Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is happening now! Follow us as Greg, Nick, and Stephen compete to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines before November 23rd. Who will complete the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
A few years ago, Chase first dipped its toe into the model of offering a dedicated airport lounge for ultra-premium cardholders with the Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club. While not offering as robust a network as we see with Amex Centurion Lounges, Chase has nonetheless expanded its offering several times and has plans to continue to do so into the future. This post will track available locations / new Chase Sapphire lounge openings and how to access these lounges — whether or not you’re a Sapphire Reserve cardholder.
What is the Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club?
Chase offers a number of premium airport lounges where cardholders can be “treated to locally inspired menus, a curated selection of beverages and an atmosphere to remember”. Essentially, these are meant to be higher-end lounges that offer more premium food and drink than an average domestic airline lounge.
Sapphire Lounge locations feature self-serve and/or made-to-order food options, signature cocktails and comfortable seating. Once admitted, there is no additional charge for use of the amenities except for the Reserve Suites at the LGA location. In other words, food and drink is complimentary within the lounge.
The first Chase Sapphire Lounge opened to rave reviews at Boston’s Logan International Airport a few years ago and we’ve since seen the network expand to a handful of major domestic airports. We’ve even seen an international location with the Chase Sapphire Lounge Hong Kong, which the Frequent Miler team visited during our Party of Five challenge in 2023.
Chase Sapphire Lounge Locations
United States
Open
- Boston (BOS) Logan International Airport
- New York (LGA) LaGuardia International Airport
- New York (JFK) International Airport
- Austin (AUS) Bergstrom International Airport*
*Note that the AUS location is a “Sapphire Terrace” with “local beverages”, and grab-and-go food items, games, and indoor-outdoor seating only
“Coming Soon”
- Las Vegas (LAS) International Airport
- Philadelphia (PHL) International Airport
- Phoenix (PHX) Sky Harbor International Airport
- San Diego (SAN) International Airport
International
- Hong Kong (HKG) International Airport
How to access Chase Sapphire Lounge locations
There are a couple of ways to access Chase Sapphire lounges. Those with qualifying credit cards can visit again and again, but even those with a Priority Pass from another card (even from another bank) can access Sapphire Lounges at least once a year.
Qualifying cardholders
Chase Sapphire Reserve, J.P. Morgan Reserve and Ritz-Carlton Credit Card holders, whether primary cardmembers or authorized users, have Chase Sapphire lounge access by virtue of their complimentary Priority Pass membership. Note that you do need to show the Priority Pass membership that is associated with your qualifying card to gain access.
Sapphire Reserve and J.P. Morgan Reserve cardmembers may bring up to two guests per visit for free, but additional guests cost $27 for Sapphire Reserve and J.P. Morgan Reserve cardmembers. Children under two years old are welcomed free of charge in addition to your two guests.
Interestingly, Ritz-Carlton cardmembers may bring unlimited guests at no charge. It’s great to see that policy applied here given that the Priority Pass offered by the Ritz-Carlton Visa Infinite card allows for unlimited guests during lounge visits.
We’ve often said that the Ritz-Carlton card, which is no longer available to new applicants but is available as a product change from another Chase Marriott consumer card, is the best card for Priority Pass access. That’s both because of the unlimited guests and because each authorized user can get their own Priority Pass membership with unlimited guests. This is obviously the ideal card for someone looking to visit the Sapphire Lounge with a family of more than 3 people.
Anyone with a Priority Pass membership
If you don’t have one of the qualifying Chase cards but you do have a Priority Pass membership, you’re in luck: those with a Priority Pass membership from another card (perhaps from a Capital One Venture X card or U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve card, etc) can get one complimentary visit per year to a Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club. You will still need to show your Priority Pass card to gain entry to the lounge.
Note that the Chase Sapphire Lounge at Hong Kong International Airport can be accessed with Priority Pass (from any card offering membership) without the once-per-year limitation.
How to access Chase Sapphire Lounges without your physical Priority Pass card
You need to show the Priority Pass membership associated with your qualifying card to gain entry to a Chase Sapphire lounge.
However, if you are a Chase Sapphire Reserve, J.P. Morgan Reserve or Ritz-Carlton cardholder and you do not have your Priority Pass card on you, you can generate a pass in the Chase app.
Assuming you have activated your associated Priority Pass membership, you can simply log in to the Chase mobile app, go to “Benefits & Travel”, and scroll to the “Explore lounges” section. Select a Sapphire lounge location and you will be able to generate a digital membership card using the button at the bottom.
After generating my digital membership card, I was prompted to save it to my phone. I was able to add that digital Priority Pass to my Google Wallet. That may come in handy at some point if I can’t find my physical card. Interestingly, even though I have a Ritz card, my Priority Pass shows up branded with “Sapphire” on the digital card.
Bottom line
While Chase still lags behind Amex in terms of quantity of lounges, they have an edge on Capital One’s lounge network in terms of size. Keep in mind that you do not necessarily need a Sapphire Reserve card to visit a Chase Sapphire lounge location — even those without a Chase card can still access a Sapphire lounge once a year using a Priority Pass membership from any card that offers one. Still, the best card for access to a Chase Sapphire lounge is actually the Chase Ritz-Carlton card since both the primary cardholder and authorized users get Priority Pass memberships and can bring unlimited guests with them to a Sapphire Lounge location.
