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?
I just asked the front desk agents about it. They said it wasn’t as popular as they thought - the OneWorld-only restriction blocks a lot of the JetBlue pax and many are repelled by the $15 charge. It’s 8am Monday and pretty quiet, so I’m happy to say this money-grab doesn’t seem to be working.
And now it’s Tuesday at 5:30pm and it’s pretty peaceful. I come here a lot. Will be here again on Saturday.
Why am I spending $600 on a credit card that gets me "access" to *checks notes* buy entrance to a lounge?
No thanks. With $65 (the $50 per month this costs me plus $15) I could buy a pretty nice meal in the terminal instead.
Here we go. PP will become very complicated soon. It all started when it depended on which credit card you got the card (Chase or Amex etc) and now we are seeing the next level where some lounges (probably just airport lounges) have no co-pay while others don't have all of their lounges participating and they want to maximize both the usage and revenue so there is a co-pay (probably mostly airline lounges).
i was just there in SFO earlier this week as i have the alaska summit card. there’s a sign on the desk that says “no priority pass”. amex portal doesn’t show alaska in lounges yet, just the priority pass app.
Would you be able to use the credit card incidentals to cover this fee?
Co-pays are a slippery slope. If we support it, all PP lounges will try it. Since Co-pays could completely eviscerate the credibility and appeal of PP, I'm astounded that PP allows member lounges to charge them.
It starts at $15 but will without doubt go much higher.
It doesn't address people who had access to Alaska previously and thankful to not have the pp crowds. This devalues their membership.
I would say the same about the Club at SFO. Unless you arrive very early in the morning, you're going to wait. If you arrive after 6pm when all the International A Priority Pass lounges become inaccessible to PP holders without premium tickets, then you're going to wait - a while. It's not quick. The Centurion SFO is a temporary location (that was ironically an Alaska Air lounge), so yeah it's crowded, but I recall...
I would say the same about the Club at SFO. Unless you arrive very early in the morning, you're going to wait. If you arrive after 6pm when all the International A Priority Pass lounges become inaccessible to PP holders without premium tickets, then you're going to wait - a while. It's not quick. The Centurion SFO is a temporary location (that was ironically an Alaska Air lounge), so yeah it's crowded, but I recall the agent assisting people to find available seating - that never happened in the previous location.
I can see solo travelers and couples would be willing to pay the $15 each to enter Alaska's lounge, but less likely a family.
Co-pays are a slippery slope. If we support it, all PP lounges will try it. Since Co-pays could completely eviscerate the credibility and appeal of PP, I'm astounded that PP allows member lounges to charge them.
It's only a matter of time before other lounge operators "join the party" and do the same... or worse.
The Club (a PP lounge) is located at Terminal 1 at SFO and is free to PP members.
It fits the need for a place to sit, charge a device and grab some coffee or snacks while waiting for your flight.
It is not deluxe in any way and it can get crowded, but usually you can find a seat.
My guess for the charge: to avoid overcrowding from AA flyers, which...
The Club (a PP lounge) is located at Terminal 1 at SFO and is free to PP members.
It fits the need for a place to sit, charge a device and grab some coffee or snacks while waiting for your flight.
It is not deluxe in any way and it can get crowded, but usually you can find a seat.
My guess for the charge: to avoid overcrowding from AA flyers, which is located in the same terminal.
Thus, unless the Alaska Lounge is on the scale of a Delta One lounge, paying $15 to enter would be a hard pass.
Facility wise, it’s a very nice lounge. Much nicer than the Delta Skyclub lounge ant SFO and a step below Delta One. Food wise, super mid. (Better than LAX Alaska lounge but below a regular Delta lounge.)
The nicest thing is the fresh coffee station where they make you custom orders. Not worth $15 IMO.
@Ben —> As someone else has mentioned, a two-minute walk back towards Security is “The Club,” a 12,000 square foot Priority Pass lounge that — yes — always seems to have a line to sign in, and sometimes a line to get in as (despite its 12k sq. ft. size) it’s overcrowded. Five minutes further down the concourse and one comes to the Admirals Club, which is another 11,000 square foot lounge.
Originally, when AA...
@Ben —> As someone else has mentioned, a two-minute walk back towards Security is “The Club,” a 12,000 square foot Priority Pass lounge that — yes — always seems to have a line to sign in, and sometimes a line to get in as (despite its 12k sq. ft. size) it’s overcrowded. Five minutes further down the concourse and one comes to the Admirals Club, which is another 11,000 square foot lounge.
