Matching lounges
The finder reads the airport and lounge entries supplied with this website, not a live admission or airport-routing feed. Airport selection limits the pool; an optional lounge selection limits it to that entry. Choosing an access category matches the category stored on each lounge. It does not verify your airline, fare, card issuer, guest allowance, capacity or current membership terms.
The rules score terminal match, overlap with the listed gate area, a stored walking-difficulty category, minutes until boarding, preference tags and a premium tag. The finder orders results by comparable gate-number proximity when available, with the rules score resolving ties. Without a comparable gate area it falls back to the rules score. These scores are preference matches, not evidence quality, measured distance or safety certification.
Gate areas, not measured routes
For a supported gate and an unambiguous terminal, the proximity comparison uses the numerical difference between your gate and the midpoint of a lounge’s listed gate range. Different concourse prefixes or terminals cannot be treated as a measured walk. The website does not calculate paths through an airport map, use lounge-to-gate coordinates, measure straight-line distance or apply a walking speed.
Previously, gate-number scores were converted into fixed minute bands; the terminal map and profile calculator used different bands. No calibration or route evidence is recorded for those bands. Unsupported times are now shown as “Walking time unavailable”, while the finder and schematic remain usable for comparing listed gate areas. A range can be incomplete, ambiguous or outdated; a gate that matches it is not proof that the gate currently exists.
Boarding-time warnings
Minutes until boarding means the start of boarding, not scheduled departure or gate closing. The existing rules warn below 30 minutes, and apply additional warnings to a different listed terminal below 45 or 60 minutes. They do not compute a round-trip walk, time spent in a lounge, a return-to-gate buffer or an airline’s gate-closing deadline. Omitting this input previously used 120 minutes for scoring; that default is an assumption, not a flight lookup.
Use your airline’s boarding instructions, current departure boards and your own time allowance. A favourable preference score or listed terminal match does not establish that a lounge visit is safe.
What is not calculated
Train and shuttle waiting or ride times, security or immigration queues, visa or transit eligibility, airside access restrictions, level changes, lifts, moving walkways, crowding, mobility requirements and closures are not calculated. A different terminal is flagged, but that does not establish that a usable connection exists.
Hours and amenities are stored directory details, not live availability. Access badges describe categories to investigate, not a promise of entry. Confirm the exact lounge, current opening hours and your particular admission entitlement with the operator or access provider.
Understanding the maps
Terminal diagrams place lounge markers using gate-range midpoints and arrange buildings and piers for display. Their shapes, marker offsets and lines are illustrative, not surveyed floorplans or documented transfer routes. A connecting line does not prove an airside connection.
The global map uses airport coordinates to show airports geographically. Those coordinates are not used to measure walks inside terminals. Airport map links are reference links to external sites; linking to a map does not mean the directory or a route has been checked against it.
Sources, dates and uncertainty
Evidence is recorded separately for location, access, opening hours, terminal layout, editorial guidance and walking routes. Optional fields include source URL and type, estimate method, route notes, included and excluded factors, review status, actual checked date, reviewer and uncertainties. Empty fields stay empty.
“Personally timed” requires a documented timing basis; “Map-based estimate” requires a documented map-based method. “Approximate estimate” is not verification. “Not yet checked” means no adequate review evidence is recorded. A date applies only to its named claim, not an entire page. No dates or reviewers have been filled in automatically. Report errors through Sources & Corrections; submitting a report does not itself verify or update a claim.