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Airport lounges: how did they get so horribly, competitively decadent?

The airlines’ battle to please the 1% is getting increasingly bizarre Name: Airport lounge wars.

✦ Extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting•From 1 source•1 min read•Updated October 26, 2026, 4:53 PM UTC

The airlines’ battle to please the 1% is getting increasingly bizarre Name: Airport lounge wars.

Age: American Airlines opened the first airport lounge in 1939.

High-end cocktails, nap pods, waffle stations, tapas attendants, sashimi bars and brutalist art.

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