Brittany Romano, 32, was not looking to start her own long-distance rom-com last September when she showed up to the lounge at LaGuardia Airport鈥檚 Terminal B 10 minutes before her flight was set to board 鈥 but she did.
That鈥檚 where she met Matt Harrington, 35, a schoolteacher from Pasadena, California. He had spied her rushing through security, and when she stopped in the lounge for her usual routine 鈥 鈥渢ake a shot and use the restroom鈥 鈥 he sent her a tequila shot and took one himself. Then the two jogged to catch their plane, as it turned out they were on the same flight from New York to Los Angeles.
Romano, an entertainment journalist who lives in New York, assumed that would be that, but Harrington begged a flight attendant to switch his seat so he could sit with her. More tequila shots followed over the course of the six-hour flight; the pair still talk daily.
There has always been something magical about an airport love story. 鈥淎irports are lawless,鈥 said Natalie Stoclet, 32, a writer and designer based in Mexico City, who once had a flirtation with a man she met in the Iberia lounge at the Madrid airport. 鈥淵ou can have a cocktail at 8 a.m., wear compression socks with no shame and delusionally stare at the departures board, convincing yourself that you could change your flight and start a new life in Paris. Anything goes.鈥 (Her lounge fling fizzled out, but at least she still has 鈥渁 good airport story,鈥 she said.)
But airport lounges, those calmer, semiexclusive spaces away from the deadening realities of modern air travel, have increasingly become a locus of romance for millennials, who post TikTok videos of themselves getting dressed up to go to the lounge early before a flight, hoping to find their soul mate or, at the very least, a fresh romance. It鈥檚 the new 鈥淚鈥檓 looking for a man in finance,鈥 if you will.
鈥淩omanticizing airports, thinking I will casually find my future travel loving husband at one,鈥 one TikTok user wrote. 鈥淲aiting mysteriously in the Emirates lounge waiting for my future husband to sweep me off my feet as I live in my own movie,鈥 another user captioned her clip. 鈥淐an we have a designated 鈥榮ingles lounges鈥 at airports, please?,鈥 asked a third.
Grace Ma, 38, an investor in New York, and a Delta and American Express Centurion lounge fanatic, said lounges are the new members-only clubs 鈥 though more intimate and less intimidating 鈥 which makes them a prime location for dating. 鈥淚t鈥檚 more of a targeted location to meet like-minded people versus going to a bar in a random city,鈥 she said. 鈥淪omeone who has access to a nice airport lounge likely already checks off a few boxes for you, which could be psychologically more comforting. For example, they are willing to spend the money to enter, they have travel status, they are flying a certain class airfare.鈥
Rachel Childress, 32, a server at the Delta One lounge in Logan Airport, in Boston, met her current partner there when he came in as a guest. In addition to the luxuries a lounge experience offers, it lowers the hurdles to meeting someone, she said.
鈥淭here鈥檚 also no obligation to have to see someone again. It makes connections more thrilling,鈥 she said. 鈥淧lus, thinking about how crazy it is that your paths crossed with someone? The sequence of events that had to occur for you to meet them? It鈥檚 fate.鈥
Jennifer Higginbotham, 41, director of premium services operations strategy and support for American Airlines, said 鈥渋n-flight and Admirals Club meet-cutes are common.鈥 The airline even hosted a wedding in its Nashville, Tennessee, lounge. (Higginbotham鈥檚 husband proposed to her at Chicago O鈥橦are International Airport, so she鈥檚 quite the expert on airport love stories.)
Claude Roussel, who manages lounge experiences for Delta Air Lines, said the carrier鈥檚 public relations team has a plan of action for managing proposals, which includes decorating the lounge, helping facilitate the proposal, and creating a special food and drink cart for the couple 鈥 often involving photogenic espresso martinis.
