sure how strict they were on the time limit like would someone come and ask me to leave but I figured it would be worth it to linger long enough to try the lunch buffet I got a Coke while I waited and I saw that my flight was boarding in 10 minutes so I knew I'd need to hustle but finally they finished the switch and I grabbed a quick lunch plate of rice stir fried noodles and some sort of Chip chicken and it was totally worth it this was delicious So eventually I vacated the premises and I didn't need to check out or anything so I guess the hour is just like the honor System and I ended up making it to my gate in plenty of time because my flight got delayed all right so I'd still need to see how this Lounge Stacks up against the other lounges that I'll visit later in this episode but my initial reaction was that for the peace and quiet and an all you can eat buffet that was $23 well spent next up I'm headed to Montreal Canada to attempt to enter an Air Canada Lounge but first I'd love to tell you about Factor who's the sponsor of the this episode Factor makes meeting your nutrition goals easier than ever by delivering chef-crafted dietician approved meals right to your doorstep I don't have all you can eat buffets at home I wish man can you imagine but I do have factor in the fridge which is way more affordable and convenient especially since it doesn't involve you know traveling to an airport in fact Factor meals are ready to eat in Just 2 minutes if you're anything like me you might look for excuses to get takeout or even skip lunch entirely but factor helps me eliminate those excuses by making sure I always have well balanced meals ready to go I've been enjoying the Protein Plus options like this Chipotle rubbed pork chop they actually have 35 different meals to choose from each week plus over 60 different add-ons so there are always new options to try my favorite add-ons are the protein shakes like chocolate banana cold be latte or this cinnamon horchata one I hadn't tried before so do yourself a favor and head to factor75.com or click the link below and use code review50 to get 50% off your first Factor box and 20% off your next month of orders that's code R50 at factor75.com to get 50% off your first box plus 20% off your next month of orders all right back in Montreal I had a little bit of trouble locating the Air Canada Lounge because unlike the plaza premium Lounge you had to go up an elevator to find it I had read online that Air Canada allows access to their Maple Leaf lounges to the whole slew of patricians and land owners that we discussed previously but then at the very bottom it says customers who purchase Maple Leaf Lounge access and then there's a range of different prices I guess the less you pay for your ticket the more you have to pay for lounge access I was pretty sure my ticket was flat X fair or the cheapest one so I'd be shelling out $79 Canadian dollar which is roughly $58 I made my way up the elevator and tried to walk up to the counter with as much confidence as I could muster even though I was looking and feeling very out of place hello um am I able to pay for Access if I booked via Air Canada no you have to book ahead of time okay have to apparently they got me with that last part of the sentence when you book your flight with us I hadn't remembered seeing the option to book access when I booked my tickets and that's when I realized that there might be a tier of ticket fairs below the ones listed here and after getting back home I confirmed that there was in fact a level below flex and that's what my ticket was I thanked her and then headed back down the elevator in shame I was particularly bummed because I've been traveling for like 20 hours at this point and really wanted to shower but I guess it wasn't in the cards I did however want to make the most of this layover so I went ahead and found another Plaza premium lounge and paid for an hour of access for $35 Canadian which comes out to roughly $26 this one felt different because it wasn't even like a separate room it was just kind of a roped off area so it felt less quiet and much less secluded there also seemed to be fewer charging areas and there wasn't even a bathroom in this one I'll give you a receipt if you have to go to the bathroom and then come back just keep it so you can just show it to me when you come back okay I found out later that this Lounge was a partnership between Plaza premium and this company called deardane and there's a much nicer Plaza premium Lounge in the international terminal of the airport this one also included a bar but I felt like there was less variety on the buffet they did however have an resso machine so I got a latte I grabbed some sort of ve meatball rice and Ratatouille and for dessert I grabbed some carrot cake and like a fudge brownie thing the lounge in Sydney had a departure screen that you could check for your flight info and as far as I can tell this one did not have one of those but maybe that's because you could hear all of the airport announcements over the loudspeakers from where you were sitting I was fairly full from the meal I was served on my previous flight and I wasn't Blown Away by the food selection so I don't necessarily feel like I got my money's worth at this Lounge my takeaway was that it was honestly not that much different from eating at like an air Port restaurant that has charging ports I guess the main difference being a few marginally nicer chairs and the all you can eat nature of it however I was in for a pleasant surprise at my next stop as some of you may know I was recently in Texas filming an installment of my quest for the best wings in America so I paid for access to the United Club at the Houston Airport it cost $50 which comes out to roughly $50 unlike the plaza premium lounges this pass claimed that it was going to give me access to the United Club at every step of my journey including my layover and after I landed at my my destination huge if true so after you buy access you just have to scan your boarding pass to get in which is pretty baller and you guys my jaw dropped as I walked through this place it felt like that scene from The Hunger Games where the kids from the districts see the capital for the first time there was so much seating they had these beige chairs everywhere high top tables with chargers