Originally, when AA and AS were both in T2, the Alaska Lounge became an Admirals Club and Alaska was to build a new club with an outdoor seating area and more…but then they both moved into T1 along with (seemingly) eavery other airline at SFO save United and the more geographically distant foreign carriers. T1 is now home to Aer Lingus, Alaska, American, Delta, Frontier, Hawaiian, jetBlue, Porter, and Sun Country. Delta members don’t have a lounge, neither do Frontier or Sun Country (but their pax don’t expect them either, whereas DL pax do.)
I am *hoping* this doesn’t **** up the Alaska Lounge, but — I suppose — there’s always the Admirals Club…(sigh).
@Jason While there might be lines at times to get into The Club, you usually are allowed in and the process goes quickly.
Compare that to the SFO AMEX Centurion lounge (or practically any Centurion lounge in the US) where it seems you almost are in a lottery to get in, having to put yourself on a waitlist and hope that a gazillion other travelers aren't ahead of you on the list, then once called, you have 10 minutes to show up or lose your spot.
I would say the same about the Club at SFO. Unless you arrive very early in the morning, you're going to wait. If you arrive after 6pm when all the International A Priority Pass lounges become inaccessible to PP holders without premium tickets, then you're going to wait - a while. It's not quick. The Centurion SFO is a temporary location (that was ironically an Alaska Air lounge), so yeah it's crowded, but I recall...
I would say the same about the Club at SFO. Unless you arrive very early in the morning, you're going to wait. If you arrive after 6pm when all the International A Priority Pass lounges become inaccessible to PP holders without premium tickets, then you're going to wait - a while. It's not quick. The Centurion SFO is a temporary location (that was ironically an Alaska Air lounge), so yeah it's crowded, but I recall the agent assisting people to find available seating - that never happened in the previous location.
I can see solo travelers and couples would be willing to pay the $15 each to enter Alaska's lounge, but less likely a family.
Given that my Priority Pass card is declined more often than accepted, I don’t see this as making a difference. I am not sure why AMEX even bothers with it. At this point AMEX club access is just false advertising.
@Richard The only time I was denied entry to a PP lounge was at the Golden Gate lounge at SFO in Terminal A of the International Terminal, which is a crap lounge anyway, so nothing to get upset about. I have use my PP card extensively in the USA and abroad and has always worked well for me, except in this one instance.
At least it's nice to see them break the 3-hr trend and allow 4 hours. If this crap gets lots of takers, next stop $20.
This behavior will be normalized and soon most clubs will start charging a nominal fee…
This is inevitable as everyone and their grandma has a PP in America.
I won't say that $15 is a bargain to use this lounge.
Its been my experience that lounges that accept priority pass are usually way over crowded. And over crowded with a non business like clientele. The SFO lounge is beautiful (although I wish it faced the runways). Initially I thought i hope accepting priority pass won't make it over crowded but then again would people want to pay 15 bucks each person each time?
I pay close to 800 dollars a year for access to...
Its been my experience that lounges that accept priority pass are usually way over crowded. And over crowded with a non business like clientele. The SFO lounge is beautiful (although I wish it faced the runways). Initially I thought i hope accepting priority pass won't make it over crowded but then again would people want to pay 15 bucks each person each time?
I pay close to 800 dollars a year for access to one world lounges (admirals clubs and alaska lounges) i dont want it to be become a loud and over crowded environment. I wouldn't want it to become like the Aspire lounge in san diego which accepts priority pass. Aspire lounge used to be the admirals club. It went from a small and quiet business lounge to overcrowded half hr lines to get in and a loud people going on vacation to a party destination atmosphere. Gosh I sound old
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.
Copay seems legit: PP pays them a higher amount, probably around $27, and you pay a smaller copay.
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.
Steve, you’re right (according to the SF Chronicle), Alaska accounts for approximately 10 percent of passenger traffic at SFO, and United around 50 percent. But at 10 percent, Alaska is bigger than AA or DL.
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.
Sure but Alaska lounges are generally way nicer, and it sounds like the club is often full. I'll probably use this to augment my summit card lounge passes when I know I'll use my two a quarter at SEA. I do wish it was like half off for summit or loyalty members with Alaska of some tier. That'd be a nice extra perk.
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
Agreed.
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?