The Chase Sapphire Lounge at New York LaGuardia has taken the title of World's Best Independent Airport Lounge in Skytrax's annual World Airline Awards, beating Plaza Premium's lounge at Rome Fiumicino (second) and another Chase property, at Hong Kong International, in third.
There's one awkward detail: the Hong Kong lounge closed more than nine months ago. Part of that space has since reopened as the Kyra Lounge, and the former overflow seating became Mastercard's "Taste by Priceless" dining concept. An award podium featuring a lounge that no longer exists is not a great look for the methodology behind the ranking.
And the critique of the winner goes beyond that. Chase's LaGuardia location sits entirely underground with no natural light — a constraint the design team handled well, but a constraint nonetheless — and the food is widely considered underwhelming. Many travellers who track these lounges closely would argue it isn't even the best lounge in Chase's own portfolio: the newer Dallas–Fort Worth location (possibly penalised for being too new to have built a reputation) is stronger on food, and Philadelphia matches LaGuardia on size while letting daylight in. Chase's Boston and San Diego outposts also have fans.
The wider ranking looks shaky too. The Amex Centurion Lounge at LaGuardia lands at number 11, yet it's regarded as one of the weaker Centurion locations — better ones in New York JFK, Atlanta and Salt Lake City don't appear at all. Capital One's JFK lounge sits fifth, while Capital One's Landings at LaGuardia and Washington National, which many consider the best credit-card lounges in the US, are entirely absent from the list.
Skytrax's process deserves scrutiny. The company doesn't publish its underlying data, sample sizes or weighting formula. It also sells audit and improvement services to the same airlines it rates — a clear conflict of interest. There's history here: in 2012 the UK's Advertising Standards Authority upheld complaints against Skytrax's advertising claims, finding it couldn't substantiate its review-verification practices (reviewer details were deleted after 24 hours) and that it advertised more than five million reviews when only about 400,000 were publicly accessible. The company also awarded Lufthansa a five-star rating in 2017 partly citing its Allegris business class, a product that didn't fly until years later — despite claiming it doesn't assess future products.
Why should you care? Because travellers use these awards to decide which credit card to get and which lounge to seek out. Card-holder access to Capital One Landings, Centurion Lounges and Sapphire Lounges is a real perk, but a single title from an opaque ratings body shouldn't drive your decision. If you're flying out of LaGuardia and have access, the Capital One Landing and even the Centurion are worth comparing against the award-winning Sapphire before you queue. Better yet, check recent traveller reviews rather than trophy lists.
Reported by View from the Wing.