Kishshana Palmer got the full experience. Palmer, 45, met cute in the Delta lounge at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport鈥檚 Terminal B, in the summer of 2023. Her boyfriend proposed in the same lounge a year later. 鈥淪uddenly team members come out from the four corners of the earth,鈥 she said. 鈥淭hey make me reapply my lipstick and then tell him, 鈥楧o it again,鈥 because this brotherman didn鈥檛 think to film it.鈥 But he broke things off before their aviation-themed wedding could take place.
Palmer remains hopeful: 鈥淚 still feel like I鈥檓 going to find my boo, and probably in another airport lounge,鈥 she said.
Delta also pulled out all the stops last year when Ryan Scheb, 35, proposed to Philip Tuzynski, 37, at LaGuardia鈥檚 Delta Sky Club. The two are self-proclaimed 鈥渁viation geeks鈥 from New York, whose idea of romance is sitting in the airline lounge with a cocktail, watching the planes take off.
While the promise of everlasting love is all well and good, not everyone is looking for commitment. Sometimes, a fling will do. YOLO-era singles chalk up the trend to two things: There is little to lose, and you鈥檙e both right there.
Silas Forest, 29, a creative director in Los Angeles, was lounging through a layover in the Delta Sky Club at Miami airport when he saw a cute guy out of the corner of his eye. They exchanged shy grins and nods, but then it was time for Forest to go to his gate, two terminals away. 鈥淚鈥檓 standing in line when I feel a tap on my shoulder, and I turn to find the man. I鈥檓 instantly smiling but surprised he found me. My group is called, and I tell him I鈥檝e got to go, but feel the urge to lean in for a kiss. He also leans in and we kiss in front of a bunch of people,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 boarded my plane grinning ear to ear.鈥
Forest got the man鈥檚 contact information, but decided 鈥渢o leave it at that 鈥 just one magical moment in the Miami airport.鈥
Benjamin Schmidt, 29, a New York writer, opened his Grindr app at a Delta lounge in San Francisco and agreed to meet a match at the lounge bar. 鈥淲e flew back to New York together, with some discreet and playful hand-holding on the plane and flirty conversation,鈥 he said. And then it ended. 鈥淚t felt like I rented a boyfriend for the day,鈥 Schmidt said.
Romano pointed out that airports offer few rules of behaviour, and lounges give you the perfect setting for casual dating. 鈥淭hey have better lighting, free drinks, and no 鈥榃hat鈥檚 your bio?鈥 awkwardness,鈥 she said. 鈥淭he best part? If it鈥檚 not a match, one of you actually has to leave.鈥
This love-in-the-lounge trend is more than a pang of nostalgia for rom-com fantasies or a millennial need to dissociate from reality. Travel experts and frequent travellers alike predict that airline lounges will begin to play a much bigger role in people鈥檚 romantic lives for one reason: Dating app culture has backfired.
鈥淎pp culture, besides it being gamification, is designed for you to opt out,鈥 said Palmer. Meeting someone in person, you start searching for something in common, she added. 鈥淎nd here, the lounge is your thing that you have in common.鈥
This all led I帽igo Merino, 30, to start a dating app aimed at flyers. 鈥淭here鈥檚 so much digital burnout, of just being constantly online. We鈥檙e bombarded. And then there鈥檚 this love-hate relationship we have with dating apps,鈥 said Merino, founder and CEO of Wingle, a new app that allows you to connect with users at the airport lounge and aboard your flight.
Wingle users put in their flight details, and when they arrive at the airport, they can flag their location 鈥 like which lounge they are in. Once the plane takes off, the seat map illuminates with other users, allowing users to start a chat. And when the plane lands, the chat disappears. 鈥淪o, either what happens in the air stays in the air, or you share your contact information so you can continue the conversation in real life,鈥 Merino said.
When people are travelling, he said, they are 鈥渋n another mindset, so you can make more meaningful connections. I mean, you鈥檙e stuck in this metal tube with up to 300 people, and I鈥檓 sure that among those hundreds of people there鈥檚 someone that you can have an interesting conversation with.鈥
This article originally appeared in .
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