Jaunted

There’s plenty of signs with Terminal 5, so it’s not that tricky to find the SkyClub, between Gates 53 and 55 on the mezzanine level, but just be aware that you may have to lug your stuff up a flight of stairs to gain access. After walking by the main desk—where you check in and demand better seats for your flight—you’re greeted by a large entry and sitting area decorated in a nice Jetsons motif.

Quiet Time:
In addition to the main room, there’s also a backroom off to the left behind the main hallway. There’s a wet bar in there and some recliner type chairs that look like a great way to spend a long layover before heading overseas or just across the country. It’s a little bit hidden—and signs promote that it’s a quiet area—so you might want to grab a seat in here if you need to get some serious work done.

Food Options:
If you’ve had food and drinks at one Delta lounge, you'll notice it’s pretty much exactly the same here. Peanuts, crackers, cheese, olives, cookies, and a couple kinds of snack mix cover all the basic types of stuff on the junk food pyramid. We did like that there were a couple different beers on tap besides the usual domestic offerings, including a special SkyClub Pale Ale. It’s probably just something re-branded from a huge brewery, but it made us feel special nonetheless. All drinks are self-serve, so there’s no need to tip anyone, and you can pour yourself a double or quadruple without getting a dirty look.

Have a Seat:
All the chairs and tables that we took for a test drive were comfortable, and since we were waiting for a red-eye flight they were almost too comfortable. We used one of two computers in the lounge for a few minutes—had to print out a coupon for parking—and things were fine and snappy thanks to the T-Mobile WiFi service. Nothing too extraordinary, but everything seemed to serve its purpose effectively and efficiently with a slight bit of style.

One of the things that we liked the most was the amount of space present in the lounge—none of the smallness of the SkyClub at JFK's Terminal 3 and no quick crowding just before a big flight. Usually chairs are crammed on top of one another and frequent fliers are clogging up the aisles with their way-too-many pieces of carry-on luggage, but here there was actually some room to stretch your legs without risking biting it over some rollaboard.

Now on to the bathroom. Sure, they are hardly spas, but compared to the offerings when you stumble into the main terminal here at LAX, they're pretty darn snazzy.

Overall:
The place is nice—but $50 for a day pass is still pretty steep for what you get, unless you really needed some alone time at the airport. You could get better drinks and better food elsewhere in the airport for that much cash, but then again, you would still be stuck using the bathroom with everyone else.

Related Stories:
· Inside the Delta SkyClub at JFK Terminal 3 [Jaunted]
· Inside the Delta SkyClub at Tokyo-Narita Airport [Jaunted]
· All Jaunted's Airport Lounge coverage [Jaunted]
· Delta coverage [Jaunted]

[Photos: Jaunted]