Priority Pass is the largest independent airport lounge network in the world, with roughly 700 affiliate lounges. Rather than purchasing lounge access with an airline directly, this is a way to have quite a few options globally without restricting yourself to one airline. The catch is that the major US lounge networks — American Admirals Clubs, Delta SkyClubs, and United Clubs — don’t participate in Priority Pass.
Several cards offer Priority Pass memberships just for being a cardmember, including the following:
- The Citi Prestige® Card: comes with Priority Pass access for the cardmember and up to two guests or immediate family
- The Platinum Card® from American Express: comes with Priority Pass access for the cardmember (Enrollment required)
- The Business Platinum Card® from American Express: comes with Priority Pass access for the cardmember (Enrollment required)
Personally, I love the benefit of The Citi Prestige® Card, as you can bring in two guests at no additional cost, so that’s my “primary” way of accessing Priority Pass lounges nowadays.
Anyway, Priority Pass is constantly adding new lounges, and they added three new lounges in the US in August which I think are worth specifically pointing out. Priority Pass members now have access to the following three Air France lounges in the US:
- Air France Lounge New York JFK, Terminal 1 (open daily 6AM until 2AM)
- Air France Lounge San Francisco, Concourse A (open daily 8:30AM until 8:30PM)
- Air France Lounge Washington Dulles, Concourse A (open daily 10:30AM until 10PM)
I’d say these are some pretty exciting additions:
- The Air France Lounge JFK was just recently renovated, and looks like the nicest business class lounge in Terminal 1, which is a terminal used by dozens of non-US carriers (it looks much better than the Korean Air Lounge, one of the other Priority Pass options in the terminal).
- The Air France Lounge San Francisco is the only Priority Pass lounge at the entire airport; it’s especially convenient for those traveling out of the A Concourse, which is used by several non-US carriers.
- The Air France Lounge Washington Dulles complements the British Airways Galleries Lounge, which also belongs to Priority Pass; the catch is that the British Airways Lounge only gives Priority Pass cardmembers access between 7AM and 2PM, making this a great option for afternoons.
The Air France Lounge Terminal 1 JFK will be a great addition to Priority Pass
Bottom line
The strength of Priority Pass seems to be the volume of lounges they have, as opposed to the quality. In this case we’re seeing three great US lounges added, which will in many case be the best options even for those who would otherwise have lounge access.
Do you plan on using any of the Air France lounges which have just joined Priority Pass?
(Tip of the hat to Points, Miles & Martinis)
@Jeffrey: yes, I believe so. TSA will determine access into the terminal. Once you're there, I don't think the lounges ask for your boarding pass, just your PP card.
Who knows... maybe it'll be dependent on the individual TSA agent.
Might be a forum topic covering this on FlyerTalk. Will have to look later tonight.
@Matt: Thanks for your feedback, Matt.
It's surprising how policies may or may not differ intentionally from one AF lounge to another:
...SFO/ "Flights departing from Concourse A only". Unfortunately, your friend's experience matches their policy;
ORD/ "for pax departing from Terminal 5 only", so here there's a discrepancy with your friend's admission;
IAD/ "pax departing from other Concourses can access the lounge by train", so all pax are welcome.
@Matt: Thanks for your feedback, Matt.
It's surprising how policies may or may not differ intentionally from one AF lounge to another:
SFO/ "Flights departing from Concourse A only". Unfortunately, your friend's experience matches their policy;
ORD/ "for pax departing from Terminal 5 only", so here there's a discrepancy with your friend's admission;
IAD/ "pax departing from other Concourses can access the lounge by train", so all pax are welcome.
Yet, what you're saying is that it's the TSA and not AF that ultimately decides access?
@Jeffrey: I believe so. A friend is a Priority Pass member and told me she was denied access to Terminal A when flying Virgin America (out of Terminal 2).
I have a VX flight next Thursday from SFO so might try to get into Terminal A. We'll see if TSA lets me in.
(OTOH, same friend was able to access the AF lounge in ORD, when again flying VX from another terminal)
This is great news. Makes flights out of Dulles less awful.
Interesting. I'm surprised that BA would put out a big spread before the Priority Pass cut off time of 2 pm since their flights out of IAD are in the evening. Maybe it's for some OW partners that have contracted to use the BA lounge during the day.
What I meant to say was that there is a way to visit the BA lounge in IAD in the afternoon hours with PP membership however not well known. And the afternoon spread in the BA lounge is very impressive
Ben,
The SFO page states under Conditions: "Flights departing from Concourse A only". Is that a requirement?
I discovered this a couple of weeks ago flying Alaska out of SFO. On a whim, I brought up the Priority Pass app to search and found that the Air France/KLM Lounge was now accepting Priority Pass. No problem getting into the lounge.
This is useful not only for Alaska, but Jet Blue and Hawaiian also fly out of the A concourse at SFO.
@Chris Nolan -
Thanks! How was the Wingtips Lounge? It doesn't get the best reviews online. I'm now seeing that Etihad actually arrives at T4, not T1.
@travel4b,
The Wingtips lounge was fine. Bar was decent enough, pour your own. Food was just deli meat, salad, cereal, soup, and toast though. We left right at 5 and it looked like they were putting out hot food. I didn't see what it was. Seats were comfortable and it was quiet, even though all the seats were full by the time we left. We went to this instead of AF because Lounge Buddy rated it higher. I'd probably check out AF next time though.
Sounds like the SFO terminal A Air France lounge would be perfect for people flying JetBlue Mint between SFO and NYC.
@travel4b,
I just did this on Sunday. I landed from Shannon, Ireland in T5 (did preclearance in Shannon). We took the Airtrain to T4 and went to the Wingtips lounge. When we went through security at T4, the scanner flashed red and the agent asked why we were in the wrong terminal. I told her, and she let us through without issue. She marked up the boarding pass just like normal. When we returned to...
@travel4b,
I just did this on Sunday. I landed from Shannon, Ireland in T5 (did preclearance in Shannon). We took the Airtrain to T4 and went to the Wingtips lounge. When we went through security at T4, the scanner flashed red and the agent asked why we were in the wrong terminal. I told her, and she let us through without issue. She marked up the boarding pass just like normal. When we returned to T5 for our connecting flight, the agent didn't care that the boarding pass was already marked up. You should have no issue here.
@WorldWingedExplorer,
As Ben mentioned, there are time restrictions on access to the BA lounge.
actually as a pp member one can get access to the BA lounge in IAD just not well known
They also added the AF lounge IAH.
I saw this, too. Does TSA have a problem with going through security if your flight leaves from a different terminal? We're flying into JFK Terminal 1 on an Etihad flight in F, with a connecting commuter AA flight leaving Terminal 8 and a five hour layover. Apparently, we don't have access to the Flagship Lounge since EY is an AA partner, but not an AA ONEWORLD partner. The AF lounge looks pretty nice as...
I saw this, too. Does TSA have a problem with going through security if your flight leaves from a different terminal? We're flying into JFK Terminal 1 on an Etihad flight in F, with a connecting commuter AA flight leaving Terminal 8 and a five hour layover. Apparently, we don't have access to the Flagship Lounge since EY is an AA partner, but not an AA ONEWORLD partner. The AF lounge looks pretty nice as an alternative. Or is TSA not even an issue as we will clear customs in Abu Dhabi and presumably be beyond security when we deplane at Terminal 1?