You can pay for lounge access, it's usually around $50. But you can get free wifi, eat and drink as much as you want, grab a paper, etc. Makes up for the cost.

Yeah -- the cheapest way if you fly a lot, yet have no status or good credit cards, in many airports, is Priority Pass -- $99/yr + $27/visit. Getting the $99/yr part free from low-tier credit cards is fairly common, too.

Amex Platinum (which, admittedly, is $450/yr) also gets you into a lot of lounges.

Founders Card gets you lounge access through mid-tier airline status on a few airlines (especially useful for Cathay Pacific, my favorite airline in the world).

I'd totally prefer a coach ticket + $50 lounge pass + + nice ipad and iphone and $500 headphones + nicer hotel room, food, car, etc. at destination, to paid first class tickets.

It appears that many airports have gotten rid of lounges, or have super limited hours on them.

I was flying through Philly and almost got stuck there overnight. It looked like my options were to get a ~$150/night hotel that was near the airport (no vouchers available since it was 'weather related' despite no bad weather) or just sleep in the airport.

I had tried asking if there was a way I could get access to the lounge. The answers I got seemed to indicate there either wasn't one, or it wasn't open overnight, or perhaps I just couldn't pay to get access. Unsure. But I wasn't getting in a lounge either way.

Thankfully, I got a flight back to Cleveland instead of CAK because the flight to Cleveland was running 2 hours behind (perfect for me) and I had a coworker pick me up there instead.

The lounges usually close overnight, so they probably wouldn't have helped in this situation.

However, the AmEx Platinum card will let you get into most lounges (if you're flying that airline that day). This easily makes it worth the annual fee for frequent flyers.