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A number of high end credit cards give you Priority Pass membership. Full Priority Pass offers access to airport lounges, restaurants, and experiences (e.g. Be Relax Spa, Minute suites, Game Space etc), which can be pretty useful. But which of the current pathways to this membership is the best, (especially if you’d still like access to those restaurants)?
You can watch the full episode here, or click the timestamps below to navigate directly to a specific part within YouTube.
Giant Mailbag
(01:52) – More feedback on the pronunciation of Qatar.
Card Talk
(03:45) – Hilton Honors Business Card, which will be increasing its annual fee from $95 to $195, along with some other changes.
Crazy Thing
(14:03) – United Pooling appeared Friday, then disappeared hours later, then re-appeared
(19:19)) – You can’t use pooled United miles for partner redemptions, only United & United Express
Mattress Running the Numbers
(25:55) – National Car Rental double credit for registered users’ weekend rentals between April 4 through June 8, 2024
Read more about this National Car Rental deal here.
Award Talk
(29:36) – Regional first class awards for 12.5K, 16.5K, 22K points thanks to Qatar Avios
(32:00) – Read more about this regional sweet spot here.
(35:58) – Preferred Hotels bookable online
Check out the Preferred Hotels Coffee Break episode here.
(40:31) – Choice Privileges Experiences might be worth a look
Main Event: The Best Path to Priority Pass
(45:08) – Full Priority Pass offers access to airport lounges, restaurants, and experiences (e.g. Be Relax Spa, Minute suites, Game Space etc.)
(47:43) – Chase Sapphire Reserve & Ritz lose restaurants
(49:06)) – Check out our Card Talk segment of last week’s podcast episode 247 where we talked about the Ritz Card and its access to Priority Pass.
(51:38) – Wack-a-mole Alternatives to still get restaurant access with your Priority Pass
(52:48) – Venture X Biz (Read more about the Venture X Business card here)
(53:55) – US Bank Altitude Reserve (8 visits) (Read more about the US Bank Altitude Reserve card here)
(55:43) – Business Altitude Connect (4 visits) (Read more about the Business Altitude Connect card here)
(56:16) – Bank Of America Premium Rewards Elite (4 memberships) (Read more about the Bank of America Premium Rewards Elite card here)
(1:00:15) – UBS Visa Infinite Business (Read more about the UBS Visa Infinite Business card here)
(1:00:54) – UBS Visa Infinite (Read more about the UBS Visa Infinite card here)
(1:01:25) – Citi Prestige (no longer available if you don’t already have it)
(1:02:09) – Barclays Emirates Skywards Premium World Elite Mastercard (Read more about the Barclays Emirates Skywards Premium World Elite Mastercard here)
Question of the Week
(1:07:06) – Deciding between two hotels, one with cash (and therefore a Hilton points-earning opportunity) or paying Hyatt points. How do you make the choice?
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Music Credit – “Ocean Deep” by Annie Yoder
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I love your newer format. Easier to jump to the topics I’m most interested in
If you have Platinum Honors (the big if), I would rank the BofA Premium Rewards Elite card the highest for Priority Access by far. The airline credit offset is very easy to use and you get them all at once so there’s no obnoxious “coupon book.” The lifestyle credits cover a broad range of things that get used organically (fitness app, wife’s fitness subscription, kids’ karate dojo, streaming, rideshare, food delivery — it would be hard NOT to use these in my experience). So you’re left with a $100 residual fee, just $25 more than the Altitude Reserve. And for that extra $25 you get INCREDIBLY generous Priority Pass access, not just for yourself and guests but for FOUR(!!) total memberships. Compare that with Altitude Reserve where you get 8 combined visits across yourself and guests, 4 with a spouse, and 3 or less if you travel with kids. Better than nothing, but claiming these benefits are somehow comparable doesn’t feel right at all to me. I realize we are talking about Priority Pass and not rewards, but consider that BofA also has an incredibly broad, generous definition of travel. Much better than any others that can cover a ton of spend in the right context. On that front the Altitude Reserve isn’t even close. Now, I love the Altitude Reserve card, and use it whenever it makes sense. But claiming it is in any way comparable for Priority Pass leaves me with questions.
Is it correct that Capital One Venture X and Biz Venture X are the same, except the Biz version allows for restaurants? We keep the Venture X as our main Priority Pass card and have our adult kids as AUs so they get access with their friends. I can’t meet the $30k in 3 months for the bonus, but I wonder if it makes sense to still get the Biz version and cancel my personal one? Can I transfer points from one to the other? What happens if I cancel by VenX after the annual fee. Is it returned pro-rated or is it lost?
The personal card gives AUs priority pass access; the business one does not.
Quick feedback: I found it very hard while listening to figure out if any cards actually still provide priority pass with restaurants. It was in there but not crisply. My summary is: no priority pass restuarants with any Chase or AMEX cards, and only Venture X Business from Capital One. Nothing from Citi. There is a short list of other alternatives.
My homework this week is to work on getting my priority pass membership for my US Bank Altitude Reserve and my US Bank Business Altitude Connect.
For the 8 and 4 visits, do you know if it is based on 12 months from the priority pass enrollment date, 12 months from the CC annual fee date, or the 12 calendar months starting January 1?
I would give US Bank a call for your answer. But I believe 12 months from the priority pass enrollment date.
Nick, I reached the same conclusion you did in the podcast RE dusting off the USB Altitude Reserve Visa’s priority pass membership. Like you, I’d activated mine some time ago–2018 in my case.
Alas, getting it reissued by USB or PP customer service hasn’t worked yet, despite an hour of trying. I even had the original username and password written down.
I documented these frustrations in a reddit thread at https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/comments/1bpxngn/recovering_us_bank_altitude_reserve_priority_pass/ .
If you are able to get yours reissued, would love to hear how you got it done!
If I can get mine reissued, I’ll follow up here as well as at Reddit.
Bank of America Premium Rewards Elite card does allow Priority Pass restaurant access. up to $28 for the member and $28 for 1 registered guest.
I called them about this – not sure if the person I spoke with even knew what PP was not to mention whether this card provides access to restaurants.
You do need to register the Premium Rewards Elite card to have Priority Pass features. Once registered you will see the lounge access and restaurant access on the Priority Pass website.
My last visit to the Priority Pass lounge at DFW was a terrible experience. Last trip to DFW I tried the Plaza Premium lounge in terminal E which was better but not worth going to a different terminal.