Inside New Southwest Airlines Icon Lounges—Big Bars, Local Designs And Premium Chase Card Arrive Next Year

Southwest Airlines showed off what its new Icon lounges will look like at Thursday’s Media Day in Dallas: a Southwest heart at the entrance, a bar that dominates the room, and different seating area designs for each city. The first lounges are expected to begin opening in late 2027, with a new premium Chase card providing access. Most of the event focused on the 2027 Rapid Rewards overhaul: a new Platinum elite tier, changes to earning status and Companion Pass, and earning and redeeming points with partner airlines. But they also set up lounge design displays, with furniture, materials, sketches and a rendering that give us a better sense of what they’re building. A Southwest Heart At The Entrance, And A Bar At The Center The entrance sketch puts a large Southwest heart behind the reception desk, framed by a broad arch with rounded corners. The heart is rendered in a warm gold tone, which gives them a way to carry the brand into the lounge without putting the airline’s bright red, yellow and blue on every surface. The bar will be a centerpiece. The Nashville rendering shows a large wraparound counter with a slatted canopy that curves up and spreads across the ceiling. There are upholstered bar stools, dining tables along the side, and armchairs closer to the windows. They’re devoting a lot of the room to sitting down with a drink. It’ll be a Southwest color scheme, but I also expect some darker blues imported from Chase. The furniture displays already pair deep blue chairs with rust-colored carpet, warm metal lamps and small tables. Elsewhere there are curved cream sofas and chairs, textured fabrics, plants and low lighting. The individual lounges will have local flavor. Baltimore’s display had dense greenery, orchids, arched mirrors and a black-and-white checkerboard floor. It didn’t immediately say ‘Charm City’ to me, but it apparently takes inspiration from a local greenhouse. Looking more closely, there’s a little raven beside one of the chairs, which is a more recognizable Baltimore touch. Nashville’s display has a strong sense of place: a record player inside a wood liquor cabinet, a cowhide-style rug, amber glass lighting and cards on the tables that say ‘Music City.’ The New Orleans example they showed also struck me as closer to the mark than Baltimore’s. The photos show how they’re trying to give each lounge its own character while carrying common colors and shapes through the network. Wild Turkey Seems Almost Certain. The Rest Of The Menu Will Wait. It’s a near-certainty in my view that the beverage program will offer Wild Turkey, an ode to Herb Kelleher. The possible exception is airport sourcing: in some places a single vendor controls bringing supplies airside, and there can be limits on what that vendor will carry. Southwest isn’t sharing the food and beverage details yet. The explanation I was given was that since lounges are still about a year away, they want news to be able to dribble out to keep up excitement. They’re already promising locally inspired dining, but we’ll have to wait for the actual menus. Four Announced Airports, Eight Locations In The Pipeline Southwest has announced Austin, Baltimore, Honolulu and Nashville, with openings beginning in late 2027 and at least seven more lounges to follow over the next several years. I’ve identified eight airports in the pipeline: Airport Location And Size Status And Timing Austin About 20,000 square feet in the West Infill space above the new security checkpoint, originally intended for a bank lounge. One of the first four announced airports. The permit had a March 1, 2027 completion target; Southwest’s guest-opening guidance now begins in late 2027. Baltimore Nearly 33,000 square feet over two levels, apparently including the former observation gallery between Concourses B and C, near the Concourse C checkpoint. One of the first four announced airports. My latest reporting points to this space, updating my earlier guess of the A/B connector. Honolulu The former Garden Conference Center beside the Cultural Gardens. The expanded lease covers 12,241 square feet across two levels. One of the first four announced airports; no individual opening date announced. Nashville About 30,000 square feet on the south mezzanine above Acme Feed & Seed in the central, post-security Marketplace. One of the first four announced airports. A contractor schedule pointed to June 28, 2027; the public opening guidance begins in late 2027. Denver Likely the Concourse C East expansion. Bob Jordan has acknowledged leasing lounge space. The precise site and opening date haven’t been announced. Dallas Love Field The airport’s redevelopment includes lounge space; the exact location hasn’t been settled publicly. Southwest is the obvious airline user. This is a longer-term airport project, without an announced Icon opening date. Washington National A 10,000 square foot lounge in the Terminal 1 