Alaska Airlines/Priority Pass have announced that starting September 1st, 2018 Priority Pass members will no longer be able to access the three Alaska lounges at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA) (found in Concourse C, Concourse D & North Satellite). This was a mutual decision and shouldn’t be that surprising given that a lot of the time Priority Pass members have not been able to access these lounges anyway due to overcrowding issues. Priority Pass members will still have access to two lounges at SEA, The Club in Concourse A and The Club in South Satellite. It will be interesting to see if Priority Pass adds new lounges or restaurant options at SEA to make up for the loss of these Alaska Airlines lounges.
[Read: Credit Cards That Offer Priority Pass Memberships Compared]
In recent times Priority Pass has been adding new lounges/restaurant options. For example:
- Priority Pass Adds Restaurant Option Washington National Airport (DCA)
- Priority Pass Adds Access To Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse At Both EWR & IAD
- Priority Pass Adds Barney’s Beanery To Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
- Priority Pass Adds Restaurant Option To Syracuse Hancock International Airport (SYR)
- The Club At PHX Lounge No Longer Closed To Priority Pass Members After 3:30PM
- Priority Pass Adds Bobby Van’s Steakhouse To JFK Airport
- Priority Pass Adds Restricted Access To Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
- Priority Pass Adds Kentucky Ale Taproom To Lexington Blue Grass Airport (LEX)
- Priority Pass Adds Two Restaurants At St Louis MO Lambert (STL) Airport
- New Priority Pass Lounge: Plaza Premium At YYZ Terminal 3 – A Gates – U.S. Departures
- Priority Pass Adds The Club At PIT To Pittsburgh International (PIT)
- Priority Pass Adds Timberline Steaks & Grille To Denver (DEN)
- Priority Pass Adds Capers Cafe Le Bar & Capers Market To PDX
- Priority Pass Adds House Spirits Distillery (PDX)
- Priority Pass Update: Restaurant Addition At Gatwick & Turkish Lounge At IAD
- Priority Pass Adds Bar Symon To Cleveland Hopkins International (CLE)
- Priority Pass Adds Two New Restaurant Options To Miami International Airport (MIA)
Hat tip to TPG
I’m over in the Sourheast. but I am glad Alaska “cleared the air” and terminated access to Priority Pass in lieu of it being a gamble on getting the “sign”. ATL has at least one Delta Sky Lounge in every terminal, and only ONE, The Club, which is available for PP.
With it’s relationship to AMEX notwithstanding, if Delta can be exclusive to its members, so should Alaska.
SEA native here. Flying off-peak (Tuesday, Wednesday afternoons) I usually had no problem with the Concourse D lounge (the others were usually full). However, even off-peak the Alaska Lounges were usually really crowded, and sometimes I made the trek out to the Club Concourse A just to get a quieter experience. Still, this is a big loss as SEA was one of the better lounge experiences I’ve had mostly flying on the west coast where PP options are slim at SFO and Southern Californian airports. I hope Priority Pass makes this up. The main issue with the Club is Concourse A and South Satellite are really far from the major SEA carriers (Southwest, Alaska, Delta).
I’m flying Alaska Airline with a stop at SEA in September. I was counting on that lounge. This is not good!
Alaska’s been jerking off PP members for over a year. Silly sign outside of their lounges saying “not accepting PP holders”. You can enter The Club at Sea / concourse A, but its waaay far and totally basic.
Not true. I entered the lounge easily a month ago. Granted, the other one I passed by later was full. Seems entirely reasonable and more choice is always good.
When the AS lounge closed, I went to the Club at SEA and it was a definite downgrade.
RIP Alaska lounge pancake machine 🙁
I will miss that machine too
At least now you don’t have to gamble on whether or not they’ll be limiting access to PP members.
Does this matter? I assumed everyone abuses the Ameriprise Plat and uses the Centurion Lounge at SEA anyway.
I was just there and this was my thoughts as well. Wouldn’t surprise me at all long term if Amex is no longer part of Priority Pass to save money and differentiate.
Yes it does, because the Centurion lounge hours are pretty limited! Lots of late evening flights leave SEA now. Not to mention delays…
I hate to say it but credit cards either need to raise their annual fee or limit Priority Pass benefits. It’s almost impossible to use PP lounges since everyone has a lounge membership these days. Even Priority Pass restaurants are getting overloaded. What would be especially innovative is if they could somehow figure out a way to give statement credits for food purchases at airports but so far getting more restaurants to enroll in Priority Pass is probably the way to go.
I hope they replace it by adding restaurants.
Very sad! I visited at least two of these Alaska lounges at SEA, and they were both above average, and much better than the LAX lounge. Also, never any access issues in Seattle, either — but at LAX the sign was there at like all times, although they didn’t necessarily enforce it for everyone.
I was in one of AS lounges at SEA before. Not really much service there