How to
Access Airline Lounges for Less
Four Alternatives to Costly Annual
Memberships
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An airline club lounge can be an oasis of civilized
tranquility in an otherwise harried crowded airport
experience.
This is part 1 of a series on airport lounges - please
also visit
1.
Four Alternatives to Costly Annual Memberships
2. Choosing the Best
Airline Lounge Membership Option for You
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Haven't you looked enviously at
the closed doors into airport/airline lounges and wished you
could enter those hallowed spaces too?
But at $400 or so for a year of
membership, their cost is hard to justify for all but the most
frequent of travelers.
Here now is information on
other ways you can also access airport lounges for less than
$400.
The Airport Lounge Experience
Even if you've not had the
good fortune to access airport lounges before, you probably
understand they offer a very much more civilized way of waiting for your
flight.
Although most lounges are
not quite as ultra-luxurious as they might present themselves to
be (and as we might wish them to be as well), and although there
is a large variation in lounge style and quality, most lounges
share some common features.
Lounges usually have a mix
of comfortable seating and some work area seating. They usually
provide coffee and soft drinks for free, and may also have an
open bar or may charge for alcoholic beverages. They will
probably provide light snacks for free, and may have additional
food options at normal meal times, either also free or perhaps
for a fee.
They usually have their own
washroom facilities, and a few even have showers too. There are
probably phones and some computer workstations, and
most lounges these days provide free Wi-Fi access too.
Magazines, newspapers, and
television viewing areas are common. Some lounges also have
conference rooms available, which can be booked in advance,
possibly for a fee.
Note that most lounges these
days are on the secure side of airports. If you are
planning on attending a meeting in an airport lounge and are not
a ticketed passenger, you would have to make advance
arrangements (they usually recommend making these arrangements
at least 24 hours in advance) with the airline to get through
security to access their lounge.
Lounges can be quiet and
peaceful, with some lounges choosing not to announce flight
departures, while others will make such announcements. You
might need to keep an eye on the monitors and your watch so as
not to miss your flight.
Lounge Desk Staff
A sometimes very helpful
part of any lounge can be the airline staff at the lounges front
desk. They are usually senior experienced agents, and will be
more helpful if you have travel challenges than the regular
agents in the public concourses, dealing with regular
passengers.
Do You Even Need to Belong to
an Airline Lounge Program
Sure, there's a lot of 'feel
good' factor to being able to walk through the closed doors,
into the more genteel atmosphere of an airline lounge when at an
airport, but how often will you actually do this?
It could be argued that an
hour in an airport lounge is not a bonus and benefit, but rather
a wasted hour that could have been spent at home or work
instead. This is true of airports you start your travel
at, but an unavoidable exception may of course be when you're
making a lengthy connection between an incoming and ongoing
flight at a hub somewhere.
Furthermore, at some of the
larger airports, there might be a considerable distance between
the lounge and your gate, and unless you're flying first class,
you'll probably want to be at your gate so as to be able to
board early rather than late (so as to be sure of getting some
overhead space for any carry-ons you have).
So you might find yourself
having to detour some distance to go to the lounge, and then
only spend ten or fifteen minutes there before then having to
walk an extended distance to your gate. In such a case, is
this really beneficial to you at all? Why not just go
directly to the gate, save yourself a bunch of walking, and be
able to then sit and wait at the gate.
The bottom line question
If you have a multi-hour
layover, then the benefit of lounge access if clear. You
could benefit from possibly a work booth for you and your laptop
(complete with power socket) and free Wi-Fi is fairly plain, or,
from a different perspective, the ability to just relax
comfortably, read, watch television, chat with a companion, and
perhaps sip on a cocktail.
But if you're only likely to
have 30 minutes free time to spend in a lounge, how much is that
worth to you? Sure, you might get a free soda and maybe a
packet of chips, but how much will you be willing to pay for
this and a more comfy chair to sit in while feeling
self-important for 30 minutes?
Four Alternatives to Regular
Annual Lounge Programs
In addition to the obvious
approach - buying an annual membership in an airline lounge
program, there are four other ways to get yourself inside the
lounges of your choice when traveling.
Depending on your travel
style, any of these might be a better alternative to the
approximately $400/yr cost of an annual lounge membership.
1. Lounge Day Passes
Almost every airline with an
airline lounge program will sell you day passes, costing about
$40 - $50, and entitling you to (usually but not always) access
all the lounges in their system for a single day.
This means if you are on a
multi-journey flight, or doing a single roundtrip somewhere, you
can access all their lounges at all their airports on your
journey.
Some of the programs are
more restrictive (eg United Airlines), with a pass allowing you
entry only to a single lounge, if you wish to enter a second
lounge at a second airport on the same day, you need to buy a
second pass.
There are two main 'gotcha'
issues associated with day passes. The first is that
unlike annual memberships, you can't bring any guests into the
lounge with you. Most annual memberships allow you to
bring up to two guests (or even more family members) into the
lounge with you; if you have a day pass, you'd have to buy
admissions for each of them.
