The Club Lounges To Add 3 Hour Prior Departure Access Rule

The Club are a set of lounges that are accessible to Priority Pass members found in the following airports: ATL, CVG, DFW, MCO,  SJC, BWI, PIT, BOS, LAS, and SEA. These lounges now all state that starting September 1st access will be permitted 3 hours prior to scheduled flight departure. This is the same rule that American Express introduced to Centurion lounges on March 22nd, 2019.

As more credit cards add lounge access, overcrowding has become a real issue at most lounges. I’ve personally advocated for offering guaranteed entries vs restricting access in this matter as I don’t see why somebody that travels once or twice a year should have a 3 hour prior to departure rule added when other users are utilizing the lounge multiple times per day or week.

Hat tip to zigazz
    William Charles
  • On August 17, 2019, 03:12

View Comments (27)

  • I don’t have a problem with this. The past few times this month the ATL lounge has been overly crowded. This week they started a waitlist to get in with people waiting in the Check-in area like a restaurant. I seen a few people sleeping in the lounge while I was there. Now for those people who fly a few times a year, I doubt the 3 hr window would be more disturbing than being shoulder to shoulder with other folks. It was worse than being in the terminal so I grabbed a cookie and left.

  • There is no The Club in Phoenix, closed months ago. Nice that TPG copied your post word for word & kept the same error in.

  • I usually try to get to the gate one hour before departure time. If the club is in another terminal then I would leave well before that too.

  • The more interesting thing is that, despite having the same owner as PP, two The Club lounges in the US are no longer participating in the program. Just saw in my program update e-mail. One is at PHX and the other I think was MCO (though appears a second lounge is still open).

        • I think technically the lease for the space didnt get renewed, Amex is putting in a Centurion & there's supposed to be an Escape lounge next door as well. Supposed to be up & running by the end of the year. Escape has a temporary 'lounge' set up nearby that's basically some temporary walls fencing off some chairs by the windows.

  • I wonder if it will pertain to connections. Amex allows you in prior to 3 hours if you are connecting vs originating in that airport.

    • This. Limiting connecting visits would suck as you can't shorten the connecting time (apart when buying a ticket) unlike when deciding when to go to the airport for your departure.

  • I would rather see PP limit the number of people can bring in, including counting children as people. For some of us with long layovers, especially in the middle of the night, such as in Qatar, the lounge makes the transfer bearable.

  • I have to agree. Someone who flies once per week contributes to overcrowding 50x more versus someone who flies once per year. Just make all priority pass a flat number of uses per year with no restrictions. The number of uses being proportional to the annual fee of the card.

    This would not be a devaluation for us credit card enthusiasts as many of us have multiple priority passes from multiple cards

  • The Club does this rather than limiting number of visits because The Club is owned by Collinson, which owns Priority Pass, and Priority Pass is billing the banks per swipe. Length of visit doesn't affect their compensation, but number of visits does.

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