An Alaska Lounge has just (re)joined Priority Pass, which is exciting, though it comes with a major catch.
In this post:
Alaska Lounge SFO now belongs to Priority Pass
The Alaska Lounge at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) has just joined Priority Pass, as flagged on FlyerTalk. The catch is that in order to access the lounge as a Priority Pass member, you’re on the hook for a $15 co-pay. Furthermore, you must be flying on Alaska or a partner airline, and you can stay for a maximum of four hours (which is at least longer than many other lounges allow).
For context, the Alaska Lounge SFO is located in Terminal 1, and it’s roughly 11,000 square feet, so it’s quite a good size. Currently this is the only Alaska Lounge location that’s participating in Priority Pass.
Obviously Priority Pass members like more options, though some people won’t like the co-pay. These kinds of co-pays are rare for simply wanting to enter a Priority Pass lounge, though we do sometimes see fees to “reserve” a spot in a lounge. This is a way that lounges can monetize their popularity, given that there’s often more demand than supply.
However, this concept also isn’t unheard of. We recently saw the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse Los Angeles Airport (LAX) join Priority Pass, but with a $35 co-pay. People have mixed feelings on this concept — while it helps with crowding, it also seems rather arbitrary, to start charging for lounge access on top of a standard access benefit.
Alaska Lounges have an interesting history with Priority Pass
As it currently stands, the Alaska Lounge at SFO is the only one in the network to belong to Priority Pass. Back in the day, virtually all Alaska Lounges belonged to Priority Pass, but obviously the way that lounge monetization works has evolved drastically over the years.
With Alaska increasingly focusing on its co-branded credit cards, plus belonging to oneworld and having a partnership with American, that ultimately makes lounges so crowded that there’s not much extra capacity.
The SFO location is an exception, and I imagine that reflects Alaska’s lack of success at the airport. Keep in mind that when Alaska acquired Virgin America, a bigger presence in the Bay Area was one of the main selling points of the deal. However, over time, Alaska’s presence at the airport has continued to decrease.
At this point, Alaska obviously has more lounge capacity at the airport than it needs, which is why we’re seeing this monetization.
Bottom line
The Alaska Lounge SFO has just joined Priority Pass, but there’s a $15 co-pay, in addition to needing a Priority Pass membership. Furthermore, you must be flying on Alaska or a partner airline, so this is also a way to increase demand for flights on Alaska or for the Atmos Rewards program, by making this perk related to airline choice.
It’s good to see more lounge options, though understandably many won’t like the precedent of a co-pay to access a lounge with a program like Priority Pass.
What do you make of the Alaska Lounge SFO joining Priority Pass?
Not sure if they'll be accepting PP in the late evening but Starlux (midnight-ish departure) uses it for their business class passengers, and the food spread was pretty good :)
Although a minimal fee, hard pass. Don’t want to encourage this.
What Alaska could have done more smartly is offer it for free to PP card holder flying Alaska and other airline passengers has to pay $15
Was just at SFO two days ago. The Club had a huge wait, so went to Terminal A and tried the Golden Gate PP lounge. Not bad - small, but good breakfast food, etc. Kind of hidden away, but didn't have to wait around.
I surely would NOT pay an extra $15 for a PP lounge.
I really hope it didn’t crowd the space. It’s quite empty no matter when you go and it’s an oasis. Barista made drinks is always such a nice touch. Their food choices sometimes are questionable. But it’s a peaceful place to wait for your flight. I always use it with my Citi executive card.
It's not a "copay," it's a fee. It is a cash grab. Sure, they can do what they want, but let's be honest in our framing.
This actually isn't as crazy as it sounds. The partner airline restriction means mostly Oneworld + a few others. You can usually already access with status when flying internationally.
And given Alaska already sold day passes, I'm not sure how much capacity will really change. This is effectively cheaper day passes.
If Alaska wants a bigger presence, maybe they should stop cutting destinations from SFO and actually make the airport competitive. Or just focus on San Diego and give up SFO.
You said it yourself...the airport is not competitive. It's a fortress hub for UA. AS has about 10% of the market, UA almost 50%. Why not deploy resources where you can make more money and avoid a financial bloodbath? To do otherwise would constitute mismanagement.
@Steve - I agree that UA dominates it, but AS tactics in particular at SFO has been pretty crazy. They sold tickets for fire sale prices from SFO to socal from 2021-2024, built a very nice lounge, 2-3x the prices for 2025, were surprised they didn't sell like hotcakes, and so they dramatically cut routes.
Tickets from UA were less, so from an economics perspective, it's like they just handed UA the business before rolling over and urinating on themselves.
It will not surprise me one bit to see the same approach taken at LAX. AS is losing the battle there as well and is continuing to cut direct flights. Who really wants to fly up to SFO to get to LAS from LAX? Or worse yet fly all the way up to SEA or PDX to get to BOS or the east coast. You can’t compete if you don’t try. AS have given up on SFO and LAX, time to start pimping out the lounges again. Just sad for everyone who remembers how good they used to be.
I would never pay extra unless I had a very long delay or something. This is silly.
Esp because they're right next to the club which is a Priority Pass lounge sans fee.
Given there is a limit on summit passes every quarter...this is a great option to "buy" more access to SFO lounge. This is a great pairing to the Summit card where you have PP...but need more passes to the AS lounge (at least for us SFO based flyers).
Its great i can use it for the parnter airlines like Porter with this....i love the AS SFO lounge.
I would avoid it just based on principle. We have to stop this nickel and diming of clients under various pretexts.
My guess is that this lounge will be extremely packed going forward.
Bummer. I imagine most people won’t know unless they put a PP sign out front. Might be back to the Admiral's club for me.
This is one of the nicest domestic lounges at SFO and is never crowded. In T1, there’s a pretty good PP lounge, but it almost always requires a wait, so I can see Alaska looking to capitalize on this opportunity. Also AA occupies this terminal and most AA club members come here too because it’s just a better spot. It has a great bar selection, those amazing pancakes and barista made espresso drinks.
All...
This is one of the nicest domestic lounges at SFO and is never crowded. In T1, there’s a pretty good PP lounge, but it almost always requires a wait, so I can see Alaska looking to capitalize on this opportunity. Also AA occupies this terminal and most AA club members come here too because it’s just a better spot. It has a great bar selection, those amazing pancakes and barista made espresso drinks.
All in all it’s my go to lounge! Let’s just just hope the copay doesn’t make it crowded and prevent me from using it
+1
Is three a $15 charge for guests too?
Yes it’s $15 each person
Why would the $15 not apply to guests?
A co-pay?? What is this, our failing American healthcare system?