For years, airport travel perks followed a familiar formula: access to a lounge, complimentary drinks, reliable Wi-Fi, and a quiet place to wait for your flight. But with the opening of its sprawling restaurant concept at LaGuardia Airport, Capital One is signaling that the next generation of travel rewards goes far beyond velvet ropes and buffet lines.
Rather than opening yet another lounge at LaGuardia Airport, Capital One chose a different approach: it built a full-scale restaurant.
The new Capital One Landing in Terminal B spans 12,500 square feet and was developed in partnership with chef José Andrés. Anchored by a 2,250-square-foot working kitchen — the largest in the terminal — the space serves Spanish tapas prepared from scratch. The result feels less like a traditional cardholder lounge and more like a true standalone dining destination.
Capital One’s airport push began with branded lounges at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport, Denver International Airport, and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Those early spaces stood out for their local collaborations, individually plated dishes prepared on site, and beverage menus featuring nearby breweries and distilleries. The goal was simple: even if travelers never stepped outside the terminal, they could still experience a taste of the city.
The Landing represents the next step in that evolution. Rather than simply giving lounge food a local twist, Capital One reimagined the concept entirely — asking what might happen if the space functioned as a true restaurant first and a lounge second.
“When we went to the lounge space, we similarly felt that lounges were becoming totally cookie-cutter . . . They were all kind of buffets. The drinks were the same, lounge to lounge,” Matt Knise, SVP of premium products and travel at Capital One, told Fast Company.
The Landing is Capital One’s response to that uniformity — a deliberate break from the predictable airport lounge formula. To bring that vision to life, Capital One knew it needed more than a design-forward space — it needed a partner capable of running a true restaurant inside an airport. “We needed a partner on the other side of the equation — the hospitality and food side — who shared our passion for solving what we were seeing,” Knise says. “We found that with José and his team.”
For Andrés, the collaboration carries a personal resonance. The menu’s focus on Spanish tapas is intentional. The format gives travelers flexibility. Guests can pick up plates at the tapas bar, order through a QR code, or grab selections to go. Croquetas, bikini sandwiches, cheeses, and flauta bread are designed to work whether you have 15 minutes before boarding or time to linger over a drink.
Knise says the space was built to accommodate both rhythms.
“We felt deeply that a great dining experience and a relatively quick dining experience — those two things did not have to be mutually exclusive,” he says. “It’s a bit of a choose your own adventure.”
Capital One is also introducing what it calls “Daily Rituals.” At LaGuardia, that means tableside martinis, roaming vermouth carts stocked with garnishes and pintxos, oysters offered during select windows, and dessert carts that bring a touch of ceremony to the terminal.
In the race to win affluent travelers, the airport has become the most visible stage for what a premium card truly delivers.
For Capital One, the physical space is central to the strategy. Skylights flood the room with natural light. A terrace layered with greenery softens the terminal’s edges. Floor-to-ceiling windows frame the Manhattan skyline. A 30-foot mural by Queens artist Amrita Marino anchors the room with a sense of place. Together, the elements signal that this is meant to feel like a destination — not just somewhere to wait for boarding.
The logic is simple: if the most memorable part of your trip happens before you step onto the plane — and it unfolds inside a space directly tied to your credit card — that card begins to feel less like a payment tool and more like a companion to the journey.
For years, perks existed mostly on paper: points multipliers, statement credits, travel portals, concierge access. Valuable, but intangible. You experienced the benefit when booking a flight or scrolling through a rewards page. Lounges shifted that dynamic. They transformed abstract perks into physical environments you could enter, sit in, and enjoy before your trip even began.
