Capital One’s latest airport lounge, the Capital One Touchdown, opens tomorrow at Washington, D.C.’s Ronald Reagan Washington Nationwide Airport (DCA) amid a veil of thriller. Capital One had efficiently stored the small print of its first-in-kind lounge idea below wraps, inflicting TPGers, cardholders and D.C. flyers to invest on simply what expertise awaited them.
Is it an airport lounge with elevated snacks? A grab-and-go choice with meals and occasional? All we knew was that world-renowned chef José Andrés (who resides within the D.C. space and has a number of restaurant ideas, together with one with two Michelin stars) was concerned.
At an unique preview every week earlier than opening, my TPG colleague Christine Gallipeau and I received a primary take a look at the house and an introduction to its choices.
The 2-part setup is not like any lounge we have skilled earlier than, and Capital One’s experiences group was clear that it was created particularly with the DCA traveler in thoughts.
What’s distinctive about Capital One Touchdown
Like Capital One’s different lounges at Dallas Fort Value Worldwide Airport (DFW), Denver Worldwide Airport (DEN) and Dulles Worldwide Airport (IAD), the Touchdown at DCA comprises two elements: a conventional lounge with meals, bar drinks and areas to sit down and work earlier than a flight on one aspect and a grab-and-go espresso store known as On the Fly with snacks, takeaway meals and cold and hot drinks on the opposite.
However not like the opposite lounge areas, the Touchdown’s two areas are separate. To get from one to the opposite, you will want to exit into the terminal and stroll round a nook.
The variations do not cease there. Not like different lounges, the Capital One Touchdown will assign all visitors to a desk after check-in, like at a sit-down restaurant — that means guests haven’t got free rein to hang around wherever they like. The entry coverage can also be extra restrictive than on the Capital One Lounges in different airports.
On the grab-and-go, issues additionally take an surprising flip: On the Fly will probably be open to all DCA vacationers, and the foods and drinks there won’t be free for anybody — no matter what playing cards are in your pockets.
Here is what to anticipate at each halves of this new Capital One vacation spot.
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Capital One Touchdown primary lounge
Capital One Touchdown sits in DCA’s Terminal 2, with an entrance from the Nationwide Corridor primary thoroughfare close to Concourse D.
Its location locations it closest to American Airways’ gates, although DCA’s small dimension means it is solely a brief stroll from the gates usually utilized by different airways that use Terminal 2.
From 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. day by day, Capital One Enterprise X Rewards Credit score Card and Capital One Enterprise X Enterprise cardholders can take pleasure in complimentary entry for themselves and one visitor.
This differs barely from entry guidelines for different airports’ Capital One Lounges, which enable these cardholders to enter with two visitors with out incurring a charge.
Further visitors, in addition to these with a Capital One Spark Miles for Enterprise or Capital One Enterprise Rewards Credit score Card, pay $45 per particular person, per go to. Everybody else pays $90 — besides youngsters below 2 touring with cardholders, who can enter at no further price.
Upon arrival, you possibly can achieve entry by exhibiting your related Capital One bank card (if in case you have one) and a boarding go for a same-day departing or connecting flight as much as three hours earlier than departure.
Capability
At 5,500 sq. ft, the Capital One Touchdown at DCA has a present most capability of 90-plus visitors, making it smaller than the Capital One Lounge at close by Dulles Worldwide Airport, which measures 8,500 sq. ft and has a capability of 120-plus. (Although the Touchdown’s capability may change as soon as the house is open.) That signifies that solely a restricted variety of visitors can benefit from the amenities at one time in an age of fixed lounge overcrowding.
The Capital One group has anticipated this situation. To handle occupancy considerations, the group will handle demand by permitting cardholders to make reservations as much as six months upfront — an unheard-of improvement in airport lounge tradition.
Stroll-ins will probably be accepted if house is offered, and, as with the opposite Capital One Lounges, vacationers can add themselves to a waitlist and monitor wait occasions by way of the Capital One app.
Structure and what to anticipate
Upon checking in on the host stand, you and your social gathering will probably be assigned seats at one of many tables. That is not like most different lounges, the place it’s essential to wander via the lounge, bar and desk seating to discover a spot giant sufficient in your social gathering.
