Has the food at the Capital One lounge at DFW decline a lot? I’ve noticed on several visits that the food isn’t as good as it was when they first opened. And across lounges I’ve seen strategies to cut back on grab ‘n go as well.
There doesn’t seem to be as much as there used to be. At the outset they had these large bags – which just served to encourage guests to fill the bags. Their most recent lounge, JFK, has staff getting guests the food items – this discourages anyone that experiences shame from asking for scores of items. My most recent visit to DFW had less than ever before. The hot items were also pretty mid.
Irregular operations meant that I had nearly a 2.5 hour connection at the Dallas A gates.
- My Austin to Dallas flight was delayed, and I was going to misconnect.
- So I first got backed up both on a later Austin – Dallas flight and a later connecting flight. And then I confirmed the later connection.
- All that was available was a non-extra legroom middle seat in economy and I took it. Fortunately the guy next to me at the aisle got an upgrade after boarding, and nobody was brought on to replace him even though the flight was full. So I shifted over to the window and had an empty middle. That made for a perfectly fine flight, even though it’s still a tight space for working on my laptop.
In the air I checked the wait time for the Capital One lounge and it surprisingly said just ‘5-10 minutes’. So I didn’t join the wait list then. Instead, I waited until I landed and joined through the app as I walked off the aircraft – for both the American Express lounge and for the Capital One lounge (and figured if both took a long time I’d use my Royal Jordanian status for American’s Flagship lounge). I headed over to the D concourse.
- Capital One came back in one minute. I was pretty impressed with this! So I had a total of 11 minutes to make it over there, which is about right, and there’d be a grace period in any case.
- American Express took 27 minutes. I didn’t remove myself from the list because they don’t give you a wait time estimate, and I wanted to compare how long it would take (plus I considered that I might want to switch for variety’s sake0.
When I checked in at Capital One, the woman at the desk seemed a bit bored, and was terse in checking me in. In the past, large tables were reserved for larger parties, but that didn’t seem to be the case today and staff weren’t proactively seating people as I’d seen in the past.
The only open spot in the lounge was a larger table that hadn’t been cleared. I took it, but I felt badly, because I was solo and it could have accommodated a party of four. I needed to use the bathroom but there was an 8-person deep line for that, so I waited and managed to return once the line had dwindled.
What was striking, though, was the food service on this visit.
- The grab ‘n go section was closed.
- Grab ‘n go items replaced at least half the hot food.
- Pastries were simpler.
- The ice machine by the self-serve soda was gone.
A sppkesperson shared,
We are working to resolve a small temporary maintenance issue at our grab-and-go station. During this time, some of those offerings have been temporarily relocated to the hot food service area however the entire grab and go menu is available upon request. This is not our standard operating procedure, and we anticipate the station will be operational soon.
I was there for a pass by the ‘rituals cart’ which in this case was jasmine tea and a macaron cookie. It seems like the cookie might have been a bit more nicely presented than in a shrink-wrapped package? And maybe some options for teas? Still, having some personal service rather than just buffet is a really nice experience.
National airport’s ‘Landing’ which is really a complimentary sit-down restaurant remains my favorite in the Capital One portfolio. JFK is the best lounge – based on size, experiences and offerings. DFW was first, and is now four years old. Recent visits haven’t been as good as earlier ones, and like Denver it is frequently very very busy. I want to see it getting a little love.
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