Southwest Airlines Is Building At Least 11 Airport Lounges And Announces Plan For New Premium Chase Credit Card

I’m at American Airlines’ media event at Dallas Fort Worth right now for the debut of its first refurbished Boeing 777-300ER, a plane with 70 business class suites and 44 premium economy seats that enters commercial service today. And at almost the same moment, its cross-town rival finally announced the airport lounge network that it has already been building. Southwest says Austin, Baltimore, Honolulu and Nashville are under construction, the first guests are expected in late 2027, and at least seven more lounges will follow. The airline is working with Chase on its new premium credit card that will launch next year and provide access. There’s Very Little New In Their Announcement Southwest has been coy about lounges even as leases, permits and its own executives were talking up the plan Baltimore is newly confirmed. I ranked it first among the likely next locations five days ago. A minimum network of 11 lounges is new. Until now we could identify six cities in the pipeline and make educated guesses about several more. Southwest has now committed to four under construction and at least seven additional locations. The 2027 card and the Chase partnership are official. Southwest had surveyed a premium card and CEO Bob Jordan had explicitly connected it to the lounge program, but they’re announcing it formally without any details. Late 2027 for the first openings. The announcement does not say that all four will open then, or even identify which lounge will be first. Honolulu was already official with its lease. I broke the Austin plan from Southwest’s airport agreement and then identified the 20,000-square-foot West Infill project location from permits. Nashville’s 30,000-square-foot lounge, $53 million permit, location, contractor schedule and unusual children’s area were public in airport documents I found as well. The Wall Street Journal adds that Baltimore should be roughly 30,000 square feet, that Southwest is aiming for more ambitious meals and signature bars, and that memberships and day passes have not been ruled out. Executives reportedly spent months touring other lounges and concluded that size matters if they want to avoid the lines and crowding that have plagued competitors although Honolulu will be small. Southwest still has not shown a rendering, named the lounges, disclosed the card’s annual fee or guest rules, said whether fares or elite status will confer access, or identified the remaining cities. And while it repeatedly invokes Chase’s Sapphire lounge experience, it does not say that Sapphire Reserve cardmembers will get into Southwest lounges or that the Southwest card will get into Sapphire lounges. However they are ‘partnering’ blending with the Sapphire Reserve lounge network. These new spaces blend Southwest’s signature hospitality with the proven success of the Chase Sapphire Reserve Lounge Network. Travelers can expect locally inspired dining, high-quality amenities and curated benefits. Why These Four Airports Make Sense Airport lounge strategy is constrained by two things: where an airline has the right customer fix and where suitable space actually exists. Southwest’s first four check both boxes, although for very different reasons. Austin Has Premium Customers And A Turnkey Lounge Site Southwest is Austin’s largest airline, with more than 130 peak-day departures, and it opened a new crew base there this year and is expected to grow to about 2,000 employees by mid-2027. It has more gates coming with the airport’s new concourse expansion. Austin also has the affluent technology and corporate customer base that is driving Delta’s growth at the airport. Just as important, the airport had a 20,000-square-foot premium lounge site sitting above its new security checkpoint. The West Infill space had originally been earmarked for a financial institution, so Southwest did not have to wait for a new concourse to be built. There is a new detail in the Texas permit record: it places the estimated cost at $55 million and names Corgan as the designer. Corgan is also designing Nashville. That suggests a common design hand across at least the first two clubs whose project teams are public. The Austin estimate works out to $2,750 per square foot on the face of the filing, an extraordinary number even for a premium lounge. Permit values can encompass airport systems and other work. The same permit still lists a March 1, 2027 completion target. Nashville’s contractor schedule pointed to June 28. But airport construction schedules always miss, and permitting dates are not opening dates. Southwest’s “late 2027” customer guidance is reasonable. Baltimore Is A Huge Hub Baltimore was an obvious omission from the previously known list, and my number one pick with new airport space available but no known documents confirming they’d taken space (airlines don’t go through competitive RFP processes with an airport where they’re a signatory on the lease, usually). BWI is Southwest’s largest East Coast station, with more than 18 million Southwest passengers, about 230 daily departures and 82 destinations in the airport’s previous year. It is also where Southwest began international flying, connects passengers onto overseas interline partners and has talked about eventually launching its own longer-haul service. BWI’s new $520 million Concourse A/B connector