All of the seating within the Capital One Touchdown outposts is at tables, with discreet desk and chair setups flanking a central part with two lengthy banquettes and a bar space with counter seating and a bar-height desk.
The seating areas have been cleverly designed with the traveler in thoughts. Coat/purse hooks and energy retailers can be found at each desk, and there are areas between and below tables for baggage storage.
Further baggage storage areas for bigger baggage will be discovered at every finish of a row of tables. And for individuals who want to keep linked whereas on the go, there’s complimentary high-speed web entry.
Whereas a few of Capital One Touchdown’s tables are adjoining to home windows looking on the jetway, the seats alongside the terminal-facing aspect of the room are alongside half partitions. In consequence, the house will probably be open to the terminal site visitors moderately than fully walled off in quiet and privateness, an intentional resolution made by Capital One to offer guests with alternatives to observe passersby.
The considering behind the Touchdown, as defined to us by Jenn Scheurich, Capital One’s head of journey and retail expertise, is that the DCA traveler is usually flying domestically, not on an extended layover. Due to this, they spend minimal time within the airport between clearing safety and heading to their gate.
To finest cater to any such traveler, Capital One designed the Touchdown’s food-and-beverage service to be delivered rapidly. Any merchandise on the menu, even craft cocktails and sizzling tapas, is designed to reach in below 20 minutes.
By serving meals and drinks quicker, vacationers might discover they spend much less time within the lounge, maybe making the smaller variety of seats much less of a priority because of the fixed turnover.
For the reason that Touchdown was designed for shorter layovers, you will not discover showers, rest areas or personal convention rooms right here. Nevertheless, it does have two gender-neutral loos with altering tables and enjoyable native paintings.
The decor is a part of the attract of the lounge, with geometric murals on the partitions, a shocking basket-inspired lighting set up within the coronary heart of the lounge and quirky knickknacks on cabinets across the bar. Lengthy partitions of home windows convey plenty of mild into the house.
Capital One Touchdown meals
In case you have the time and the suitable bank card, José Andrés’ tapas menu is unquestionably a cause to cease by the Capital One Touchdown.
The partnership between Andrés and Capital One marks the restaurateur’s first expertise with airport eating. The José Andrés Group was not hands-off; the chef and his group have been integral to the planning of the lounge, from the menu to the decor, furnishings and kitchen format.
For instance, the group made sure that choose elements on the Touchdown’s menu (Spanish bread, olive oil, jamon) have been sourced from the group’s favourite purveyors and even all the way in which from Spain.
The venue has a breakfast menu, in addition to a lunch and dinner menu. You may choose up chilly snacks and desserts on the buffet, however the remainder of your meals will probably be plated and served by an attendant.
Do not miss the gazpacho in cute branded glasses when you select charcuterie and cheeses, kale or Caesar salad, hummus and veggies, and baba ghanoush with pita chips.
Order your sizzling gadgets by way of the QR code on the desk, and your meals will probably be delivered in simply minutes. (Throughout our go to, all the pieces got here in below 10 minutes.) We have been followers of the croquetas, the bikini de queso grilled cheese sandwich, the carne asada with mojo verde sauce and the not-so-Spanish-but-still-delicious eggplant and tofu donburi.
For dessert, the burnt Basque cheesecake and oat milk mushy serve are musts.
Breakfast choices embody olive oil pancakes, eggs Benedict and a Spanish omelet (pincho de tortilla).
If you’d like a really particular deal with throughout your time on the Capital One Touchdown, hold a watch out for waiters with roving carts. These interactive tableside experiences are impressed by the José Andrés Group’s restaurant The Bazaar.
Throughout our preview, a waiter got here round with labneh cones — tiny ice cream cones crammed with labneh (a mushy Center Jap cheese) after which topped with caviar. A cheesecake cart may make an look within the afternoon. No upcharge required.
Capital One Touchdown drinks
A group of top-notch mixologists and wine administrators from the José Andrés Group designed the Capital One Touchdown’s beverage menu. They put a variety of thought into making a cocktail menu that provides the kind of high-end craft cocktails you’d discover in D.C.’s city bar scene in a means that is speedy to assemble for flyers on the go.
