Review of Washington Reagan Airport’s (DCA) New Capital One Landing (Spoiler: It’s Great)

Worth Coming to Airport Early For: YES 

Better Than The Terminal? YES

Better late than never? Capital One’s long awaited (2+ years!) Capital One Landing concept is finally live at Reagan Airport (DCA). I was had a chance to visit right after this lounge opened in November, and long story short, it’s extremely well done. I’d dare to say it’s probably the best small Domestic lounge in the United States. Capital One is really giving Amex a run for its money in the lounge game (Chase is as well!). Seems like we’re really entering the golden era for consumers for US bank-run airport lounges, which kind of makes domestic flying…nice? At least less sh*tty., that’s for sure.

Introduction

For a quick background, Capital One Landings were a concept introduced in 2022 that are designed to be sit-down restaurant type of meals with some grab and go features (so NOT the typical full-service lounge with other amenities). The food menu is curated in partnership with Jose Andres, a famous Spanish chef. The lounge offers a broad menu, but with tapas-style plates with lots of Spanish influence (jamon iberico, etc). The lounge offers a dining area where you can pick up single serve dishes, or can order off the menu from QR codes on the table. You’ll be assigned a table after checking in with the host in front.

This specific lounge is quite small, at just 5,500 square feet for a capacity of ~120. It’s currently operated by Plaza Premium Group, which has a generally great track record of operating Airport lounges.

There is also a separate grab and go area, which is completely detached from the restaurant component of the lounge and is open to the general public (see more below). As a Venture X cardholder, you get 50% off all items here, which without the discount are typical airport food prices (egregious).

In this post:

1. Introduction
2. Access & Guest Policies
3. How to Find the Lounge & Reservations
4. Lounge Amenities and Review
5. Grab and Go Station
6. Conclusion

Access & Guest Policies

The lounge is currently open every day, from 6am to 9pm.

Access to this lounge is straightforward: you need to have the Capital One Venture X card (or business equivalent) to enter the lounge.

Please note the Capital One Venture Card will NOT get you access, but you will be able to purchase lounge access for $45 per visit.

Venture X card members get unlimited free access for themselves and one guest with the card, and extra guest access can be purchased for $45 per person. This is a relatively generous policy compared to Amex, so I’m curious if this starts to lead to overcrowding in the future, especially given that this lounge is significantly better than Amex’s centurion lounge at DCA.

How to Find the Lounge & Reservations

The lounge is located in Terminal 2 near concourse D.

Below are the airlines that currently fly out of Terminal 2, which are pretty much all of them.

American

United

Delta

Alaska

JetBlue

If you’re flying Air Canada, Frontier, or Southwest, you’re out of luck. Terminal 1 and 2 are not connected airside at DCA. This should impact a minority of travelers, however.

One thing to note is this lounge does offer reservations in advance if you want to book a table. Please note that this is NOT required, and that only a small number of tables are made available in advance. When checking the calendar, I was worried because the calendar was 100% booked when I checked. I figured I’d try my luck as a walk-in, and to my surprise the lounge was basically entirely empty. However, I don’t expect this to last for long once word gets out on how good it is, but let’s enjoy the quiet for now.

To book a reservation, go to the capital one app and tab on the “Travel” tile in the rewards and benefit section (the airplane icon). After that, navigate to the specific airport desired (in this case, DCA) where you’ll be able to view availability for reservations.

Lounge Amenities and Review

Now, for the part you actually care about: the lounge!

The lounge is basically one large room with mixed seating. The host will bring you to your table after checking in. Because of the dine to order concept, you’ll have to stick to your assigned table after being seated (although they let me choose wherever I wanted at first among the empty tables).

The main seating area was super nice and very well decorated. Everything felt super high quality, from the service to the decor.

The lounge has a ton of natural light, and faces towards tarmac on all outside window seats, which is awesome for plane spotting. Here’s where I ended up:

And now, for the most important part: the food. The food was exceptional. I was there for breakfast, so was only able to try the breakfast menu. I’m sure the lunch / dinner menu is probably incredible as well.

You can either grab small plates at the pickup station by the bar, or order from the menu which is delivered straight to your table. I did a bit of both, and everything was super high quality.

I really, really like the small plates concept for airport lounges. First, it’s way more sanitary than the buffet concept (Amex, take note). Second, on a personal note, it prevents me from completely gorging myself because everything is free, from which I regret it immediately 1 hour later. I mean, you can definitely still do that here, it’d just be harder and take more time. Also, the food quality here is incredible, probably some of the best I’ve ever had in any airport lounge.

For my food, I got a La Calombe cold brew and an assortment of dishes:

And a lounge review would not be complete without a quick bathroom check. There are two unisex single occupancy bathrooms in this lounge.

Grab and Go Station

The most underwhelming part of the Capital One Landing is only loosely connected to the lounge, which is the grab and go station. As mentioned before, this is 100% open to the public, and any capital one card holder still has to pay. Venture X cardholders get 50% off all items, however. There wasn’t much special about this grab and go station, and it was relatively small:

For posterity, I tried the coconut quinoa chia oatmeal. This was actually quite good. Not worth full price, but tasted good nonetheless. To be fair, I would never pay these prices at any airport store, so this isn’t unique to Capital One.

Conclusion

The new Capital One Landing at DCA is incredible, and I’d highly recommend carving out an extra hour before your flight to try out all the food and drink options. The service was top notch and most importantly, the food quality was really, really good. It actually felt more like a restaurant than an airport (and free!).

The grab and go station isn’t anything crazy, but the discount could help for a quick snack if you’re in a rush.

I’m super excited for the Capital One Landing to open at LGA, although that may be a year or more away at this point.