Within the high-stakes premium journey race of 2025, each main bank card issuer is attempting to say the loyalty of prosperous vacationers—and airport lounges have change into probably the most seen battleground.
American Specific is refreshing its Platinum Card and launching a brand new fast-format Sidecar lounge. Capital One’s Enterprise X card has change into a darling amongst vacationers, due to its hyperlocal boutique-style lounges. And Citi has returned to the ultra-premium enviornment with the $595 Strata Elite card.
As for Chase? Contemporary off elevating its Sapphire Reserve annual fee to $795 and launching its Sapphire Reserve for Enterprise card, the finance big is now signaling that its lounges aren’t meant to be carbon copies of current fashions.
They’re meant to be locations.
That path turns into unmistakable with the opening of the most recent Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Membership at Harry Reid Worldwide Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas.
The 2-story area arrives on Wednesday, December 3, with a marquee characteristic: Chase’s first-ever champagne parlor providing bar cart service, glowing wine, mimosas, seasonal spritzes, and tray-passed bites.
It’s theatrical, indulgent, and distinctly Vegas—an early clue to how Chase sees the following part of luxurious journey advantages.
“We’re tremendous enthusiastic about this lounge,” Dana Pouwels, head of airport lounge advantages at Chase, tells Quick Firm. “A key focus for us with the Sapphire Lounge technique is basically bringing the most effective of the town into the lounge and actually making a vacation spot that prospects wish to go to and go to completely different areas to allow them to study one thing new.”
In a yr when premium playing cards are escalating their lounge and concierge choices—and, in lots of instances, their charges—Chase’s champagne lounge doesn’t simply supply bubbles. It presents model differentiation.
Why Las Vegas—and why now
Las Vegas was Chase’s sixth-most booked home journey vacation spot in 2025, and it performs an outsize position in Sapphire Reserve buyer conduct.
Different issuers have staked new floor in Vegas, too:
- American Specific is getting ready to open its Sidecar by the Centurion Lounge location there someday in 2026.
- Capital One is including one other of its boutique-style lounges at LAS as a part of its 2025 growth.
Chase’s stepping in with its personal idea—rooted in “sense of place”—underscores the town’s rising significance as a journey loyalty battleground.
“This lounge is basically about capturing the colourful power of Las Vegas,” Pouwels says. “We went for daring, shimmering finishes . . . however then we paired that with desert-themed touches that commemorate the distinctive panorama of the area.”
Chase makes use of every lounge to check new concepts, an strategy that contrasts sharply with the uniformity seen in lots of airline-branded lounges. “A spotlight, particularly for me, of this lounge is we’re doing our first-ever champagne parlor . . . one other enjoyable means for us to do one thing distinctive and completely different on this lounge,” Pouwels says.
This experimentation is a part of Chase’s signature. Its Phoenix lounge launched a pre-bookable Airstream kitchen. San Diego options hyperlocal seafood dishes. And Boston introduced wellness therapies into the fold.
“We take a look at completely different ideas in every market . . . as a consequence of buyer suggestions,” Pouwels says. “That may be a differentiating issue for us as we take into consideration the lounge panorama general.”
Culinary partnerships as a nationwide technique
In Vegas, which means chef David Chang’s Momofuku model.
“Momofuku has been a part of the Las Vegas group for almost a decade, and they also’re actually the right companion for us right here,” Pouwels says. “They’ll be bringing some favorites . . . like spicy cucumber salad, crispy nori potatoes, after which their well-known pork bun.”
Different markets showcase equally intentional partnerships:
- Philadelphia: Center Little one Clubhouse dishes, Elixr Espresso, and a neighborhood craft beer backyard celebrating the town’s brewing heritage.
- LaGuardia: Fairfax dishes and occasional from NYC’s famed Joe Espresso.
- San Diego: Oscar’s Mexican Seafood and Groundwork Espresso anchor a West Coast–impressed menu.
This constant dedication to locality differentiates Chase from different airline lounges and offers Sapphire Reserve a culinary id distinct from the Platinum Card’s chef collective or Enterprise X’s native brewery collaborations.
The payment hike—and what lounges need to do with it
Chase’s determination to lift the Sapphire Reserve annual payment to $795 earlier this yr places it squarely in competitors with the Amex Platinum ($895) and Citi Strata Elite ($595). In the meantime, Capital One’s Enterprise X stays considerably decrease, at $395, drawing consideration from cost-conscious premium vacationers.
To justify an almost $800 price ticket, Chase’s lounges should ship actual, experiential worth.
“The lounge technique is basically based mostly on creating experiences for our card members on the end-to-end journey journey,” Pouwels says. “The explanation that we open lounges within the first place is basically to make journey higher for card members.”
And at the same time as some opponents are tightening visitor entry, Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Reserve for Enterprise card members can deliver two company without spending a dime—a significant differentiator as United Airways, Delta Air Traces, and Amex modify their insurance policies to curb crowding.
What units a Sapphire Lounge aside from opponents?
Pouwels frames it when it comes to personalization and adaptability—two issues vacationers more and more demand throughout card ecosystems.
“We actually assume our lounges are differentiated, distinctive, personalised, and actually targeted on elevating that buyer’s journey journey,” she says.
Chase goals to satisfy vacationers the place they’re:
- Friends with hours to spare can get pleasure from sit-down eating, wellness areas, and personal suites.
- Friends with mere minutes can profit from grab-and-go choices, specialty espresso, and quiet seating zones.
“It doesn’t actually matter whether or not you might have quarter-hour or whether or not you might have an hour—you continue to need a fantastic lounge expertise,” Pouwels says.
A lounge as a loyalty engine
In a yr when premium playing cards are redefining what “luxurious” means—whether or not it’s Amex’s chef-driven menus, Enterprise X’s domestically brewed “excellent airport beers,” or Citi’s sweep of high-value life-style credit—the Las Vegas Sapphire Lounge exhibits how Chase plans to compete: by means of curated vacation spot immersion.
The champagne parlor is greater than a novelty. It’s a glimpse of Chase’s long-term guess that the way forward for loyalty isn’t nearly factors—it’s about locations.
And if Chase’s evolving lounge technique stays on this course, the airport may quickly change into vacationers’ first style of their vacation spot—not simply the place they move by means of to succeed in it.
