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BloombergPursuits November 25, 2019①Thereare
socialtiersin
thelounge
“You can always tell when it’s a
customer’sfirsttimeinthelounge,
because,withoutfail,theydoa fulllap
anda halftoscoutoutthebestseats,”
saysAnastasiaJenkins,who’smanaged
theStarAllianceLoungeatLosAngeles
InternationalAirportsinceit opened
in2013.Each day,shehostsabout
1,800internationaltravelers,whowait
anaverageoftwohoursfortheirflight
whilesippingcomplimentarysparkling
wine(116,000bottlesworthin2018).
A little-knownfact?Airportlounge
foodchangesdependingonthenext
departure.WhenAsianaflightswere
ondeck,I addedinstantnoodlestoa
buffetalreadystockedwiththefresh
kind; for Lufthansa and Air New
Zealanddepartures,I cartedoutextra
handlesofalcohol.
Ofcoursetherearecelebrities,who
havedemands.Everytimea certain
actionstarisback,theteamknows
hewon’tleaveuntilhe’seatenthree
specially prepared hamburgers. A
former Charlie’s Angel used to get so
cranky waiting for her Red Bull, it’s
now always available where she can
grab it. Most—but not all—of these
requests are catered to within privaterooms nested like Russian dolls inside
thelounges.
Thereareexceptions.Thesmiley-
but-sedated rock legend who always
complains about the size of air-
plane mugs enjoys hollering at his
also-famous wife across the buffet.
(Employees keep extra-large ceramic
cups just for him to take on his flight.)
And one older Oscar winner is the
lounge hero when he passes through
during the holidays, handing out
Christmas gifts like Santa Claus.②Realstarsgo
totheprivate
terminal
The most VIP way through LAX isn’t
at LAX at all, but via a separate termi-
nal on the far side of the runway. The
Private Suite is a members-only club
that costs $4,500 per year, plus a min-
imum of $2,700 per flight. (An off-
shoot is in the works at JFK.) If that’s
your thing, it’s a good deal: Each stay
includes $2,000 in minibar ameni-
ties, plus massages, manicures, hair-
cuts, and car service straight to the
aircraft. And yet, the average member
spends one measly hour in their per-
sonal suite.
That’s because the biggest value
proposition is time saved—securityT
he airport of
your imagination
probably looks like
the one in Love Actually: a
haven of happy tears where
adventures begin and
families reunite. In real life,
airports are upside-down
worlds where it’s perfectly
acceptable to wear pajamas
in public, guzzle martinis
at 8:15 a.m., and ignore all
etiquette around lining up.
All this informed the 2004
NBC television drama LAX,
starring Heather Locklear
as a superwoman managing
the airport’s 55,000
workers and 240,000 daily
passengers. The show was
canceled after one season;
apparently America didn’t
think its busiest airport of
origin was interesting.
They were wrong.
According to James
Janovec, the superintendent
of operations on whom
Locklear’s character was
loosely based, a plane takes
off roughly every 50 seconds
at LAX. The facility has
more TSA agents than
anywhere else, screening
100 passengers a minute in
the busiest weeks.
So when LAX offered
me the opportunity to
work with its TSA and
U.S. Customs and Border
Protection (CBP) teams—
and a look at its other
operations—I couldn’t say
no. From finding snakes in
Pringles cans to providing
security checks for a robot
with a passport, here’s
everything I learned while
working at this hive of high-
flying madness.TERMINAL 2 PRIVATE SUITE