Step Inside Capital One’s New Las Vegas Airport Lounge: Caviar, Craft Cocktails, And Relaxing Views Worth Arriving Early For – View from the Wing

The Capital One Lounge Las Vegas opens tomorrow. It’s well-located for passengers on the biggest airlines. It feels spacious with floor-to-ceiling windows and high ceilings that offer views both into the terminal and out over airport operations and the mountains behind. And it offers excellent food and beverage. I visited a preview of the lounge on Tuesday.

Capital One Lounge Las Vegas: Location and Hours

The Capital One lounge Las Vegas is located in terminal 1 on the D concourse. Itt’s easily accessible to United, Delta, and American passengers and a train ride away inside of security for Southwest customers. It’s just around the corner from The Club at LAS.

The lounge will be open from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m., but for the first two weeks of operation will open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

When you get off the train at the D concourse, you enter a rotunda. From there you can see the Capital One lounge on your right as you come up the escalator. So just head to the top of the escalator, and turn right and down the corridor.

Food And Beverage

I quite like the food in Capital One lounges. They have individual plates (small bites, rather than entrees) and you take as many dishes as you wish. The presentation is much better! The food is good. And there tends to be less waste.

After visiting the Capital One lounge I headed directly over to the Centurion lounge in the airport where there wasn’t anything I wanted to eat. The food is just elevated in comparison.

Some of the options in the Capital One lounge Las Vegas are avocado toast with smoked salmon, chili crisp sweet potato hash, and caviar deviled egg. The Executive Sous Chef told me that they’ll be doing a daily special as well.

Here’s the food menu: I really enjoyed the mushroom and parsnip purée.

And here’s what was on offer:

Everything that I tasted was excellent. I’d note that the cream-filled donut at grab and go is probably something you shouldn’t take more than a bite of, but you’ll want more than one.

I addition, Capital One offers a ‘grab and go’ concept near the entrance. It’s great for a quick stop in – use the facilities, take some food and beverages for your flight, or just take something with you like bottled water for your trip as you leave a longer visit.

The lounge’s beverage program is nice. There’s a full bar, with signature cocktails and also some premium ($$$) selections available though I’ve never felt the need to purchase anything. The bar itself is beautiful, I really like the light feature above it.

Here’s the bar menu:

There’s a coffee and espresso bar as well, and as in other lounges a self-pour soda fountain with interesting sodas and water choices.

The lounge’s signature cocktail is a ‘Goblin’ which is a frozen, gin, kiwi puree green-colored drink as well as a Bloody Mary that’s perfect for leaving Las Vegas with a bit of hair of the dog. That’s made using a dried chili-infused vodka.

Aimed at those recovering from doing to Vegas right, they offer ingredient blends to add to beverages for hydration, relaxation and energy. These include “Hydrate” with mineral sea salt, nano potassium, and glucose; “Relax” with purple passionflower, nano magnesium, and ashwagandha; and “Energize” with green tea, liposomal vitamin c, and peppermint.

Each Capital One lounge features what they call the “perfect airport beer” where they ask their local brewery partner to develop their own take on the concept, which their food and beverage director describes as representing an iconic moment (like having a beer at a ballpark or with a parent when you turn 21). There’s also a certain taste as you ‘set off for adventure’ or a journey at an airport and each lounge has a beer meant to evoke and commemorate this. And it should work whether you’re drinking one quickly before a flight or savoring it over a longer layover. At the Las Vegas lounge, the Las Vegas Brewing Company has provided a malt-forward Vienna Lager.

The lounge features a cart service times throughout the day, with morning tableside Italian shaken coffee with liquor and dairy add-ons; afternoon tea service and pastries such as macarons from a local Japanese-style pastry purveyor, and sunset champagne.

They brand this as ‘Daily Rituals’ and the cart service will be familiar to those that have visited the Capital One Landing at DCA. The ‘rituals’ will be expanded to other Capital One lounges.

Finally, the lounge has a “Rare Bottle Club” offering hard-to-find wine and liquor for sale, whether prohibition-era gin, 70-year old bourbon, or rare vintage wine.

Amenities

The lounge as seating for about 130 guests. Every seat has power outlets. There are two private workrooms and a relaxation room that can be reserved.

The relaxation room has dim lighting and a constellation ceiling. They offer eye masks and blankets. Since there is only one of these, I imagine it will be in demand.

Workrooms are nice as well. Hopefully with two demand will be manageable. In most cases I’d prefer to be out by the windows onto the airfield.

Each of the six individual restrooms has a changing table, helpful for parents with young children like me.

Views from the lounge are of the atrium (airport interior) and out over gates, the mountains and the city of Las Vegas.

Capital One Lounge Las Vegas: Access

When you enter the lounge you’ll be asked for your boarding pass, Capital One card (or app-based lounge pass) and ID.

Venture X and Venture X Business cardmembers receive unlimited access for themselves and up to two guests. Authorized users on an account receive this access as well. Children under two don’t count against your guest limit.

Venture and Spark Miles customers can purchase access for $45. Non-cardmembers can access the lounge for $90.

Access is available within 3 hours of the departure time on your boarding pass (those with longer connections do not get an exception, although I’ve found that the rule isn’t enforced precisely for instance I’ve entered in Dallas with a bit less than 4 hours to scheduled departure).

The Lounge Is Smaller Than I’d Like

At 8,200 square feet, it’s significantly smaller than their Dallas lounge and about the size of Washington Dulles. Lounge crowding in Las Vegas is an issue, though one that should get a bit better as Capital One and American Express will both have lounges and Chase will be adding one as well.

I do like how Capital One manages queues. First, you can monitor capacity in their app. If they impose a wait list or line to get in, you can join the line virtually from the app – based on when you expect to arrive in the lounge. That may mean adding yourself to the list when you leave for the airport, arrive curbside, or finish with security. And you have 15 minutes to turn up once it’s your turn.

When you’re inside the lounge it may be busy but won’t be too crowded. In my experience, coming in off of their virtual queue, there’s always seating options available and never too much of a backup at the bar. In other words, they aren’t allowing too many people in at once so that the experience when you’re inside is still good.

American Express has followed Capital One’s app-based virtual queueing, which I find far more civilized than standing in line – which is worse than just finding a place to sit by the gate or in an airport restaurant.

Airport real estate is scarce and comes at a premium. I’d love it if the lounge were twice as large. But I still consider it a huge improvement to the Las Vegas airport scene.

In addition to the Las Vegas, Denver, Dallas – Fort Worth, and Washington Dulles lounges – and Washington National restaurant concept Capital One Landing – we’ll be seeing the New York JFK lounge soon in terminal 4, by the main Delta club, and a dining-focused Capital One Landing at New York LaGuardia.