It all adds up.

But I am not sure that it’s as much about more people traveling than before the pandemic as it is about the people who are traveling and traveling more now than in 2019 are just more willing to pay up more to get lounge access one way or another. Even where travel recovery has plateaued at under 90% of pre-pandemic peak, the lounges have gotten as or more crowded for me at peak vacation times than they used to be.

A lot of people have run up their annual bank card membership fees by a lot for the travel related perks and it shows in various ways.