Airport lounges - important ?

Those of you who have read my posts know that I choose my flights based on the lowest fare and always economy. This has consequences (mainly positive but a couple of negative ones).
One negative consequence is that I don't have access to airline airport lounges (I do, but not through the airline frequent flyer programs or a business class ticket).

So here comes the question: are lounges a perk or are they important?
My answer is: both.

Let me give you an example:
In my last trip to NY - I had a flight back home at 20:00 - however my last meeting got cancelled in the last moment so I found myself in NYC at 15:00 tired after a week of running between meeting just dreaming of sleeping in my own bed and spending some time with my family.

So my options were pretty limited- I could go into a starbucks and work from there (slow internet, many times limited space, not very comfortable) or go to the airport.

I chose to go to JFK and got there at 16:00. At 16:30 I was done with security and immigration.
I headed to the Wingtips lounge (terminal 4) and:

• took a shower (they have a spa like shower with all necessities included... i.e. towel, shampoo, various kits etc.)
• had a (free) dinner 
• had some nice drinks 
• connected all my devices to the internet
• worked on my laptop for a couple of hours while relaxing on a very comfortable seat

This is from my perspective not a luxury item - it's actually a cost saver, a sanity saver and a great tool for achieving higher work productivity.

Just the food and drinks I had there would easily cost $35-$45 outside and the shower and internet would cost more.

I have had many more cases of the airport lounge being an absolute sanity saver, cost saver and a refresher.

I see lounge access as a must for the serious traveler - it's simply too expensive not to have lounge access. I also feel lounge access makes economy travel much nicer.

So how do you get the lounge access ? I'll cover this in another post.