How far is your airport lounge from your gate?

Every recommendation on LoungeToGate is built on one number: how long it takes to walk from a lounge to your boarding gate. It sounds simple, but at a large airport it is the single most important fact about a lounge — and the one most review sites never mention. A five-star lounge that takes twenty-two minutes to reach is the wrong lounge when boarding starts in fifteen. Here is exactly how we arrive at that number.

1. We map each lounge to its terminal and gate range

Our database records the terminal, concourse, and nearest gate range for every one of the 285+ lounges we cover across 30 major airports. When you enter your gate number, we first determine which terminal and concourse it belongs to, then measure the distance within the real layout of that airport — not a straight line on a map. Terminals like Heathrow Terminal 5 or Atlanta's Concourse D are nearly a mile long on their own, so a lounge and a gate in the "same terminal" can still be a serious walk.

2. We convert distance into realistic walking time

We assume an average airport walking pace of roughly 75 metres per minute — slower than a city stroll, because you are navigating crowds, moving walkways (or their absence), and often rolling luggage. Where an airport has a people mover, train, or shuttle between terminals or concourses — Atlanta's Plane Train, Changi's Skytrain, Heathrow's transit system — we factor in the ride plus the walking time to reach the platform. Where terminals are not connected airside, we say so outright, because no amount of walking time makes up for having to exit and re-clear security.

3. We compare the walk against your boarding time

Distance alone doesn't answer "should I go?". Tell us how many minutes until boarding and we check the walk against a time-safety buffer: time to walk to the lounge, settle in for a meaningful stop, and walk back with several minutes to spare before the gate closes. If a lounge is reachable but tight, we label it as a quick stop rather than a place to settle. If the numbers don't work, we warn you clearly instead of burying the risk in fine print.

4. We filter by what you can actually get into

Walking distance is only useful for lounges you can enter. Each lounge in our directory lists its access methods — business class ticket, first class ticket, airline status (Star Alliance Gold, oneworld Sapphire or Emerald, SkyTeam Elite Plus), Priority Pass, LoungeKey, credit card programs like Amex Centurion or Capital One, or simple pay-at-the-door entry. Select your access type and the finder removes everything that doesn't match, so you never fall for a lounge you can't get into.

What our numbers are — and are not

Our walking times are careful estimates built from published terminal layouts, gate ranges, and typical layouts at each airport. They are not real-time: airports change gate assignments, close concourses for renovation, and shift lounges. That's why every lounge page shows a confidence rating and practical notes — so you can sanity-check the recommendation against the signage you actually see. Used together, the walking time, the confidence rating, and the notes give you a reliable answer to the only question that matters: is this lounge worth the detour?