redevelopment, where Southwest is the dominant airline. The airport plan points to Southwest as the intended user. The replacement concourse’s schedule reaches into the 2030s, rather than the initial lounge rollout. Orlando Level three of the Airside 2 expansion, with an optional terrace in the design scope. A Southwest source confirmed the plan to me, and airport documents provide for the space. Size and lounge opening date aren’t public. The earlier Austin and Nashville dates came from construction records. Construction projects don’t finish on time, especially in airports! And just because a lounge gets an occupancy permit doesn’t mean that’s when it’ll open. This needs to be timed with broader announcements, getting ready for service with hiring and supplies, and the launch of the new Chase credit card. Southwest’s current guidance is that the first guests arrive in late 2027. Nashville’s plans also include a mother’s room and a children’s area with a treehouse, climbing wall and interactive floor piano. That’s a more specific attempt to serve families than simply putting a few small chairs in a corner. The Premium Card Will Arrive Closer To The Lounges The new premium Southwest Chase card will provide access, but the details won’t be announced until next year. They displayed a card image with a large heart picked out in diagonal lines, a Chase logo at the upper left and Southwest at the upper right. We don’t know the annual fee or guest rules. I actually like waiting to release the card. JetBlue and Barclays started collecting $499 annual fees for their Premier card before there was a JetBlue lounge to enter. I thought it was odd to pay for that before the lounges existed. Southwest seems to be lining up its card launch closer to when customers can use it. There’s no word yet on other ways to get in. If Southwest proceeds with its own international long haul operation and a premium cabin, I’d expect lounge access to be part of that. There could be passes for Platinum members, opportunities to redeem Rapid Rewards points, paid memberships or day passes. And the guest policy will matter a great deal. At Honolulu or Orlando, a card that gets one person through the door is a very different purchase from one that covers a family. What Does Chase’s Role Mean For Sapphire Reserve? Southwest keeps describing these lounges as being developed in conjunction with Chase. Beyond the premium card and learning from Chase’s experience working with Airport Dimensions on Sapphire lounges, no one has quite explained what that means for access. United has Chase credit cards, too. We don’t hear United Clubs being described as being built in conjunction with Chase. So I wonder whether Sapphire Reserve cardholders will have some path into Southwest lounges. The consumer Sapphire Reserve already offers Southwest A-List status and up to $500 in credits for Southwest flights booked through Chase Travel after $75,000 in annual spending. Lounge access when flying Southwest would fit alongside those benefits. I also still expect the initial Austin Southwest lounge eventually to become a Chase Sapphire Lounge. Southwest will move its gates to the airport’s new concourse in the early 2030s, and they’ve taken lounge space there as well. That leaves the 20,000 square foot West Infill club in the existing terminal, built in the space that was originally supposed to be a bank lounge. My bet is that Chase ends up with it. Southwest Could Have The Nicest U.S. Airline Lounge Network U.S. airline lounges used to be very mundane. There was nothing super special about the design, and the food program was more or less packaged cheese and crackers, maybe some celery and carrot sticks. That all changed after American Express entered the lounge game, which followed exclusive credit card lounge deals (Chase with United after the Continental merger; Citi with American after the US Airways merger), and a trend towards premium leisure where premium card adoption grew and began driving spend. What we’ve seen since then is better lounges! The new United lounges are nice. I especially like American’s post-2021 aesthetic. But the lifecycle of airport lounge capital investment is quite long, and most lounges aren’t in the most current of airline designs. Well over 80% of American’s lounges aren’t for instance. Southwest, on the other hand, starts with a clean sheet. By definition all of its lounges will be in its most-current design. And all of its lounges launch in the competitive era where lounge aesthetics matter. Furthermore, with the Chase tie-in and talk of Sapphire experience and inspiration we probably get a more elevated food and beverage program than what we’ve seen at many airline lounges. It’s just not that expensive to fund lounge food relative to the annual fees on a premium card. What this amounts to is that Southwest could wind up with the best average lounge quality of any major U.S. airline for quite some time, given that all their lounges will be in their newest design.