Link: Learn more about the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card or Sapphire Reserve for Business℠
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card (review) and Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ (review) are Chase’s premium cards offering lounge access. While the cards have a steep $795 annual fee, they offer lots of benefits that can help offset that, including a $300 annual travel credit, a lucrative rewards structure, and much more.
Lounge access is an important benefit of premium cards that many consumers value, and in this post, I want to look at how the Chase Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Reserve Business Priority Pass lounge access benefit works, as this is something that has to be activated.
What is the Chase Sapphire Reserve’s Priority Pass™ membership?
Priority Pass is the world’s largest network of independent airport lounges, with over 1,300 member lounges around the world. Priority Pass as such doesn’t operate lounges, but rather, it’s a program that pays third party lounges to admit its members. While you can buy a Priority Pass™ membership directly, this is also offered as a perk on many premium credit cards.
In the case of the Chase Sapphire Reserve, both the primary cardmember and authorized users are eligible for a Priority Pass™ membership. That can be a good deal, since you can add authorized users to the card for $195 each, and that comes with lounge access perks.
Note that on the Sapphire Reserve Business, authorized users don’t receive lounge access. Then again, adding authorized users on that card also doesn’t cost anything extra.
Those eligible for lounge access with either version of the card also received unlimited access to Chase Sapphire Lounges. Priority Pass™ memberships issued through most other cards only offer one annual Chase Sapphire Lounge visit at a location in the United States, with no guesting privileges. Lastly, I should mention that the personal version of the card offers access to select Air Canada Lounges.
How many guests can you bring into lounges?
The Priority Pass™ membership issued through the Chase Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Reserve Business allows members to bring two guests into lounges with them (in addition to the cardmember, for a total of three people). It doesn’t matter if these are family members or friends.
Do note that while this is Chase’s policy, some individual lounges may have further restrictions on how many people can be brought in. For example, some lounges only allow Priority Pass members to bring at most one guest with them, so make sure you check Priority Pass’ website for the lounge you plan on visiting.
Which Priority Pass locations can you access?
The Priority Pass™ membership offered with the Chase Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Reserve Business gets you access to all Priority Pass lounges around the globe, and you can make an unlimited number of visits. In other words, you could visit multiple lounges at the same airport on the same day if you wanted to.
Do you get credits at Priority Pass restaurants?
Unfortunately the Chase Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Reserve Business Priority Pass™ membership doesn’t offer credits at Priority Pass restaurants. For those who have no clue what I’m talking about, Priority Pass has partnered with dozens of restaurants at select airports, where members can receive a credit toward food and drinks in lieu of access to a lounge.
Unfortunately the memberships issued through these cards don’t offer that, as this benefit is primarily for those who directly buy a membership from Priority Pass.
How does Chase Sapphire Lounge access work?
Chase has been opening its own network of lounges, known as Chase Sapphire Lounges by The Club. So far, the lounge network has locations in Boston (BOS), Hong Kong (HKG), New York (JFK), New York (LGA), Philadelphia (PHL), Phoenix (PHX), San Diego (SAN), and Washington (IAD). These lounges are amazing, and feature a la carte dining, a great buffet and drink selection, beautiful decor, and some unique amenities.
While these are all Priority Pass lounges, having the Chase Sapphire Reserve or Sapphire Reserve Business gives you a significant advantage. Priority Pass members through a non-Chase card can only visit one Chase Sapphire Lounge in the United States per year, with no visitors.
Meanwhile those with a Priority Pass™ membership through the Chase Sapphire Reserve can access these lounges an unlimited number of times, with up to two guests.
It’s important to emphasize that you still need a Priority Pass™ membership, though. In other words, you can’t just show your Chase Sapphire Reserve to access the lounge, but rather, you need your Priority Pass™ membership issued in conjunction with the card.
How do you activate your Priority Pass™ membership?
The process of activating your Chase Sapphire Reserve Priority Pass™ membership is quite easy. Log into your card account, and then go to the “Card benefits” section. Once there, go to the section for “Complimentary airport lounge access.”
There you’ll see an option to activate your membership. Once you select that option, the card should be mailed to you within two to three weeks at your address on file (though often it comes even faster than that).
How do you activate memberships for authorized users?
When you click the button to activate your Priority Pass™ membership, you’ll be sent Priority Pass™ memberships for the primary cardmember and all authorized users (at least on the personal card, where that’s a benefit for authorized users). All the cards will show up at your address, and then you can distribute them.
The only slight complication is if you request these cards and then later add an authorized user. The Chase website will still show the membership as being “activated,” so to get a Priority Pass™ membership for an authorized user added on after the fact you’ll need to call the number on the back of your card.
How do you get a Priority Pass mobile membership?
Priority Pass also offers mobile membership cards, which I appreciate, since it’s one less card you have to carry in your wallet. In order to activate this, you first need to wait for your physical Priority Pass card to arrive in the mail, since it will come with a letter that has a PIN, and you need that PIN to activate your online membership. Make sure you don’t throw away the letter you get with the Priority Pass card, at least not before jotting down the PIN.
Once you have that you can download the Priority Pass app and then sign-up for an account, where you’ll get a mobile membership card, which you can add to your Apple Wallet.
Unfortunately there’s not a practical way to get access to Priority Pass lounges before your card arrives in the mail, so make sure you leave a few weeks between when you activate your membership through Chase’s website, and when you’re actually traveling. Note that the membership number will differ between the mobile app and the physical card.
Bottom line
The Priority Pass™ membership offered with the Chase Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Reserve Business are a valuable perk that many cardmembers value. This benefit does require activation, so that’s one of the first things you’ll want to do after receiving the card.
Lounge access is one of the main points of differentiation between the the Chase Sapphire Reserve and Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (review).
While several premium credit cards offer Priority Pass™ memberships nowadays, the benefit of those issued by Chase is that they offer unlimited access to Chase Sapphire Lounges. That’s a huge advantage, as these are some great lounges.
What has your experience been with the Chase Sapphire Reserve Priority Pass™ membership?
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