The group achieved this via culinary magic that lets them premix a lot of the elements. Lots of the signature cocktails are on faucet — take a second to admire the faucet handles designed to appear like foosball figures, a José Andrés restaurant staple that provides a playful contact to the house — together with two draft beers (a Spanish lager and a rotating native beer).
A number of drinks on the menu draw inspiration from Spain, the place Andrés was born. Signature drinks embody a nitro-machine espresso martini with a touch of mint and banana, a sangria roja, the Negroni Cortado (made with gin, candy vermouth, Campari and palo cortado sherry) and the Rum & Coconut (a a lot lighter model of a pina colada that is clarified utilizing coconut and options Banks 7 golden mix rum, lime, orange and membership soda).
If consuming and flying is simply too dehydrating, attempt one of many nonalcoholic concoctions; the Fresa y Pina (a refreshing drink with strawberry and pineapple flavors) was delightfully tasty.
Espresso drinks (together with chilly brew straight from a faucet), caffeinated and natural teas, Spanish wine and soda are additionally out there.
In the event you love personalised cocktails, hold your eye out for these enjoyable roving carts. Throughout our preview, one of many bartenders served customized gin and tonics along with your alternative of elements and garnishes. Throughout breakfast hours, you possibly can choose from an array of fruit juices to pair with glowing wine from a mimosa cart.
On the Fly quick-service venue
The opposite half of the Capital One Touchdown is known as On the Fly, positioned simply across the nook off Concourse D. It is an a la carte quick-service cafe serving premade sandwiches and snacks, bottled drinks and caffeinated drinks made to order.
On the Fly is open to all vacationers, and it isn’t free for any Capital One cardholders.
Right here, you may discover a fairly typical airport grab-and-go meals purveyor and occasional store, an alternative choice to Starbucks and different airport meals distributors. The rationale to cease right here as a substitute of 5 Guys or &Pizza could be that the menu gadgets come from the José Andrés Group.
The one comfort for cardholders is that when you pay with a Enterprise X or Enterprise X Enterprise card, you possibly can obtain a 50% low cost for all meals and drinks.
At On the Fly, refrigerated cabinets maintain premade sandwiches (tuna, grilled vegetable) and salads (hen Caesar, child kale), plus lidded plastic tubs of yogurt, hummus and pita, and fruit.
You can too choose up Terra chips or José Andrés-branded potato chips, packing containers of crackers, a recent bagel or brisket sandwich, an empanada or a croissant from the counter. Numerous espresso and tea drinks (together with the aforementioned chilly brew from a faucet) are additionally out there to buy; the menu remains to be being finalized.
The costs listed on the cabinets have been sky-high (e.g., $9 for a small serving of hummus and pita chips), as befits an airport, so we’re curious to see if noncardholders will select the Capital One choice over Starbucks, Dunkin’ or different Concourse D eateries.
A consultant from Capital One tells us they’re nonetheless finalizing pricing, so we’re to see if the costs change sooner or later.
The half-price choice for Enterprise X and Enterprise X Enterprise cardholders makes it a extra interesting grab-and-go choice for these with the suitable card of their pockets, however vacationers will possible miss the free takeaway choices they’re used to on the Capital One Lounges at DFW, DEN and IAD.
Backside line
The Capital One Touchdown represents a brand new lounge idea for the bank card firm and the airport lounge business. The José Andrés collaboration and well designed lounge house are compelling causes for Capital One cardholders to decide on the brand new lounge over different choices on the airport — if they’ve the time and may get a desk.
The a la carte quick-service espresso bar could also be a more durable promote for many vacationers. Whereas the standard matches what you’d count on from José Andrés, the excessive costs and title recognition may not be sufficient to lure vacationers from their beloved Starbucks or Dunkin’.
For these keen to check the brand new idea elsewhere, you are in luck, as a second Capital One Touchdown will debut in late 2025 at New York’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in Terminal B. Vacationers preferring the unique lounge idea will discover the subsequent new areas at Las Vegas’ Harry Reid Worldwide Airport (LAS) in early 2025 and New York’s John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK) in mid-2025.
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