Chase Sapphire Lounge at Seattle Airport Delayed
Plans for a new Chase Sapphire Lounge at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) will have to wait a little longer. The Port of Seattle Commission voted 3-0 to postpone a decision until October 27, giving commissioners more time to get answers about the proposed lounge.
The project would bring a roughly 16,000-square-foot Chase Sapphire Lounge to Concourse A, next to the new Delta One Lounge. Airport Dimensions would operate the lounge on behalf of Chase. The proposed agreement runs for 15 years, with the Port estimating approximately $131 million to $135 million in revenue over that period. Airport Dimensions also estimates approximately $70 million in initial construction and midterm refurbishment costs.
The lounge would include dining and bar areas, showers, a family room, a nursing room, a quiet area and even an outdoor patio.
Why Was the Chase Sapphire Lounge Delayed?
Commissioner Toshiko Hasegawa raised questions about exactly who would be able to use the lounge. She asked staff for more information about Chase Sapphire (she didn’t know what it was), the cardholders it serves and the requirements for carrying the cards.
Her broader question was why the Port should dedicate such a large amount of constrained airport space to a particular subset of travelers. She asked how doing so fits with the Port’s mission of equitable development and its responsibility to maximize public benefit. Staff said they would provide additional information.
Commissioner Samia Mohamed raised a different concern: what happens to other businesses at SEA when travelers spend their time inside the lounge?
She said the information presented didn’t provide a clear enough picture of businesses that could be indirectly affected. Travelers congregating inside a lounge could potentially mean less spending at restaurants and other businesses elsewhere in the terminal. Mohamed also noted that two commissioners were absent and said they should have an opportunity to weigh in.
The Commission initially discussed postponing the decision until October 13. Mohamed said that commissioners might not have enough time to get all their questions answered by then, so the date was then moved to October 27. The postponement passed with a 3-0 vote.
Who Leaked the Public Information?
Besides the commissioners not known some basic information about Chase Sapphire, things got even more entertaining when they started talking about a leak.
Immediately after the vote, Commissioner Ryan Cho asked how news about the Chase Sapphire Lounge had gotten out before commissioners approved it.
“How did the news of this lounge get out before we approved it?”
Cho said the news had been circulating for three days, including on Reddit, and suggested someone had leaked it. He even said that if Chase Sapphire was responsible, they would need to come apologize because it wasn’t acceptable.
There’s just one small problem with the leak theory. The Port of Seattle had already published the meeting agenda, which also included details and renderings on the lounge.
Staff pointed that out during the meeting, saying the agenda had been made public the previous week and that it may have been how people learned about the project.
Commissioners then stated that their bigger concern was reporting that appeared to treat the lounge as already approved. They stressed that appearing on the agenda doesn’t mean commissioners will automatically approve an item without conducting their own review.
HT: VFTW
