How You Can Get Airport Lounge Access – Without Flying Business or Having Elite Status
Airport lounges can be extremely valuable during long airport layovers, especially if the airport terminal doesn’t have particularly good amenities. Most airport lounges provide free food and drinks, have comfortable chairs that are more private than the airport terminal, and sometimes offer beds and showers, or even at select airports spa services. Another great perk about airport lounges is that they take away the hustle and stress that are airport terminals. Unfortunately, lounges usually are only available for people with elite status or business class passengers, and sometimes not even for them. However, there are multiple ways that you can get lounge access at airports – without taking a single flight beforehand, which are great options for frequent (and even not-so-frequent) flyers.
Priority Pass
- What Lounges Do You Have Access To? Selected lounges around the world and discounts to some restaurants at airports
- Membership Price: Varies
- Credit Cards That Have It Included: Chase Sapphire Reserve, Citi Prestige Card, Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card (no restaurants), Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card (no restaurants), American Express Platinum Card (personal & business, no restaurants), US Bank Altitude Reserve Card, American Express Centurion Card (card invitation only)
- Lounge Finder Link
Priority Pass is probably the most extensive airport lounge program. Members have access to over 1,200 restaurants and hotels at airports around the world. With Priority Pass, you’re pretty much-guaranteed access to at least one lounge at every major airport around the world, no matter what airline you are flying on. When you get to a Priority Pass lounge, all you have to do is show the Priority Pass card that you get with membership, and you get access to the airport lounge. Priority Pass comes with some amazing lounges around the world, including the Turkish Airlines Lounge Washington Dulles, or pretty much all of the Alaska Airlines lounges. In addition to lounge access, Priority Pass holders also get $28 discounts at multiple participating restaurants within the United States. You also get discounts at other lounge-like locations such as Minute Suites, which are located at multiple US airports such as Dallas and Charlotte which have small private rooms with day beds and a desk.
Priority Pass offers memberships online at multiple levels. The Standard Level is offered for $89 to $99 per year. It’s pretty basic and I don’t at all recommend it, as to gain access to Priority Pass lounges, you still need to pay a $32 fee (and $32 for guests). The Standard Plus membership gives you 10 free visits to Priority Pass lounges, although it costs $269 to $299 per year (after that it costs $32 for a visit), so I actually also recommend that as it isn’t a great use of money. The Priority Pass Prestige membership costs $386 to $429 per year and grants you membership to all Priority Pass lounges for free but costs $32 for each guest. I actually wouldn’t recommend buying this option, because you can get Priority Pass through another way: credit cards.
Multiple credit cards offer Priority Pass as a benefit. Granted all of them are premium credit cards and cost about $500, but you also need to consider that all of the credit cards that give you Priority Pass have many other benefits. Most credit cards that offer it also allow multiple guests, making it more valuable than the regular Priority Pass membership. The following credit cards give you Priority Pass membership:
- Chase Sapphire Reserve; $450 annual fee; free access for the cardholder and two guests
- American Express Platinum Card (personal & business); $550 annual fee; free access for the cardholder and two guests; no discount to restaurants
- Hilton Honors Aspire Card; $450 annual fee; free access for the cardholder and two guests
- Hilton Honors American Express Ascend Card; $95 annual fee; 10 free visits and no free guest passes
- Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card; $450 annual fee; free access for the cardholder and two guests
- U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve Visa Infinite Card; $400 annual fee; four free visits and four guest passes
As you can see, some of those cards are much better deals for people who want full priority pass access than just buying Priority Pass outright. While cards such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve may cost more than the straight-out fee for Priority Pass, it offers multiple free guests and many other benefits, meaning that Priority Pass is only a little bit of the value of the annual fee.
American Express Lounge Collection
- What Lounges Do You Have Access To? All Priority Pass Lounges (no restaurants), Delta SkyClubs, select Lufthansa Business, and Senator Lounges, American Express Centurion Lounges, Escape Lounges, Plaza Premium Lounges, Air Space Lounges
- Membership Price: $550 with the Amex Platinum Card
- Credit Cards That Have It Included: American Express Platinum Card (personal and business), American Express Centurion Card (card invitation only)
- Lounge Finder Link
This option has a bit of overlap with Priority Pass. All American Express Platinum (personal & business) and American Express Centurion (aka the Amex Black Card) cardholders get access to the American Express Lounge Collection. It is comprised of all Priority Pass lounges, including some other lounges around the world. People who have access to the Amex Lounge Collection get access to all Priority Pass lounges with two guests included. However, they do not get the $28 discounts to Priority Pass restaurants and mini-suite locations (such as Minute Suites) like regular Priority Pass cardholders get. Besides Priority Pass, the American Express Lounge Collection also includes access to:
- American Express Centurion Lounges – these lounges are known to be some of the best lounges within the United States – they are located at airports such as Houston (Intercontinental), Las Vegas, Dallas/Fort Worth, San Francisco, Miami, Seattle, New York LaGuardia, Philadelphia, and Hong Kong.
- American Express Lounges – in addition to the Centurion Lounges, American Express also operates other lounges around the world, that generally are not as good as Centurion Lounges
- Escape Lounges – these lounges are sometimes included with Priority Pass – Escape Lounges are located at multiple locations around the world including Hartford, East Midlands, Manchester (England), Minneapolis, Oakland, Reno-Tahoe, Greenville, Ontario, Providence, and Sacramento.
