All About The Secret Lounge at DFW

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There are generally 3 ways to get lounge access at airports:

• You’re flying first or business class
• You’ve flown a bajillion miles on a particular airline
• You have a credit card that includes lounge access as a perk

Lounges can be super swanky, or not so much.

Basic airline lounges offer comfortable seating, complimentary soft drinks and snacks/food, complimentary or paid for alcoholic beverages, dedicated rest rooms, etc.

Premium lounges can offer table service dining, complimentary premium alcoholic beverages, showers, complimentary massages.

And a few lounges are smaller and offer very few amenities (I’m looking at you, Wingtops Lounge at JFK! OMG, what a hot mess! And The Club at LAS wasn’t much better!), but they’re still quieter than being in the public areas of the airport.

Despite more people having lounge access over the years, the bottom line is that most people don’t have access to an airport lounge (even though there’s one really cheap was to get access into Priority Pass lounges). But if they had access to a quiet area, maybe one that few people knew about, that’d be pretty cool, right?

Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) apparently has such a space. It’s in Terminal D, which is generally known as the International Terminal. It currently serves a variety of international airlines such as AeroMexico, Air Canada, Air France, Avianca, British Airways, Emirates Airlines, Korean Air, Lufthansa, Qantas, Turkish Airlines and VivaAerobus. Domestically, it also serves American Airlines , Spirit and Sun Country.

Anyway, back in May, DFW’s social media team released a video about it:

@dfwairport

🤫🤫 #dfwairport #attheairport #traveltiktok #airportlife #airporttok #didyouknow #internationalairport #travelhacks

♬ Simple Hit – Dombresky

So much for keeping a secret a secret, huh? 😉 Yeah, the replies to the video were on point:

• Some things need to be gate kept — Kristin
• Noooo don’t give it away! My husband and I hung out there for 3 hours and he played the piano. It was so quiet 😭 — czarinacaprice
• Nooo not my hiding place 😂🥺 — Victoria Deagle
• Bruh why did y’all have to expose it now everybody knows — Trevor Bills
• No 😔 it was the only place left to hide. — Archel
• Shhhhh!!!! 🤫 don’t — ctgrannnnnn
• @DFW Airport didn’t your mama teach you how to keep a secret? 🥺🥺🥺 — qwnlola
• Not cool! now it will be overrun with screaming children. ugh — dtwnseagy
• Stop spilling the secrets — DR

Anyway, we don’t land in DFW very often, and I don’t think we’ve ever been in Terminal D there, so  I had never heard of such a “secret” lounge (which isn’t so much of a lounge as a quiet place, one floor up from the main area). But I Googled extensively (and trust me when I say I am The Queen of The Google) and couldn’t find anything about such a “lounge.” DFW’s webpage has many maps of the layout of Terminal D, and none of them mention such a space.

General map:

Layout of Terminal D:

Facilities at Terminal D:

Restaurants at Terminal D:

They even list the specific lounges that can be found at Terminal D, but they’re all typical “Members Only” type lounges…no mention of any sort of “secret” lounge:

• The Club DFW
• American Airlines Flagship Lounge
• The Centurion Lounge
• Qatar Airways Lounge
• Korean Air KAL Lounge
• American Airlines Flagship First Dining
• Capital One Lounge

The only other things mentioned available at Terminal D are the Grand Hyatt DFW Hotel and the “mezzanine,” but photos of them aren’t on DFW’s site.

So I went to Plan B – I have family and friends who live in the greater Dallas area, so I asked them about it.

• Our friends Mary Lee and Ed moved from Orlando to the Dallas area a couple of years ago. Mary Lee says they tend to fly out of Love Field, so she didn’t know.
• My cousin (she with the then-12y/o who almost went on Southwest’s No Fly List) only flies on Southwest, so she also didn’t know.
• Our friends Beth and Tim said they fly American a lot, but Tim is able to get them into American’s Admiral Club lounge, so they, too, didn’t know.

But my friend Chris, who I’ve known since high school, looked at the video and said he was aware of it. He said, “The lounge is not that large but it’s hidden and virtually empty most of the time until someone finds it. Then it becomes full. It’s hard to find. There are a lot of restaurants upstairs that are adjacent to it. It’s okay.”

He continued, “It is not a lounge per se. It’s more of a sitting area and it’s upstairs. I have been there once or twice, completely by accident.”

And then he laid the bombshell – he was flying to Greece in the next few days, so he’d see what info he could find out, get some photos, etc.

His flight out was on July 25th. He didn’t get a whole bunch of anything that time LOL!

“While flight is delayed, I took the train over to Terminal D. The ‘lounge’ was roped off today. I inquired with the hostess at Pappadeaux (Note from Sharon: Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen) and she knew nothing. Then I got security and asked them. They said it’s not open to the public right now. I asked when it will eventually open. No answer.”

Chris said he’d ask again on his way home from Greece.

Fast forward a week or so, and Chris got the whole story and some photos, too 😉

As the video suggested, it’s above Gate D22, which is just to the left of the central most TSA security checkpoint of the terminal.

Here’s what the “lounge” looks like, from a few different angles, from the main floor of the terminal.

As you can see, it’s right above the Duty Free & More shop, and if you squint (or just look at the photos below) you can see a sign that says “Join us upstairs for special events and more.” And that’s actually part of the story.

On his way back from Greece, Chris spoke to someone who works at the liquor store directly underneath the so-called “secret lounge.” According to them, the lounge space is owned/rented by the duty free store. It’s for special use only, like when they’re having events with vendors or for special luxury items (for example they had done a whiskey-tasting event in the lounge area the day before Chris was there).

The lounge has 2 access points via stairs, and there’s also an elevator (that wasn’t working when Chris was there. Possible they shut it off when there’s not an event):

Chris asked if the space is ever open on a regular basis and was told it’s only open when they’re doing special events. Other than that it’s not open to the general public.

So the “secret lounge” (which isn’t really a lounge, despite what DFW called it) apparently was open to the public at one time; apparently as recently as May 2023, when DFW’s social media team made the video. But now it’s exclusively a private area for private functions.

One of the replies to the May 2023 video said they tried to go to the area in late June and it was “closed for construction.” Maybe that’s when the changeover happened? I dunno.

So anyway…the “secret lounge” is there, but it’s no longer open to the public. Mystery solved, but still, whomp whomp.

*** MANY thanks to Chris for his assistance!

Feature Image: DFW/FB

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary