A year with Priority Pass. The honest review.

Chase drops restaurant credits

Chase Sapphire Reserve removed the Priority Pass restaurant and spa benefit, so the $28 to $30 per person dining credit no longer applies to CSR holders. The lounge access itself stayed.

Amex Platinum follows

Amex removed Priority Pass restaurants and experiences from its Select membership in the US. Amex Platinum holders now get lounges only, which matters at airports like DFW, PHX and MSP where the restaurant was the better option.

Volume up 13 percent

Priority Pass visits rose roughly 13 percent year on year between January and September 2025. Every mid tier travel card now bundles the benefit, so lounges built for 40 seats are fielding 80 arrivals.

Venture X ends free guests

Capital One Venture X stopped including complimentary guests at Priority Pass lounges. Guests are now $35 each, the same as a standalone membership, which changes the family maths for a lot of readers.

Capacity denials become normal

Fire code capacity caps are now enforced routinely at LAX, JFK, ORD, LHR and Changi at peak. A membership buys eligibility, not a guaranteed seat, and that distinction is the single most important thing to understand before you pay.

Plaza Premium at Vancouver YVR.

Nobody talks about this one. It is tucked past the international security maze and feels half empty even at peak. The food is genuinely good (smoked salmon bagels that taste like a Vancouver brunch spot, espresso from a local roaster, soup that is not from a tin), the wifi is fast enough to actually work, and the windows look straight onto the apron. I did a four hour transit here from Sydney to JFK and barely noticed it. If you connect through YVR even twice a year, this lounge alone earns the card back.

Most US domestic terminals, honestly.

Here is the part the marketing site quietly avoids. A lot of the US network is restaurant credits ($28 or $30 toward a meal at Bobby Van's or Cibo Express, not a lounge). The lounges that do exist domestically are often one windowless room near gate B14 with a CNN loop, a soup urn, and 40 people fighting for 14 seats. JFK Terminal 4, LAX TBIT and SFO international are real exceptions. If you mostly fly domestic US, do not buy this card expecting Singapore. Buy it for the restaurant credits and a couple of standout hubs.

Changi T3 Plaza Premium at 5am.

This is the visit that pays the renewal by itself. I land off the Sydney redeye, eyes gritty, smelling like aircraft. I walk eight minutes to Plaza Premium T3, hand my pass over, wait roughly ten minutes for a shower suite, eat a real bowl of laksa with a cold Tiger beer, and step into Singapore looking like someone who slept. I have done this six times in 12 months and it has not gotten old once. Nothing else I spend under $500 a year on changes how a trip starts this much.

Two kids, one card, $70 in guest fees.

Guest fees are the part of Priority Pass that catches families completely off guard. $35 per guest, per visit. A free lounge stop for a family of four quietly costs $105 by the time you sit down. The fix I wish someone had told me a year ago: do not buy this card standalone if you fly as a family. Pair Priority Pass Select with a Chase Sapphire Reserve, Amex Platinum or Capital One Venture X. Most premium cards include two guests free, and the maths flips from punishing to genuinely valuable.

The Bridge Bar, Gatwick South.

This one does not feel like an airport at all. À la carte menu (not a buffet, an actual menu), table service, champagne on request, dark wood and proper lighting. I ate burrata and a plate of pasta here before a flight to Naples and forgot for 40 minutes that I was at Gatwick. Easily the best Priority Pass venue I have walked into in Europe. Book a 90 minute buffer before boarding. Do not skip the burrata.

The two times I got turned away.

Both denials happened at Changi, both at 7pm, both because I rocked up at the exact peak hour the entire terminal was trying to do the same thing. Priority Pass now caps member entries when a lounge hits fire-code capacity, and the app shows live capacity if you remember to check (I did not). The honest workaround: aim for 3+ hours before a long-haul, or check capacity before you walk across a terminal. Mid morning and after 10pm I have never been refused, anywhere.

Standard is $99/year + $35 per visit. Standard Plus is $329/year with 10 free visits, then $35 each. Prestige is $469/year with unlimited free visits. Guests cost $35 per visit on all tiers. Many premium credit cards include Priority Pass Select at no extra cost.

Yes. Priority Pass is completely airline independent. Access any lounge regardless of airline, ticket class, or alliance.

Yes. All members can bring guests at $35 per person per visit. Some credit card memberships include complimentary guest access for one or two companions.

