Link: Apply now for the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (Rates & Fees)
There are many reasons to consider picking up the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (review). Among those is airport lounge access.
The Capital One Venture X Card offers a Priority Pass membership, access to Capital One Lounges (though currently only the DFW location is open), and access to 100+ Plaza Premium Lounges. That last benefit was only added as of mid-2022, so in this post I wanted to take a closer look at how that works, since it’s a benefit many cardmembers overlook.
The best part is that all these lounge access perks not only apply to the primary cardmember on the Capital One Venture X, but also apply for up to four authorized users, which you can add at no extra cost.
In this post:
Capital One Venture X Plaza Premium Lounge access basics
Thanks to a partnership between Capital One and Plaza Premium, Capital One offers cardmembers access to 100+ Plaza Premium affiliated lounges around the globe. This includes the following lounges (find the full list of participating lounges here):
- All Plaza Premium Lounges
- All Virgin Atlantic Clubhouses in the United States
- The Air France Lounge at Montreal Airport (YUL)
- The MERA Business Lounges at Cancun Airport (CUN)
When it comes to accessing Plaza Premium locations:
- You’ll just have to present your Capital One Venture X to gain access to these lounges; there’s no separate membership card required.
- You need a same day boarding pass and ID to access a lounge, though there’s no requirement that you be within a certain number of hours of a departing flight; so lounges can be used hours prior to departure, or even upon arrival
- You can bring up to two guests into Plaza Premium Lounges with you
Other Capital One cards offer Plaza Premium Lounge access
It’s not just those with the Capital One Venture X getting access to 100+ Plaza Premium Lounges. Some of Capital One’s other cards offer Plaza Premium Lounge access as well, though with limits.
Those with the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (review) (Rates & Fees) and the Capital One Spark Miles for Business (review) (Rates & Fees) receive two complimentary lounge visits every calendar year. These can be used either at the Capital One Lounge DFW, or at any participating Plaza Premium location:
- You receive two lounge visits per year, and each is good for one person; so you could use those visits for two people to access a lounge once, or for one person to access a lounge twice
- To take advantage of this perk, just present your credit card when entering a lounge; note that if you’ve already used your complimentary visits for the year, you’ll be charged
While there are obviously limits on the lounge access here, it’s awesome that Capital One offers lounge access on some level for cards with annual fees of under $100.
Where in the United States are Plaza Premium Lounges?
While you can find the list of 100+ Plaza Premium Lounges in the world at this link, I wanted to specifically highlight the lounges in the United States, since these are most likely to be useful for cardmembers. The Capital One Venture X offers access to the following lounges in the United States via Plaza Premium:
- Boston, BOS — Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse (Terminal E)
- Dallas, DFW — Plaza Premium Lounge (Terminal E)
- New York, JFK — Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse (Terminal 4)
- Newark, EWR — Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse (Terminal B)
- San Francisco, SFO — Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse (Terminal A)
- Washington, IAD — Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse (Terminal A)
As you can see, there’s only one “plain” Plaza Premium location in the United States, though there are five Virgin Atlantic Clubhouses you can access, as these are managed by Plaza Premium nowadays. Visiting these lounges is an awesome opportunity, as they feature great drinks, a la carte dining, and more.
Is the Venture X the best card for lounge access?
Among premium credit cards, where does the Capital One Venture X rank when it comes to lounge access? Let’s compare several aspects of lounge access perks of the two biggest competitors to this card.
The Platinum Card® from American Express (review):
- Offers a Priority Pass membership (Enrollment required), but doesn’t offer credits at Priority Pass restaurants
- Offers access to Plaza Premium Lounges
- Offers access to Amex Centurion Lounges
- Offers access to Delta Sky Clubs
- Lounge access perks extend to authorized users, though there’s a cost to add them
Meanwhile the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card (review):
- Offers a Priority Pass membership, including credits at Priority Pass restaurants
- Lounge access perks extend to authorized users, though there’s a cost to add them
It’s a huge competitive advantage that the Capital One Venture X lets you add authorized users at no extra cost (Rates & Fees), as they get lounge access perks as well.
Bottom line
The Capital One Venture X Card offers an incredibly comprehensive lounge access program, between a Priority Pass membership (1,300+ lounges), access to Plaza Premium Lounges (100+ lounges), and access to Capital One Lounges (well, just one lounge for the time being).
