Priority Pass Private: Invitation-Only Program For High-Net-Worth Travelers

Lucky, I'm not sure if you're aware of the somewhat "middle of the road" private experiences that exist between the ultra-lux options in the US and Priority Pass lounges at certain airports overseas. A client of money recently gave me a pass to the "private" terminal in SZX when I was in town for business. In reality, it was no more than a dozen different small one-room "lounges" cobbled together into a slightly nicer built building. Each "lounge" was sponsored by a company, the one my client gave me the pass to was by a regional bank. No cubed cheese to speak of and only access to a larger shared restaurant that really wasn't much better than a PP lounge. The only special part of the experience was being ushered into a van (with the rest of the qualified individuals) during boarding time and being driven to your flight vs. having to walk through the terminal.

I imagine this is what PS Private is going for.

FYI I am suddenly having a lot of issues getting your website to display properly (mostly images) in Chrome. Been like this for at least a few days...

This isn't likely to be about separate terminals, more like a private escort through check in and immigration formalities and into the lounge. Some airports may have dedicated VIP lounges, but a lot of them will be of the cubed cheese variety. This is normally a service that's sold for a few hundred Euros, and, like first-tier 'private banking' and other services aimed at the 'mass affluent', it may mostly be an attempt to create a veneer of exclusivity in order to cross-sell stuff that's available to everyone out there (e.g. 'here's a membership of an exclusive concierge service that's going to help you make reservations for pointlessly overpriced restaurants where most customers only go for the Instagram clicks'.), charging a set fee for each time the service is used.

Invite-only programs for key customers are nothing new. Concierge Key, Cobalt, etc. The Centurion-Card-only restaurant in Manhattan. The former United secret lounge in NY. In the present case, Priority Pass is cobbling together premium airport ground services into its own offering. Fun to think about but I won't feel cheated if I'm not invited.

Oh good. One more reason to tax the rich and eat them.

I use chrome too (mobile and desktop) and have had no issues at all

Sour grapes. There was a time when an airport lounge was a quiet refuge from the concourse. Today's typical lounge is only sometimes that and there will be some with the means to pay for that calmness if only it were available . . . as well as an elevated dining experience (not cheese cubes as you suggest). They are not there to feel exclusive or feed their egos or an Instagram image. Lose that chip on your shoulder.

I don't get what you're saying. I often have that type of service pitched at me and I always turn it down because it's never worth it. I can buy the shares and indices I want, there's no need to pay someone a fee to do it for me. I may go and have a look at the fridge to see whether my lack of interest in wealth management has affected the taste of the grapes therein.

Priority Pass won't be building new lounges, and most airports out there don't have multiple tiers of them. This product is being launched in Europe, and I am familiar with dozens of airports within the continent. If it's not a hub, it's usually just one non-Schengen option and one or two for Schengen pax. You'll end up there whether you've got a business (or even first!) class ticket, have access through your frequent flyer status, a credit card, or this newfangled scheme. In many places, it will even be legally impossible to offer anything 'elevated dining experience' because the terminal has been designed in a way that makes it very difficult to cook anything in a pan.

I'm not saying there's no demand, or willingness to pay, for a better product. What I'm saying is that it's impossible to deliver such a product at most airports (at least in Europe) and, as a result, this scheme is likely to be more of a gimmick than a solid proposition.

What you described is typical in China, mostly bank-sponsored VIP terminal and the majority are only available for domestic flights. The access fee for walk-in guest is usually 800 RMB and can be redeemed points into if you are a high value customer to the bank ( platinum card holder and no need to be private bank customer). Since the cost is not so high that explains the mediocre experience.

I would love to see the reaction on the face of a "high net worth individual" when they step into a Priority Pass lounge.

If it's their local non-hub airport in Europe, it'll either be an upgrade on their usual LCC's lack of lounge (flag carriers only fly from/to their hubs so the likes of easyJet get a lot of traffic, and sometimes strong yields, due to being the only carrier flying on lots of non-hub routes) or the same contract lounge they can already access with their ticket/frequent flyer status.

@Throwawayname: People eligible for this generally don't fly LCCs (generally - yes, exceptions exist). Any route has two ends, so while legacies may only fly to/from their hubs (which isn't always the case btw), they do serve a ton of non-hub airports. For most routes, by passengers served, you can have some sort of legacy airline serving it. LCCs are only the only option on some obscure routes (Kosice - Liverpool anyone), or leisure heavy routes (Berlin - Palma).

And even then, LCCs generally have rather tragic frequencies so quite a lot of people will end up flying legacy with a transfer instead of adjusting their plans by three days to fit a day when LCC has a direct flight.

I don't fly LCCs precisely because of the frequency issue. Even if they happen to fly on the day I want, it may be some ungodly hour of the morning and I'm not fond of that.

But most people I know, irrespective of whether they're rich or poor, have an almost irrational aversion to connecting flights. They would much rather build their travel plans around a twice-weekly direct easyJet frequency than fly KLM via AMS for the same price during their ideal dates.

I imagine this program will fail. Primarily because it can’t scale for any kind of volume.

It's not intended to scale for volume. You miss the point for such a program.

The target of this would already have access to high end service anyway

You need to clear your cache and cookies, normally that helps. it's not Ben's website, it's your fault.

As well as catered sky boxes at games. But, banks will still sponsor them. Naive comment.

Be a sucker for the worlds dumbest autocallable products that will wipe you with a 30% for market drawdown in exchange for... a Priority Pass membership.

Decline.

Horrible concept, won't work.

YES! The Chase Sapphire and other premium credit cards have gone crazy complicated. Delta and Amex lounge has made it too hard to use for frequent travelers. Is a pleasant surprise that Priority Pass goes from bottom rung lounge experience to top notch pre-flight experience!

@Ben's tech slave

Nothing directly at you, but the landscape in general.

Enough with the "clear cache" then "restart" then "reinstall xxx".
Why don't you recommend people to buy a new device every time some issue comes up. That's the "not my problem" escalation fix.

You tech bros need to clean up your codes instead of letting users endure you bugs. You get paid top money not to have an outsource parrot tell users to restart my device.

waiting to see who signs up for this service. AMEX has their own lounge network, Chase is building out their own lounge network, same for Cap1.

They are just bundling services that their affiliates are already offering.

This is where PP is milking the banks for its HNWI.
Like the normal PP memberships, they don't expect you to pay for the membership, they want the banks to.

Will it work?
It already isn't, that's why they're trying to market this product. But would it cost them more, I don't think so either.

So this is just like HBO going to Max and back. Nothing changes expect the lipstick name.

Your review is only from the PP prospective. Consider the reason PP wants to create such benefits and why they want to partner with the institutions. As they do not charge a membership to the customer, well, nothing is free...

Priority access to the cereal towers!