working cubicles working closets tables where you could sit and eat a TV Lounge which was just more of those chairs but this time with a small TV on the wall I decided to set my stuff down in a less crowded area and go to the buffet I got low M noodles with chicken and some sort of sandwich and then key lime pie with doughnut holes for dessert sadly their espresso machine was down so I got a Coke from the bar instead before I tried the food I realized that the charger in the chair wasn't actually working so I had to use the outlet on the wall instead like a peasant as for the food the sandwich was a little weird and I think it had mushrooms on it which I wasn't expecting but the low main was delightful at some point I realized that this wasn't even the top tier United Lounge so there's something called a United Polaris lounge and the website says that includes a full buffet and pre-flight dining so I was like wait was this not a full Buffet so I went back and checked the description of the United Club and they described what I just ate as light snacks so if this was light snacks I can't even imagine what a full buffet and pre-flight dining would include Polaris lounges also include showers and quiet suets which kind of look uncomfortable to me but obviously much nicer than sleeping on the floor of the airport which I have done before you also have to fly business class to get into those lounges but a man can dream I went to check out the bathrooms which turned out to be nothing special they were not single occupancy so they were basically like a typical airport bathroom but with less puddles you know how the counter at airport bathrooms is just like always absolutely covered in water the time came to board my flight so I said goodbye to the United Club and said hello to a middle seat in terms of being worth the cost of admission I felt like that would depend on whether This truly got me access to the lounge at my layover or not my flight took me from Houston to the O'Hare Airport in Chicago and I made my way to the nearest United Club Lounge I just tried my best to act like I knew how this worked and scanned my boarding pass at this point I was starting to doubt myself I was like 50% sure that I had misread the fine print and only purchased entry for one airport but I was psyched to see that thing light up green bonus they also said welcome Mr Reed which made me feel like Adam Sandler and Mr Deeds in the Jets of Choke artists I wouldn't say that Mr Deeds just Deeds why is that though you only jet Deeds I rode the escalator up to the lounge and this one might have been the nicest one yet there was this chandelier above the bar where people were watching the Masters and I assumed discussing Finance I don't know why but I was really in the mood for some ice cream and unfortunately I had to settle for some doughnut holes and a little chocolate almond bar thing they also had some tortillini which looked pretty good I'll give you my final thoughts about these lounges in just a second but I just want to give you a few quick highlights unlike the other lounges this Lounge had some full couches I ended up sitting at a booth where I could really spread out and Lounge I believe that's why they call them airport lounges there was this little robot that had busing trays on it and the bathrooms were nicer than the last one but not crazy and the latte machine was broken here too this must be the rich people equivalent of the ice cream machine at McDonald's always being down also you guys this is not relevant to this video at all but I saw a balloon land I know people don't do this as much anymore but over my lifetime I've probably seen hundreds of balloons fly away but have you ever seen one land felt like a once in a-lifetime experience I honestly could have fallen asleep at this point but my phone was reminding me with a way too upto-date countdown that my flight was boarding soon also thanks to everyone that upvoted my review of that Australian Outback Steakhouse that is so funny to me my final destination was a small Regional Airport that didn't have a United Lounge so I had to settle for a brace instead of going for the hattick all right so are these lounges worth the price of admission just to reiterate this is coming from someone who never flies anything but the cheapest economy seats I can find I mean I'm literally wearing a buy t-shirt as I walk through this Lounge I guess now that I think about it bies is kind of like an airport lounge for the Common Man all that being said the total I spent to access four lounges was $99 so roughly $25 per Lounge which honestly is not as bad as I thought I would say that if you're traveling with one to two people and have an hour or more before your flight this could be worth it especially if you do the United thing that covers every leg of your itinerary like if you use that to go to a lounge at your departure airport your layover airport and your arrival airport that would come out to be just $17 per Lounge for all you can eat food and drinks for the plaza premium lounges specifically I'd say check out the lounge online first to see if it's worth it like the one in Sydney definitely worth it the one in Montreal not so much I recognize that that this isn't realistic for everyone especially for example if you're like a parent traveling with young kids and I'm honestly only able to do stuff like this because you guys watch these videos so thank you so much for being here before you go feel free to help each other out in the comments so drop your favorite travel hacks or airport secrets to help make traveling a little less terrible for the people who read them and most importantly just remember that even when it doesn't feel like it it's going to be okay I'll see you soon [Music]

Channel: Sam Reid

Views: 677,480

Keywords: the studio revue, the studio review, sam reid, sam reed, sam reid youtube, variety show, airport lounges, how to get into airport lounges, can anybody get into airport lounges, pay to enter airport lounge, who can access airport lounges, how to use airport lounge, which airport lounges can you pay for?, plaza premium lounge, air canada, maple leaf lounge, united club, united polaris lounge, airport secrets, travel hacks, airport lounge, travel tips

Id: WvLT6pNvfos

Length: 14min 5sec (845 seconds)

Published: Sat May 18 2024