While many cardmembers are familiar with Priority Pass, fewer are probably aware of Plaza Premium perks, and especially that Virgin Atlantic Clubhouses in the United States are included as part of this program. So that’s something that’s definitely worth checking out.
Credit card lounge access doesn’t get much more well rounded than this, especially when you consider that the card offers the same perks for authorized users, and you can add up to four of those at no extra cost (Rates & Fees).
Have you used Capital One cards to access Plaza Premium Lounges yet?
You can use this site to fine which lounges Capital One lets you get into
https://capitalonetravel.com/lounges/partner-lounge-network
Virgin Atlantic in JFK selectively denies access to Venture X cardholders (e.g when full or even when they anticipate being full). The only time (in three tries) that I’ve been able to get in was at 6am durning one trip.
Hi, is it possible to access the Plaza Premium lounges by presenting the card through Google Wallet?
Yes, I used the Plaza Premium Lounge in Jakarta Airport's Terminal 3, access with Venture X card. It was certainly a very nice lounge.
I was just at LHR Terminal 4 & they wouldn't let me in using my VentureX card. I had to call CO & get them to speak to the Plaza Premium Lounge to get them to let me in. Anybody else experienced this? BTW once I did get in the lounge I wasn't very impressed with its quality.
Note that Venture X/Priority Pass has NO LOUNGES with access at either LAX or PHX. This is a big downside if you often fly from these airports.
Lucky wrote: "You need a same day boarding pass and ID to access a lounge, though there’s no requirement that you be within a certain number of hours of a departing flight; so lounges can be used hours prior to departure, or even upon arrival."
Did I read that correctly? One can access the lounges on arrival???
The vast majority of my lounge visits are in airline lounges. There is the odd circumstance of an airport with no airline lounge and I'll use an Amex lounge. But, it's been years since I've been in a true third-party lounge, such as one under the Priority Pass umbrella. I have to scratch my head when I hear others express fascination over them.
I have to scratch my head when you say "the odd circumstance of an airport with no airline lounge and I'll use an Amex lounge".
I can't think of any airport with no airline lounge but a Centurion lounge. Unless of course if you mean SkyClub as an airline lounge or Escape Lounge as an Amex lounge.
And you should travel to Asia before you go bald from scratching your head.
Sounds like a commercial for the credit card that you are talking about.
Not at all. It is a good hint about the card and it looks indeed it is the best card for lounges.
Anyone know if you can access with an Apple Wallet version of the Cap One, or do you need the physical card?
Lucky, you forgot the most important / most used lounge benefit of the Amex Platinum - Delta SkyClub access.
I didn't know they had Virgin Atlantic lounges also, that's great. I should have checkout out the JFK one when I had the chance last time
Does Cap One have a site for all lounges accessible by the Venture X? Similar to Americanexpress.com/findalounge?
@ Nick -- Capital One doesn't have a site quite like Amex when it comes to lounges. However, you can find Plaza Premium locations here:
https://www.plazapremiumlounge.com/en-uk/landing-pages/capitalone
Then you can find Priority Pass locations on the Priority Pass website or app.
The LoungeBuddy app is great at figuring out how to get access to which lounges. Just make sure to select that you have the Capital One Venture X, and it’ll track that through when searching airports.
For BOS, I think you mean Terminal E instead of "5"? It's listed as Terminal 5 in the plaza premium website, which is where it was pasted from.
@ TJ -- Fixed, thanks! :-)
Lots of recent reports of VS lounges in the US turning away non-VS passengers in the evenings when their own passengers are expected to fill up the lounge. Also, there have been reports of the IAD location providing a downgraded food offering on days there is no VS flight.
I accessed the plaza premium lounge at Heathrow just after this program was announced. It was a step above and much roomier than the Priority Pass lounge there, close in quality though smaller than the British Airways business class lounges, and has a nice view. The food was actually good, and it was great to be there when our BA flight was delayed a couple of hours and we weren’t flying business class. You do...
I accessed the plaza premium lounge at Heathrow just after this program was announced. It was a step above and much roomier than the Priority Pass lounge there, close in quality though smaller than the British Airways business class lounges, and has a nice view. The food was actually good, and it was great to be there when our BA flight was delayed a couple of hours and we weren’t flying business class. You do need to get there right when it opens, it fills up super fast.
It also depends where the Centurion Studio lounge is and if that is at airports that align with your travels. One of my top airports is BDL, and I probably visit the Escape Lounge/Centurion Studio more frequently than I visit the actual Centurion at my home airport (DFW).