Private airport lounges carry an air of exclusivity and elite status, but they’re likely more accessible than you’d think. Priority Pass membership is one popular way to get through the door, opening up access in airports across the globe. The quality of a lounge experience, however, depends on many factors, especially how quiet or crowded a particular lounge tends to be. Several key points can make or break the experience at a Priority Pass Lounge.
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Are Priority Pass Lounges Usually Crowded?
Priority Pass lounges can certainly be crowded, and they can also be almost empty. It all depends on the airport, time of year and time of day. Whether or not the airport features several different Priority Pass lounges can also be a factor.
Predictably, members report busy lounges on peak travel dates, such as the days leading up to a major holiday. It depends on the airport, but “rush hour” for domestic air travel often comes at the beginning and end of typical workday hours. International travelers, especially those to Europe, may find crowds during the late afternoon and early evening. During the average week, afternoon and early evening on a Friday tends to be a particularly crowded time in any airport lounge.
Members who happen to get to a lounge at a busy time may actually be turned away, as lounges have a maximum capacity to prevent overcrowding. You may also arrive to find lines out the door for entry. Technically, there is no guarantee of entry at any one lounge, nor are there any benefits available to compensate for being denied access.
What Is a Priority Pass Membership?
Several types of Priority Pass memberships exist, as do a few different ways to get them.
What Is Priority Pass?
Priority Pass is a membership program providing access to airport lounges and other traveler benefits. Founded in 1992, the program has grown to include over 1,500 locations, the most of any airport lounge membership program. In recent years, the company has expanded into other airport services providing discounts at select restaurants, bars and hotels. Priority Pass also publishes comprehensive guides to over 80 international airports with details on amenities, local transportation and other services.
How Does a Priority Pass Membership Work?
Unlike some other airport lounges, access through Priority Pass doesn’t depend on buying a first-class or business-class airline ticket or having elite status with an airline program. Instead, an annual membership fee grants either Standard, Standard Plus or Prestige membership ($99, $329 and $469), each of which are marketed to a specific type of traveler. While Prestige membership affords unlimited access for the member, Standard members must pay $35 per visit in addition to the annual fee. Standard Plus affords 10 no-charge visits, after which a $35 entry fee is required for each additional visit.
Certain credit cards include a separate Priority Pass Select membership as a perk, which is a common way travelers gain access. This opportunity typically applies to those eligible for U.S. credit cards only. Select members are not charged an entry fee, though the overall cost-effectiveness depends on the credit card’s annual fee.
Priority Pass Membership Benefits
Added perks of membership include discounts on food, spa experiences and alternative lounge experiences, as well as discounts on car rentals. Some types of Priority Pass Select also include airport restaurant benefits, usually around $28 per person. The restaurants included are listed on the Priority Pass website and app.
What Is a Priority Pass Lounge?
A Priority Pass lounge is an outlet affiliated with the organization inside an airport that provides a respite for members. Ideally, any Priority Pass lounge is a quieter and more comfortable option than the seating areas at airport gates. Additional amenities available inside a lounge will vary widely among locations.
What’s Included in a Priority Pass Lounge?
At their most basic, Priority Pass lounges provide comfortable chairs, Wi-Fi, TVs and light refreshments. The most extensive lounges—often lounges at international airports outside the U.S. or in large domestic cities—can include hot showers, buffets, massage chairs, day beds, work areas with computers, smoking rooms, mini-theaters and child play areas. We recommended looking up a Priority Pass lounge online before visiting to see its offered amenities. The company provides an app with membership to help you browse options and locations at the airport—some airports even offer multiple lounges.
Different Lounge, Different Experience
Accessing some of the more lavish amenities might require an additional fee, though what costs extra at one lounge might be free at another. Prepared food or alcoholic beverages, to name a couple noteworthy examples, may be complimentary, available for purchase or nonexistent, and options will vary depending on the country.
Open hours will also vary by lounge and may even change day to day in accordance with the flight schedules of a particular airport. The lounges’ size, appearance and level of luxury span a wide range.
The diversity in lounge experiences and pricing is due in part to the mixture of independently operated and airline-affiliated lounges that make up the Priority Pass network. Priority Pass doesn’t actually own or operate any of the lounges—it manages membership access but relies on third-party operators to run the locations. In many cases, a lounge will have already existed (and developed its own standards) before partnering with Priority Pass to include Priority Pass members. This is another reason for the cost and amenity discrepancies across the lounge network.
How Long Can You Stay in a Priority Pass Lounge?
Priority Pass lounges put a nominal time limit on each visit, which ranges between one to four hours. A two- or three-hour limit seems to be most common. That said, many visitors report time limits are not strictly enforced, especially for solo visitors who aren’t taking up much space or using any special amenities. Visiting when the lounge isn’t busy may be the biggest factor in being afforded extra time. In some cases, visitors who are noted by staff as exceeding the limit might have the option to simply roll over into a second lounge visit instead of being asked to leave.
Which Airports Have Priority Pass Lounges?
While there are certainly exceptions, large international airports are the most likely to have a lounge. There are just over 30 U.S. airports with a Priority Pass-specific lounge, so the majority of the network remains available only to international travelers; Asia Pacific is the region with the most lounges. While Priority Pass boasts experiences at over 1,500 individual locations, this only amounts to approximately 725 airports, as many airports have several Priority Pass locations spread across different terminals or concourses.
A complete listing of Priority Pass locations as of February 2023 can be found in this directory. The program’s website also allows visitors to find individual lounges through its list of airports.
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Bottom Line
A relaxing experience in a Priority Pass lounge can make or save the day, especially when travel gets rough. They are perhaps most appreciated during long layovers and at airports with scarce amenities or loud terminals. Even so, they are not immune from the common nuisances of the air travel experience and can’t be relied on for guaranteed access or top-tier amenities. As airports continue to upgrade offerings and public spaces, it’s definitely worth a careful look at whether you travel enough (and through the right locations) to make a paid membership worthwhile.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is alcohol free at Priority Pass lounges?
Alcohol is complimentary at certain locations, though elsewhere it may cost extra or not be available at all. Access to alcohol is also limited by the specific laws of the local area or country. In some lounges, certain “well” drinks are complimentary while higher-end or “premium” beverages are sold separately.
Can I bring guests into a Priority Pass lounge?
Yes, you may bring guests into a Priority Pass lounge. Paying members can bring guests for an additional $35 each, regardless of membership level, so long as there’s enough capacity. While some locations set a limit to the number of guests per member, most do not. Members that gain access through a credit card (like the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card) may even be able to bring a guest (or several) for free—the guest rules for these Select members are governed by the terms of their specific credit card, rather than by Priority Pass terms. Any guest charges are automatically applied to the member’s account, rather than charged to the guest directly.
Are Priority Pass lounges worth it?
Arguably, the cost-effectiveness of a Standard Priority Pass membership is the most dubious, as it includes no free visits and the expense only climbs with increased use. A few visits in a year for an infrequent traveler would cost over $200. With Standard Plus, using all 10 free visits without paying for more translates to about $33 per visit. This could seem more than worth it if the lounges you visit have solid amenities—you could essentially break even simply by having a couple free drinks and snacks per visit—though less so for more basic lounges.
With a Prestige membership, it would take 16 visits to make each a $30 value, roughly speaking, and the per-visit cost only goes down from there.
Select members gain access as a credit card perk, though they are usually covering at least some of the cost with the higher annual fees premium travel cards typically charge.
