PS has built one of the more defensible businesses in premium travel on a 90-minute window and nearly a decade of regulatory groundwork. For hotels, lounges, and clubs chasing the same customer, the lesson is that protecting a guest's attention can be worth more than monetizing it.
Sign into the PS private terminal in Los Angeles and someone on the team will quickly ask if you'd like the same thing you had last time — they always remember. Surprisingly few hotels manage that level of recall, and even fewer members' clubs of late.
The brand is super-serving a difficult clientele in an exceptionally complicated business, so I wanted to hear from Amina Belouizdad Porter, PS's CEO, how the company thinks about what it has built. She came to PS from private equity, and before that hotel development, and she talks about the business with an investor's discipline and an operator's affection.
PS lets travelers flying commercial skip the public terminal entirely. Founded in 2017 as The Private Suite at LAX, it added Atlanta in 2023 and doubled its footprint this summer with Dallas-Fort Worth and Miami. Departing guests clear a private TSA checkpoint, and arriving international guests clear customs on site.
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Tags: airport lounges, airports, business travel, lax, On Experience