opened with 28,000 square feet of shell space reserved for future concessions. The Journal says the Southwest lounge will be roughly 30,000 square feet. So that’s my guess for the new lounge site. BWI’s only general-use lounge today is a 2,200-square-foot, 50-seat Club in Concourse D. Passengers departing from Concourses A through C have to clear security again to use it. A Southwest club by its own gates would be more than 13 times as large. Nashville: Where Southwest Makes Money Nashville is reportedly Southwest’s most profitable station and the airline carries a majority of the airport’s passengers. There is abundant local business and leisure traffic as well as connecting volume. And there was a huge, centrally located mezzanine above the terminal Marketplace available. As I reported, the 30,000-square-foot space above Acme Feed & Seed is planned with a bar, buffet and grab-and-go station; a mother’s room; and a children’s area with a treehouse, climbing wall and interactive light-up floor piano. Its central post-security position should make it usable regardless of concourse. Honolulu Is An Aspirational Credit Card Billboard Honolulu is not one of Southwest’s very largest stations, but it’s probably the most useful city for selling its credit card. Hawaii was a key part of the airline’s credit card strategy to begin with – they needed to be able to carry passengers there on points to motivate customers to spend towards earning a vaction. The lounge will be in the former Garden Conference Center beside the airport’s Cultural Gardens, in the same general cluster as several international airline lounges. Southwest’s five-year lease covers 12,241 square feet across two levels, at roughly $1.91 million in annual rent, with a minimum $20 million buildout commitment. This Is A Credit Card Network Before It Is An Airline Lounge Network Southwest Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson previously explained that lounge guests used to be people flying first class, which Southwest didn’t serve. Now the lounge customer is “people with a credit card flying economy a lot.” Southwest will be the last major U.S. airline without first class, though they really do need to add these. Even Frontier and Allegiant will have front of aircraft recliners. Southwest recognized $2.6 billion in 2025 revenue tied to marketing, advertising and other travel benefits from loyalty-partner cash flows, including its Chase agreement. The airline needs a reason for higher-income customers to take a much more expensive card and keep spending on it. Southwest and Chase previously tested annual fees from $395 to $650, with possible benefits including unlimited Southwest lounge access and Priority Pass. The only access method now confirmed is holding the new premium card. Memberships and day passes are possible. Where The Other Seven Lounges May Go The four announced airports are not the entire known pipeline. Denver is the closest to confirmed. Bob Jordan has said Southwest is leasing lounge space there. Southwest operates more flights at Denver than at any other station, and needs a better answer to United’s sprawling club network. The likely site is the Concourse C East expansion. Dallas Love Field is Southwest’s headquarters fortress, where it controls 19 of 20 gates. The airport’s $1 billion redevelopment is creating lounge space, though that project is long-term. Washington National plans a 10,000-square-foot lounge as part of the historic Terminal 1 redevelopment. Southwest dominates that terminal, but the work stretches into the 2030s. Add those three to the first four and we can account for seven locations. Four more are needed merely to reach Southwest’s new minimum of 11. My five most likely additions seem like Houston Hobby, Orlando, Chicago Midway (but unclear where there’d be space) and St. Louis (in future concourse renovation space). Thta would bring the total to 11 but perhaps there are others not on this list. Houston and Orlando have Southwest scale and terminal expansion projects. Midway has overwhelming Southwest share but almost nowhere obvious to put a full-size club. St. Louis should eventually gain space through its terminal rebuild. Las Vegas and Phoenix deserve lounges based on network size, but the real estate near Southwest’s gates is the problem. Did Southwest Pick Today To Step On American’s News? There’s almost no actual news here. Meanwhile American is unveiling a finished premium aircraft in Fort Worth while Dallas-based Southwest announces its own premium airport product. The two stories landed within minutes of each other. Cross-town rivalry probably fits as a secondary benefit. Southwest is happy to some coverage on the “premium travel” day theme. Nonetheless that may be just a secondary benefit. And Southwest only brought a rendering-free press release to a fight against a finished Boeing 777 that customers can fly tonight. Still, it would be a page from Amex’s playbook announcing they would be announcing a card refresh the day of Chase’s Sapphire Reserve refresh last summer. The better explanation for timing is probably that the secret was no longer a secret. For almost a year, leases, board documents, building permits and executive comments have revealed the network one piece at a time. I laid out the race between Austin and Nashville to be the first lounge open just dats ago, noting Baltimore as the likeliest next location. Topics on this page