The second 'gotcha' is that
day passes are usually good only at lounges operated by the
specific airline that sold you the pass. You're unlikely
to get reciprocal benefit access to other airlines lounges (for
example, if you buy a Continental day pass, you couldn't use
that to access a United Red Carpet lounge).
But if these two
restrictions are not a problem, then for someone who only
occasionally flies (and, more to the point, only occasionally
needs to access lounges), buying day passes as and when needed will
probably be less expensive than buying an annual membership.
2. 30 or 90 day Memberships
If you're going to be doing
an extensive burst of travel for a short period, then the 30 or 90 day passes offered by some airlines might be a good
alternative to day passes or annual memberships.
They cost more than twice a
single day pass, but less than an annual pass, and in the case
of US Airways, give you guest privileges too.
3. American Express
Platinum Card Access
Amex Platinum card holders
can access American Airlines Admirals Clubs, Continental
Airlines Presidents Clubs, and Delta Sky Clubs at many locations
around the world, free of charge, when flying on the relevant
airline in any class of service. Over 200 club locations
participate in this program.
This special membership
benefit also allows you up to two companions to enter with you.
This benefit may go much of
the way to justifying the $450 annual fee for an American
Express Platinum card.
4. Priority Pass
The Priority Pass program
can sometimes be a better deal, both for infrequent travelers
and for very frequent travelers (they have three different
membership levels giving you good alternatives whatever your
travel style may be), particularly if you are usually flying
alone rather than with companions.
Because Priority Pass is a
very different program, independent of the airlines, we've
devoted the next section to a
more detailed discussion of how Priority Pass works.
Priority Pass Program
Priority Pass is a company
unrelated to any of the airlines and their lounges. It has
contracted with many different airlines and the various other
companies that also operate airport lounges, giving their
members access to over 600 lounges, in more than 300 cities, in
more than 100 countries. There are 70 participating
lounges in the US.
They have three membership
plans. The top level of membership (Prestige) costs $399
annually, and gives you unlimited access to all 600 lounges.
This price is in line with most regular airline lounge
memberships, but gives you access to more lounges than you could
access with any single airline lounge membership.
The entry level membership
(Standard) costs $99 a year and then you pay $27 each time you
visit a lounge. The $27 per visit fee is less than the
typical $40 - $50 day pass charged by airlines directly, and
after something like five or so admissions, the $99 annual fee
is probably recovered by the saving in each day pass cost.
Their midlevel membership
(Standard Plus) costs $249 and includes ten visits; after ten
visits you pay $27 for each extra visit.
Which airline lounges
participate
There is no clear rhyme nor
reason, as best we can establish, to which airline lounges
participate and which do not in the Priority Pass program.
At some airports, you'll see some airline lounges featured and
other airline lounges excluded, but at other airports, you'll
see different airlines participating.
I've generally had
moderately good success at being able to find a participating
airport lounge close to the gate I'm flying out of, but not
always.
For example, at LAX,
Priority Pass has lounges in terminals 1, 2, 3, 6 and the
international terminal, but not in any of the other terminals
(4, 5, 7, 8). At JFK, there are lounges in terminals 1, 4
& 7 (but not for terminals 2, 3, 6, 8 or 9). At LHR, there
are lounges in terminals 1, 3 & 4 but not terminal 5 (terminal 2
is currently closed for reconstruction).
So, as with other lounge
programs, it is helpful to research the likely locations you're
going to be looking for lounges in.
Pay for every lounge visited
on the same day
A downside of the
Priority Pass program is that whereas some airline day passes
can be used at multiple lounges during its day of validity, you
have to buy a separate pass for each different lounge you visit
under the Priority Pass system (unless you have the Prestige
level membership).
If you validly believe that
you will get multiple uses from an airline day pass, obviously
that will always be less cost than buying two Priority Pass
admissions).
Guests cost extra
Unlike annual airline
memberships, you always pay $27 per guest.
This is good if you are
comparing the Priority Pass programs to buying day passes (where
guests will be paying the same $40-$50 fee) but bad if comparing
Priority Pass to annual memberships (allowing free guests).
Their three memberships
compared
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A Standard membership is best
if you'll only use it five or fewer times a year - but in
such a case, perhaps just buy regular airline day passes.
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A Standard Plus membership is
a better deal than a Standard membership if you expect to
use it 6 - 15 times in a year.
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A Prestige membership is the
best deal if you expect to use it 16 or more times a year.
Is Priority Pass right for you
See also our discussion on
the second page of this article, about
the best airport lounge program in general.
Priority Pass works well for someone who travels alone, who
flies internationally but not in first or business class, who
isn't an elite level frequent flier, and who either expects to
use airport lounges 6 - 10 times a year, or more than 15.
Read more in the second part of
this article
This is part 1 of a series on airport lounges - please
also visit
1.
Four Alternatives to Costly Annual Memberships
2. Choosing the Best
Airline Lounge Membership Option for You
Related Articles, etc
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Originally published
23 Apr 2010, last update
30 May 2021
You may freely reproduce or distribute this article for noncommercial purposes as long as you give credit to me as original writer.
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