Capital One Touchdown opens quickly at DCA — and it is in contrast to any airport lounge we have ever skilled

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 saved the small print of its first-in-kind lounge idea beneath wraps, inflicting TPGers, cardholders and D.C. flyers to take a position on simply what expertise awaited them.

Is it an airport lounge with elevated snacks? A grab-and-go choice with meals and low? 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 per week earlier than opening, my TPG colleague Christine Gallipeau and I bought a primary have a look at the house and an introduction to its choices.

The 2-part setup is in contrast to any lounge we have skilled earlier than, and Capital One’s experiences crew 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 components: a conventional lounge with meals, bar drinks and areas to take a seat 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 in contrast to 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. In contrast to different lounges, the Capital One Touchdown will assign all friends to a desk after check-in, like at a sit-down restaurant — which means guests do not have 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 is not going to 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.

Capital One Touchdown predominant lounge

Capital One Touchdown sits in DCA’s Terminal 2, with an entrance from the Nationwide Corridor predominant 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 repeatedly 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 get pleasure from complimentary entry for themselves and one visitor.

This differs barely from entry guidelines for different airports’ Capital One Lounges, which allow these cardholders to enter with two friends with out incurring a charge.

Extra friends, in addition to these with a Capital One Spark Miles for Enterprise or Capital One Enterprise Rewards Credit score Card, pay $45 per individual, per go to. Everybody else pays $90 — besides children beneath 2 touring with cardholders, who can enter at no extra value.

Upon arrival, you possibly can achieve entry by exhibiting your related Capital One bank card (when you’ve got one) and a boarding move for a same-day departing or connecting flight as much as three hours earlier than departure.

Capability

At 5,500 sq. toes, the Capital One Touchdown at DCA has a present most capability of 90-plus friends, making it smaller than the Capital One Lounge at close by Dulles Worldwide Airport, which measures 8,500 sq. toes and has a capability of 120-plus. (Although the Touchdown’s capability may change as soon as the house is open.) That implies that solely a restricted variety of friends can benefit from the amenities at one time in an age of fixed lounge overcrowding.

The Capital One crew has anticipated this challenge. To handle occupancy issues, the crew will handle demand by permitting cardholders to make reservations as much as six months prematurely — an unheard-of growth in airport lounge tradition.

Stroll-ins will probably be accepted if house is on the market, 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 get together will probably be assigned seats at one of many tables. That is in contrast to most different lounges, the place you could wander by the lounge, bar and desk seating to discover a spot giant sufficient to your get together.

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 had been cleverly designed with the traveler in thoughts. Coat/purse hooks and energy shops can be found at each desk, and there are areas between and beneath tables for baggage storage.

Extra baggage storage areas for bigger luggage might be discovered at every finish of a row of tables. And for individuals who want to keep related 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 relatively than fully walled off in quiet and privateness, an intentional resolution made by Capital One to offer guests with alternatives to observe passersby.

The pondering 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 a protracted 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 shortly. Any merchandise on the menu, even craft cocktails and sizzling tapas, is designed to reach in beneath 20 minutes.

By serving meals and drinks sooner, 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. Nonetheless, 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 deliver plenty of gentle into the house.

Capital One Touchdown meals

You probably have the time and the suitable bank card, José Andrés’ tapas menu is unquestionably a purpose 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 crew had been integral to the planning of the lounge, from the menu to the decor, furnishings and kitchen format.

For instance, the crew made sure that choose components on the Touchdown’s menu (Spanish bread, olive oil, jamon) had 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 decide 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 pick charcuterie and cheeses, kale or Caesar salad, hummus and veggies, and baba ghanoush with pita chips.

Order your sizzling objects 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 beneath 10 minutes.) We had 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 would like a very particular deal with throughout your time on the Capital One Touchdown, preserve an eye fixed 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 Japanese cheese) after which topped with caviar. A cheesecake cart may make an look within the afternoon. No upcharge required.

Capital One Touchdown drinks

A crew of top-notch mixologists and wine administrators from the José Andrés Group designed the Capital One Touchdown’s beverage menu. They put loads of thought into making a cocktail menu that gives the kind of high-end craft cocktails you’d discover in D.C.’s city bar scene in a method that is speedy to assemble for flyers on the go.

The crew achieved this by culinary magic that lets them premix many of the components. 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 ingesting 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 obtainable.

When you love personalised cocktails, preserve your eye out for these enjoyable roving carts. Throughout our preview, one of many bartenders served customized gin and tonics together with your alternative of components 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 named 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 is not free for any Capital One cardholders.

Right here, you will discover a fairly typical airport grab-and-go meals purveyor and low store, an alternative choice to Starbucks and different airport meals distributors. The explanation to cease right here as an alternative of 5 Guys or &Pizza can be that the menu objects come from the José Andrés Group.

The one comfort for cardholders is that in the event 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 (rooster Caesar, child kale), plus lidded plastic tubs of yogurt, hummus and pita, and fruit.

It’s also possible to decide up Terra chips or José Andrés-branded potato chips, containers of crackers, a contemporary bagel or brisket sandwich, an empanada or a croissant from the counter. Varied espresso and tea drinks (together with the aforementioned chilly brew from a faucet) are additionally obtainable to buy; the menu remains to be being finalized.

The costs listed on the cabinets had 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 probably 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 neatly 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 might 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 identify recognition won’t 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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