What’s the Best Lounge at LaGuardia (LGA) Airport? Chase vs. Amex vs. Capital One

Quick Verdict:

🥇Capital One Landing Wins (this lounge is absurdly nice. Restaurant-quality food, great views and natural light, and friendly service. Best overall experience at LGA)

🥈Chase Sapphire Lounge (close second – solid food, great design, but lacks natural light; dungeon vibes)

🥉American Express Centurion Lounge (a distant third – this is a utility lounge. Amex Centurion lounges are kind of like the Chipotle of airport lounges; you know what you’re gonna get but they’re nothing special. I do love Chipotle though.)

Introduction

Capitalism leads to weird outcomes sometimes. But hey, I’m not complaining. You can get restaurant quality food for free at LaGuardia now if you’re playing the credit card game correctly. Terminal B at LaGuardia airport in NYC (LGA) has experienced one of the most dramatic glow-ups of all times. Once the worst airport experience in the country, it’s now one of the best, if not the best. On top of that, it’s become an intense battleground between Amex, Chase, and Capital One. They all want affluent NYC customers to sign up for their premium credit cards, and are willing to dish out some seriously money to build nice lounges to do so. In the battle to get their plastic (metal, I should say) in your wallet, we now have the most first-world of questions: which lounge is the best? First-world questions require first-world answers, and that answer is clear: it’s the Capital One Landing at LGA. I visited all 3 lounges to compare (see my separate reviews here of the Capital One Landing, Chase Sapphire Lounge, and Amex Centurion lounge).

In this article, you’ll find:

Where To Find These Lounges & How to Get In

These lounges are all located in Terminal B of LaGuardia airport, which primarily serves American and United (sorry Delta flyers – Terminal C just doesn’t have the same lounge scene – although the Delta Sky Club in Terminal C is pretty nice).

Access for all these lounges is straightforward – you need to have their top-tier premium travel cards in order to get in:

Capital One Lounges / Landings: Venture X cardholders get access, but for themselves only. This is a new policy as of February 2026 to address overcrowding. Guests are $45 per person or you can “earn” one free guest per visit by spending at least $75k on the card per year (similar to the way Amex does this). This card has an annual fee of $395/year, the cheapest of the bunch (and it basically pays for itself – read my review of the card here)

Chase Sapphire Lounges: The Chase Sapphire Reserve (not Preferred!) will earn you complimentary access for yourself and up to two free guests (we’ll see how long this lasts…)…

American Express Centurion Lounge: The Amex Platinum Card (or Centurion card) are the main ways to get in. Similar to Capital One, they only allow access for yourself; guests can be brought in for $50 per person. You can earn free guest privileges if you spend at least $75k / year on the card (read my review of the refreshed Amex Platinum here; despite the steep $895/year fee it can actually be a lucrative card to hold if you play the credits right)

Here are the lounge entrances of all 3 bank-run lounges at LaGuardia airport:

These lounges are all a maximum 5-minute walk from each other. The Amex and Chase lounges are literally right next to each other (basically conjoined doors), whereas the Capital One lounge is closer to the B11-B31 gates.

Here’s a map on the LGA website; Capital One is still relatively new so they’re not on the map yet, but you can see the layout clearly here:

Why Capital One Is Best

So why is Capital One so good?

Reason 1: The physical space is the best, by far. I’d argue this lounge is the best-located of any lounge in the US. It’s built directly into the elevated air bridge at LaGuardia, which means great views from pretty much every seat. Also, there’s plenty of natural light (unlike the Chase Lounge, and also the Amex lounge) and it’s the best-designed space (although to be fair, Chase is also extremely nice). It looks like a super high-end, futuristic hotel / bar.

Reason 2: The food is the best. It’s hard to beat a menu created by Jose Andres. I also found the staff really polished and friendly here. The drinks selection is solid and they even offer cocktails delivered to your table.

And those 2 reasons are pretty much all you need for a quality time in a lounge.

Food Comparison

The most important part to me of any lounge (other than a quiet place to work) is the food.

Here’s how the food stacks up between each lounge:

Capital One: Offers both a la carte tapas bar where you can grab anything, or a made-to-order menu you can order food from (via QR code) straight to your table. All menu items were delicious (I tried pretty much everything on the breakfast menu when I visited.

Chase Sapphire Lounge: The food scene here is similar to Capital One: a-la-carte small dishes you can grab, or made-to-order items from the QR code at your table. I found that the food quality here was not as good, though, but still solidly A-.

Amex Centurion Lounge: Last and least – Amex. They offer the typical buffet here. It’s decent quality, and if you want volume of food (i.e you’re bulking and want a ton of chicken and rice), then this is your lounge. If you want high quality restaurant-like food however, this is not your place.

Physical Space & Amenities Comparison

Onto the physical space itself:

Capital One: Capital One wins. I don’t know what deal they had to cut with the Port Authority for this spot but this is truly the best lounge location possible. It’s built directly into the side of the elevated bridge in terminal B, with great natural light and sweeping views of the surrounding tarmac . The space is also super well-designed with really comfortable seating all around. The only downside is that seating is functionally assigned (i.e you’re assigned to a table, and no roaming thereafter). Also, note that the lounge (“landing”) is designed for shorter stays (hence the restaurant concept).

Chase Sapphire Lounge: Chase is a very close second in terms of physical space design – they actually might be first here, but unfortunately there is zero natural light or windows in this lounge (it’s basically buried in the underbelly of LaGuardia terminal B). The lounge designers did what they could to make up for this: it’s an objectively beautiful space with tons of seating options and more amenities than the Capital One lounge (i.e business center, an arcade, even a private room – although this costs a lot to reserve).

Amex Centurion Lounge: And once again, Amex coming in last. Again, this lounge is ~fine~. It’s a utility lounge with normal seating, but it’s nothing special. It was best in class when it opened in 2021, but things have just become so competitive since then – for the better.

Conclusion

Terminal B at LaGuardia quickly went from one of the worst airports in the US pre-renovation, to now being a beautiful space itself with one of the best and most competitive airport lounge scenes in the country. While any of these lounges on its own are great, the Capital One Landing takes the crown for absolute best lounge at LaGuardia.