In the US: Chase Sapphire Reserve, Amex Platinum, Capital One Venture X, Citi Prestige. In the UK: Amex Platinum, HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard.

No. Quality varies significantly. Singapore Changi, Dubai T3, and Heathrow T5 are exceptional. Some smaller domestic lounges are more basic. The app includes ratings and photos so you can set expectations.

Yes, at more than 25 US airports including LAX, JFK, SFO, Miami, Chicago O'Hare, Boston Logan, and Seattle. Access is not tied to your airline or ticket class, so an economy fare on Southwest or Spirit still gets you into the same Alaska Lounge, Air France Lounge or Turkish Airlines Lounge that Business travellers use. The one exception is Amex Platinum's version of Priority Pass Select, which no longer includes restaurant credits at US airports as of 2024.

Yes if you take five or more return trips a year and fly through hubs with strong network lounges, and no if you fly mostly US domestic or always travel as a family of four without a card that covers guests. Three things changed: Chase removed restaurant credits in July 2024, Amex removed them later that year, and Capital One Venture X ended free guests in February 2026. Visits also rose about 13 percent year on year, so peak hour capacity refusals are now common. At ten visits a year, Standard Plus at $329 still beats roughly $500 in walk in fees.

Assuming a $50 average walk in rate and two lounge visits per return trip: at 2 to 3 trips a year Standard at $99 plus $35 per visit is marginal, at 5 trips a year Standard Plus at $329 covers all 10 visits and beats about $500 at the door, at 8 trips a year Standard Plus costs about $539 against $800, and from roughly 18 visits upward Prestige at $469 is the cheapest option. Prestige is the tier I pay for personally.

You are refused entry, regardless of tier. Fire code capacity caps override membership, and refusals are most common between 6pm and 8pm at LAX, JFK, ORD, Heathrow and Changi. My routine: check the busy indicator in the app before walking across the terminal, aim for mid morning or after 10pm, try the second or third network venue at large hubs, or pre book a guaranteed pay per use entry through LoungePair, DragonPass or the lounge's own site for roughly $35 to $50. Walk in rates at the door run about $45 to $60.

Yes, but only on memberships you pay for directly. At around 30 airports the network includes sit down restaurants that credit roughly $28 to $30 per person against your bill, including Bidwell at Washington DCA and Timberline Grill at Denver. Chase Sapphire Reserve dropped the benefit in July 2024 and Amex Platinum followed later that year, so if restaurants matter at your home airport, a standalone Priority Pass membership is now the better product than a credit card version.

Most lounges admit you no earlier than three hours before departure. Leaving and returning usually counts as a second visit, which is another $35 on Standard. Guests are $35 each on every standalone tier including Prestige. Children policy is set per lounge, not centrally, so some charge a full guest rate from age two. Premium spirits and à la carte upgrades are chargeable. Memberships auto renew, so cancel in the app before the renewal date.

Airport restaurants with a per person dining credit, Minute Suites private nap rooms at Atlanta, Dallas, Philadelphia and Charlotte, spa partners such as XpresSpa that credit part of a treatment, a small number of arrivals lounges in the UK and the Gulf, and airport fast track as a separate paid add on inside the app. Fast track is never included in any membership tier.

If you buy the membership directly you join at prioritypass.com, sign in to the app and the digital card works immediately. If your access comes from a credit card you have to enrol separately inside your issuer account, which is the step most cardholders never take, and the membership number follows by email within a few days. Add the card to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet before you fly, because the signal at the lounge door is often poor.

Centurion Lounges are the better rooms and Priority Pass is the better network. There are only a few dozen Centurion Lounges, almost all in large US cities, with chef led menus and a proper bar, and you need an Amex Platinum or Centurion card to get in. Priority Pass covers 1,600 venues in 148 countries at a much wider spread of quality. Fly mostly US domestic on Amex and Centurion wins. Fly internationally through second tier airports and Priority Pass wins.

I earn a small affiliate commission when you book or buy through my links to Booking.com, Priority Pass, Airalo, Rimowa, Away, Monos and a handful of other partners, at no extra cost to you. The commission never changes a ranking. No hotel, lounge network, eSIM provider or luggage brand can pay for a place on this site, and no partner reads my copy before it goes live. If a product stops earning its spot, I remove it. Everything here I either paid retail for or tested on my own dime.