If you value airport lounge access, odds are that you’re familiar with Priority Pass, which is the world’s largest network of airport lounges. In this post, I’d like to share my take on the current value proposition of a Priority Pass™ membership, including discussing the basics of what this airport lounge network is, how you can get a membership, and whether Priority Pass is worth it.
What is Priority Pass?
Priority Pass is the world’s largest independent network of airport lounges, with over 1,900 airport lounges and experiences around the world.
Think of Priority Pass as almost being like a lounge access broker. Priority Pass doesn’t operate lounges itself, but rather the business model is to sell lounge memberships to travelers (either directly or through credit cards), and then in turn, pay lounges for admitting members.
It goes without saying that not all airport lounges participate in Priority Pass. For example, in the United States, no American Admirals Clubs, Delta Sky Club®, or United Clubs, participate in Priority Pass. That’s because they’d view joining Priority Pass as cannibalizing their own business of selling lounge memberships, getting people to pursue elite status, etc.
For the lounges that do participate in Priority Pass, the individual lounges are being paid by Priority Pass every time a member visits.
How do you get a Priority Pass membership?
You can either purchase a Priority Pass™ membership directly, or get one through a premium credit card (with the latter being a much better value). Let’s take a look at the details of those two options.
Buy a Priority Pass membership directly
Priority Pass has three types of memberships you can purchase. Which membership makes most sense for you depends on how often you plan on visiting lounges. The Priority Pass™ membership options include the following:
- A Standard membership costs $99 per year; this doesn’t include any lounge visits, but rather you have to pay $35 per visit
- A Standard Plus membership costs $329 per year; this includes 10 lounge visits per year, and then you have to pay $35 per subsequent visit
- A Prestige membership costs $469 per year; this includes unlimited lounge visits
In all cases, taking a guest into a lounge will cost an extra $35 per person per visit.
As you can see, you’ll be paying around $470 per year for a membership that gets you unlimited lounge visits. This is a bit cheaper than the lounge memberships that most of the major US airlines sell directly, for example. However, airline lounge memberships don’t get you access to Priority Pass lounges, and a Priority Pass™ membership doesn’t get you access to most airline membership lounges.
Get Priority Pass access with a credit card
The much more economical way to get a Priority Pass™ membership is to pick up a premium credit card that offers this as a perk. There are plenty of popular cards that can provide access to participating Priority Pass™ lounges, ranging from the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (learn more), to the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card (learn more), to the American Express Platinum Card® (learn more) (Enrollment required).
All of these memberships allow unlimited visits, though guesting policies vary. It’s kind of astonishing how much more lucrative the credit card route is.
As an example of why this is a better value (if you’re eligible for such a card), let’s take a look at the Capital One Venture X. The card has a $395 annual fee (less than the Prestige Priority Pass™ membership cost) and offers:
- Access to participating Priority Pass™ lounges for the primary cardmember
- All kinds of additional benefits, including a $300 annual travel credit and 10,000 anniversary bonus miles
Personally I value the $300 travel credit and 10,000 anniversary bonus miles at more than the $395 annual fee, and view it as Capital One just throwing in a access to participating Priority Pass™ lounges for free. 😉
One important restriction to be aware of is that Priority Pass™ access through most American Express, Capital One, and Chase cards, don’t get you credits at Priority Pass restaurants, as well as some other Priority Pass experiences. So if that’s important to you, you’ll want to pursue lounge access through other means.
How much is a Priority Pass membership worth?
There’s no good way to develop an objective valuation of a Priority Pass™ membership, given that it’s entirely dependent on how often you use it. To state the obvious, a Priority Pass™ membership is worth how many times you use participating lounges, multiplied by how much you value each visit.
What complicates things further is that it’s not just a question of how often you’d use airport lounges, but rather how often you’d specifically use Priority Pass lounges:
- If you’re traveling in international first & business class, or have airline elite status, you may get lounge access anyway
- Some of us find it worthwhile to get a lounge membership with a specific airline we frequently travel with; for example, I have the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Legend Mastercard® (learn more), which offers an Admirals Club membership for the primary cardmember
Even beyond that, there’s so much variability in terms of the value of a particular lounge visit:
- If you have a three hour connection and you can spend that time in a Priority Pass lounge, that provides real value; meanwhile if you show up at the airport five minutes before boarding starts, there might not even be a point in visiting a lounge
- There’s the question of how much value you get from lounge visits for those situations where you actually use Priority Pass locations; there’s huge variance in terms of the quality of airport lounges — some are hardly worth visiting, some are awesome, and most are somewhere in between
- Especially in the United States, Priority Pass lounge crowding can be a huge issue, with some being frustratingly full to the point that I’d rather sit in the terminal, or sometimes even having a waitlist to get in; all the credit cards that give us access to easy Priority Pass™ memberships are a double-edged sword, I suppose
I will say that for a frequent traveler who doesn’t otherwise have lounge access, even outright paying for a membership with unlimited visits could make sense (assuming you don’t have access to credit cards that offer a membership).
As someone with oneworld Emerald status, SkyTeam Elite Plus status, and an American Admirals Club membership, who typically in flies first & business class, here’s where I see value with Priority Pass:
- Priority Pass comes in handy a fair bit in Canada and Mexico when flying a US airline, since US airlines often don’t have lounges at airports there, and don’t otherwise provide contract lounge access to premium passengers
- In Europe I’ll sometimes fly ultra low cost carriers given their nonstop networks, and in those situations, it’s useful to still have lounge access
- Sometimes I just appreciate the alternative lounges that Priority Pass gives me access to; for example, when flying SAS business class from Copenhagen to Miami, I far preferred the Eventyr Lounge (through Priority Pass) compared to the SAS Lounge (which my ticket got me access to)
If I had to put a number to it, I’d say that for my personal usage patterns, I probably value a Priority Pass™ membership at around $200-300 per year.
At least that’s what I’d probably pay in cash for a membership. Fortunately I don’t actually have to put much thought into that, since I have multiple Priority Pass™ memberships through several credit cards, so it costs me nothing extra.
The good news is that most of the credits cards that offer Priority Pass™ memberships also offer access to their own credit card lounge networks, which are often far superior. This includes Amex Centurion Lounges, Capital One Lounges, and Chase Sapphire Lounges, all of which are top notch.
Bottom line
The value of a Priority Pass™ membership will vary significantly depending on the type of traveler you are. If you do want a Priority Pass™ membership, however, you’re almost always going to be better off getting one through a credit card. There are some premium cards that are so valuable that you might not even have to account for the cost of the Priority Pass™ membership with your card annual fee.
Personally I value a Priority Pass™ membership at somewhere around $200 to $300 per year, though everyone will no doubt have a different valuation based on their usage patterns.
What’s your take on the value of Priority Pass, and how much would you pay for a membership?
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