As future lounges open and/or are announced, we will update this post.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Curious what’s the best card for (general) lounge access which would have the most coverage/locations?
Is there a post on FM covering that. Thanks!
Etihad at Dulles is now a co-branded Sapphire lounge and it’s quite nice. I visited both Boston and Dulles this week—while Boston was nicer, Dulles was still superb and had the full Sapphire menu for made-to order meals.
Exactly what I was going to comment. We used the Etihad/Sapphire lounge last week and it was great
> Ritz-Carlton is the best card for Priority Pass access
Is that really true now that Chase is doing away with restaurants? I’ve been considering US Bank/BoA’s cards to get that back.
On my iPhone app there is a different way to get the digital card: Instead of clicking on Benefits and Travel, scroll right to More. At More under Airport Lounges it will show you See digital membership card. Then you can add it to your Apple wallet for ease of use instead of going into your Chase account every time. This works for iPhone users.
It looks like you can add multiple PP right from the app (it shows all AUs). Have you ever needed to use the physical card? I’d prefer to leave them at home if possible. Also, is there any benefit to carrying the AMEX and CapOne PP cards as well, or am I ok with the digital Ritz PPs? Would it just be for Plaza Premium access with CapOne Venture X?
Not sure how the CapOne access is handled but for AMEX just running your Platinum card at a Plaza Premium lounge worked for me – didn’t have to show Priority Pass as well.
Is Ritz access unlimited with ONE PP card, or only “unlimited” if each family member gets his or her own card? My wife and daughter are AUs with their own PP but my 2 year old son is not.
Yes, the Ritz card (like the Sapphire Reserve and JP Morgan Reserve) gets unlimited visits with one PP card. What sets the Ritz card apart is that you also get unlimited guests, so you could just have one PP card and get your whole family in with you every time you want. The only reason you’d need other family members to get their own cards is if they’re going to travel without you.
I have not been asked for any Priority Pass documentation, nor the Chase app, on two visits to the LGA lounge (the last being about three weeks ago). I simply showed my Sapphire Reserve. I’ll be back next week for another go and will comment on this comment if it’s changed
Not discussed in the article is whether qualifying Chase card non-holders are entitled to one Priority Pass visit per year per person or per Priority Pass membership. Many people have access to three or four memberships under their names which previously have had no value but might suddenly be of a good deal of interest.
It’s once per membership. Just used a second membership this morning for a second visit this year
What about with Ritz card?
I had assumed it was once per membership but didn’t say as much because I didn’t know for sure. I’ll add that to the post.
Thanks. I do have the opportunity to get multiple PP cards, but have only bothered with the AMEX Platinum (my “go to” PP card) and with Altitude Reserve (which I use for the occasional PP restaurant). I guess I’ll consider activating additional PP cards as more Chase lounges open. They do seem to overlap with Centurion locations, but the quality of the Centurion lounges seems to have diminished a bit and they offen suffer from overcrowding.
Can you access the Sapphire lounges upon arrival?
I don’t believe so — I think you need an outgoing boarding pass (for a flight within 3 hours).
We were just at the Boston Logan location and I have to say for the initial hype (from this article) it is falling short of where it originally started. We were there for breakfast and the options were very limited, with no type of fresh fruit except for red apples. Non-alcoholic beverages were scarce as well – there was no iced tea or lemonade and only canned apple juice. We were quite dissappointed as this was our first Sapphire lounge and I’m not sure we’ll prioritize these types of lounges (as a “gotta visit” lounge) in our travels.
Good feedback! I’d be curious to hear from someone who has been recently during not-breakfast hours to see if their experience matches. I have often found that many lounges are far weaker for breakfast than at other times of day, but I don’t know whether that’s the case here.
Did you try ordering from the menu QR code on your table ? We had lots of choices. Initially I thought it was all self serve except bar and then tried QR code with table service. Staff brings you whatever you need from the menu including alcoholic drinks.
We did. Their were only 4 offerings on the menu – everything else was alcohol! I apologize but I can’t remember the 4 items – I do remember an omelet but it had fillings that I couldn’t eat (due to a very recent health issue). The other three items were egg-based but even the descriptions didn’t sound appealing. The comments from those around us were that they were having a hard time finding something to eat . Grab and Go was all sugary & way too sweet. There was a peach/banana/coconut smoothie which I tried but it was not good. I was just SO excited to try a Sapphire lounge, then just bummed. As Nick said, maybe it was because it was breakfast?
The Sapphire lounge at Logan opened only last year in May. The sapphire terrace at AUS was open in March 2023, and The one at Hong Kong has been open since October 2022. So the expansion has been quite rapid.
Can Priority Pass be used to access the Austin “Terrace”?
From what I’ve read, you need a Sapphire Reserve or JPMorgan Reserve card, and Priority Pass is not accepted.
Has anyone tried accessing with a Ritz card?
I tried to access the Sapphire Terrace in AUS with my Ritz card and was told only Sapphire Reserve.
JFK Chase lounge shows up in the PP app.
It shows up in the app, but it notes “restricted access for Non-Chase Members between the hours 10:30-14:00 daily” and goes on to say that members will be able to use one of their visit entitlements to visit one US Sapphire Lounge location once per year, otherwise they pay $75.
both JFK and IAD are the old Etihad lounges
What about the one with Etihad at IAD?
Authorized users for Capital One Venture get priority passes too for no extra fee.
Nick, did Chase recently announce one would be opened at LAX’s TBIT?