- Plaza Premium Lounges – again, these lounges are often included with Priority Pass – there are over 50 locations worldwide
- Air Space Lounges – there are currently only two Air Space Lounges available worldwide, in Cleveland and San Diego
- Select Lufthansa Lounges – for a short amount of time, some Lufthansa Business and Senator lounges are included with the Amex Lounge Collection at Frankfurt and Munich Airports
- Delta SkyClubs – members also have access to all DeltaSkyclubs when flying delta, which is a very valuable perk to Delta loyalists
In addition to having access to all lounges of Priority Pass (except the restaurants and mini-suites), the American Express Lounges Collection has the largest network of lounges worldwide. Again, it comes with the Amex Platinum card which has an annual fee of $550, which is definitely worth it for frequent and semi-frequent travelers, and that’s not even including the Platinum card’s other benefits such as Airline fee and Uber credit or Marriott and Hilton status.
American Airlines AAdmirals Club Membership
- What Lounges Do You Have Access To? American Airlines Admirals Clubs and some OneWorld partner lounges
- Membership Price: $650 annual fee if membership is purchased, $450 through American Airlines City AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard
- Credit Cards That Have It Included: AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard
- Lounge Finder Link
American Airlines offers memberships to its Admirals Clubs, which is its lower-level lounge. They also operate Flagship Lounges which are better than the Admirals Clubs. You can buy AAdmirals Club individual memberships online for $650 the first year and $600 for every year after that. Premium Members also get discounts in $25 lower increments for each level of status. You can also buy household memberships for about twice the price of individual membership. Like with Priority Pass, I wouldn’t recommend buying the membership flat out because you can get it for cheaper with a credit card. In addition, you can buy Admirals Club memberships with miles for 65,000 miles the first year and 60,000 miles for each following year. This is not a great use of miles as the 60,000 miles it costs for an annual membership is worth about 40% more than if you were to buy it with money.
The American Airlines AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard provides complimentary individual membership to American Airlines AAdmirals Clubs and comes with a $450 annual fee – $150-$200 less than what the membership costs if you buy it flat out without status. Like with cards that come with Priority Pass, that $450 also gives you tons of other benefits such as savings on in-flight purchases, a 50,000 mile bonus, free checked bags, and priority boarding, so the Admirals Club membership is really only a small part of what the annual fee of the credit card gives you.
With an Admirals Club membership, you get complimentary access to American Airlines’ 50+ Admirals Clubs around the world. Now, those Admirals Clubs aren’t the best of the best lounges around the world, especially because they don’t provide free full meals, although they do provide
Delta SkyClub Membership
- What Lounges Do You Have Access To? Delta SkyClubs and some
- Membership Price: $550 annual fee through the United Club Card, $650 annual United Club membership
- Credit Cards That Have It Included: American Express Platinum Card, Delta Reserve Credit Card
Of the three major US airlines, my opinion is that Delta has the worst lounge membership. For $545 or 54,500 miles, you can purchase an individual membership to Delta SkyClubs which doesn’t allow you to bring any guests into the lounge for free. Delta also has an Executive Membership, which is sold for $845 or 84,500 miles and allows you two guests into Delta SkyClubs. So overall, purchasing a Delta SkyClub membership is very expensive and is also an awful use of miles. In addition, unlike United or American lounge memberships which grant Star Alliance or OneWorld lounge access, Delta SkyClub memberships do not grand access to any partnering SkyTeam lounges, although you do have access to Delta SkyClubs if flying Delta or a partnering SkyTeam airline. So if you are expecting lounge access outside of the United States with a Delta SkyClub membership, you’re out of luck.
Delta SkyClub access is also granted with the Delta Reserve Credit Card which allows access for one person into Delta SkyClubs and has an annual fee of $450 – $100 less than the individual membership costs straight out. If you are going for Delta SkyClub access, I would recommend getting the Amex Platinum card which gives Delta SkyClub access along with access to the American Express Lounge Collection, which gives you lounge access at practically every airport in the world for an annual fee of $550.
United Club Membership
- What Lounges Do You Have Access To? United Clubs and Star Alliance Lounges around the world
- Membership Price: $550 annual fee through the United Club Card, $650 annual United Club membership
- Credit Cards That Have It Included: United Club Card (personal & business), United Explorer Card (personal & business, 2 day passes only)
- Lounge Finder Link
United has a pretty similar lounge access policy to American Airlines and in general, is the best out of the three major US airlines. You can purchase United Club membership for $650 or 85,000 miles (using miles for this is an awful use) or from $550 to $600 for top tier elite members. Overall, like with other airlines, I wouldn’t recommend purchasing it outright, as it really isn’t a good use of money. Instead, if you are a frequent United flyer, I would recommend getting the United Club Card, which has a $450 annual fee and also includes priority boarding and free checked bags along with 1.5 miles per every dollar spent. People who have the United Explorer Card also get two one-time passes to United Clubs.
United Club members can get access to all United Clubs (but not the United Polaris lounges) around the world, including up to two guests, which is a perk that American Airlines and Delta Air Lines both don’t offer, especially for people traveling with a partner or with a family. Please note that passengers with United Club membership only get access to Untied Clubs if you are flying on United or a Star Alliance partner on the same day. Passengers with United Club members also get access to partnering Star Alliance Gold lounges around the world, although you are only allowed to bring one guest to those lounges instead of two. United Club one-time pass credit is available for $59, although I wouldn’t recommend purchasing it unless you have a really long layover.
Conclusion
Today, lounge access is very sought after by frequent and semi-frequent flyers. Lounge access is especially good for longer layovers so you don’t have to spend many hours in the crowded airport terminal. What’s great nowadays is that many premium credit cards offer lounge access for multiple airlines and programs for prices that are often cheaper than their list price. I would say that if your priority is getting lounge access at every airport, that you should gain access to the American Express Lounge Collection through the American Express Platinum Card, which grants Priority Pass lounge access along with Delta SkyClub access and more. Overall, I can recommend semi-frequent flyers to purchase some kind of lounge access especially if you have long layovers planned – you probably won’t regret it.
What is your experience with purchasing a lounge access membership?
