Have you ever looked longingly at those glass doors at the airport? The ones that house all the businessmen and other traveling elite as they enjoy comfy chairs, WiFi, food, cocktails, maybe even a shower, and ahhhh, space. Precious, precious space.

Perhaps you’ve been lucky enough to relax behind those glass doors, courtesy of the airline who granted you this royal status.

Well now it doesn’t matter if you are in an airline’s membership club. Many airports are already providing travelers from all walks of life with a VIP lounge for a nominal fee. No airport affiliation required.

It’s a win-win situation. Sort of.

While the airports have a new way to generate revenue and average travelers like myself can really unwind in between flights, there is a loser: airlines.

Airlines have notoriously been charging us for luggage and taking away our meals – even our peanuts – to make up for lost profits over the past few years. Many have cut capacity because of fuel costs in the past few months. United and Continetal even yanked the pillows right from under their first-class travelers’ heads. With the onset of airport VIP lounges, airlines could could potentially lose even more revenue, and find new things to charge us for or perks to take away.

I know what you’re thinking – who cares about the airlines? They’ve been ripping us off for decades.

But airlines do provide things like, say, marketing dollars, to airports that need their help to survive. So airports, particularly smaller regional ones, will have to weigh the options before adopting any VIP lounges.

In the meantime, I look forward to my next trip to an airport with a VIP lounge. I wonder if they’ll take their fee in quarters.