You might take extra pleasure in today’s tip because it’s something the airlines don’t want you to know about.
It concerns their private airport lounges, which are fantastic little utopias in relation to the cattle drives you find at the public waiting areas near the gate.
While the airlines charge between $350-$500 for access, there’s a special card you can buy – for a lot less – that will give you access to nearly all of the private airport lounges, no matter what airline you’re flying, your class of travel, or your membership level in a given frequent flyer program.
It’s called Priority Pass, and it’s “the world’s largest independent airport lounge access program.”
How large? It provides access to more than 600 airport lounges in more than 300 cities around the world. Close to 2 million people carry the card.
So why haven’t you heard about it before today?
Due to the obvious sensitivities with respect to the airlines, Priority Pass has had to limit its advertising here in the USA and to be content to, ahem, fly under the radar. Indeed, despite being in business for more than 17 years, it’s still one of the best-kept secrets in air travel.
But please don’t take my word for it. I’m not an expert on the airlines.
But Joe Brancatelli is. He writes the “Seat 2B” column for Portfolio magazine, was the former executive editor of Frequent Flyer, and has been a consultant or columnist to dozens of travel publications for the past 30 years.
Here’s what Joe wrote in Portfolio.com just three months ago:
“I raved about Priority Pass in the very first Seat 2B column in 2007, and I’ll say it again: Even in these down financial times, when every penny needs to be pinched, Priority Pass is probably the single best investment you can make in your own comfort and productivity on the road.”
Anyone familiar with Joe’s work (he now publishes JoeSentMe.com for business travelers), knows he’s a tough customer and does not hand out this kind of praise very often.
As for the investment he mentioned, there are three levels of membership.
The “Standard” membership costs only $99, but there’s a $27 fee each time you want to use one of the participating airport lounges (the airline I usually fly charges $45 for day passes).
If you’d likely use the lounges more than four times per year, the “Standard Plus” membership is a far better value. At $249, it costs $150 more, but it includes 10 airport lounge visits worth $270.
If you travel a lot, you should probably consider the “Prestige” membership, which includes unlimited visits to every airport lounge in the Priority Pass network.
It costs $399, but again, this is often less than what you’d pay a single airline to access its lounge network, and you get access to all of Priority Pass’ lounges, regardless of which airline you use on a given day.
Learn more about Priority Pass or sign up here.
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Offer sounds good