Is a Tanfeethi membership worth the price?
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Good morning,
I’m at the Riyadh airport on my way to Jeddah nursing a mediocre flat white at a lounge called Hayyak, where the AC is blasting out of wall vents so strong and so close to my legs that the entire lower half of my body feels numb. Everything here screams Priority Pass and a short-lasting bank partnership so that you too could one day make it in here. And not that it matters but, yes, I did get in via Priority Pass. I hate it here and I don’t care what anyone says. I need want to go back to the Tanfeethi.
To those unfamiliar, the Tanfeethi is a highly unique members-only airport lounge equipped with its own private entrance, exit, security, and passport control. They also handle your luggage to-and-from, so you never have to wait by the baggage carousel ever again. Often, members are driven to their departing plane in a private car, usually a BMW 7-series or equivalent. When demand is high, the transportation is done via a luxury bus.
The Tanfeethi has been around for several decades and frequently reshuffled its operations shifted its ownership until it was fully privatized in the late 2000s. The Tanfeethi is a Saudi luxury staple, and has one of the most interesting business models I’ve ever seen in my life.
LAX’s has its own equivalent, Private Suite, which launched in 2017, but the Tanfeethi is available in all major Saudi airports in addition to the causeway between Saudi and Bahrain.
So yeah, the Tanfeethi is pretty fucking convenient. But is it worth it? I crunched the numbers so you don’t have to:
