Best Credit Cards for Airport Lounge Access | Priority Pass, Chase Sapphire, Amex Centurion, Capital One & Airline Clubs
Justin Vacula of the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast is joined by returning co-host Darren to discuss the best credit cards for airport lounge access, including Priority Pass, Chase Sapphire Lounges, Capital One Lounges, Amex Centurion Lounges, United Clubs, Delta Sky Clubs, Admirals Clubs, and other airline lounge options.
In this episode, Justin and Darren explain how airport lounge access can save travelers money on food and drinks, make layovers and delays more comfortable, and sometimes even help with rebooking when airline agents inside lounges are available.
They start with Priority Pass credit cards, including beginner-friendly options like the U.S. Bank Altitude Connect, which offers four Priority Pass visits with no annual fee, and premium options like the Bilt Palladium Card, Chase Ritz-Carlton Card, and Chase Sapphire Reserve.
They discuss lounge visit limits, guest access, authorized users, annual fees, and how Chase Sapphire Lounge access fits into the Priority Pass ecosystem. The episode also covers airline lounge credit cards, including the United Explorer Card with two United Club passes and the United Club Card with unlimited United Club access.
Justin and Darren compare these with the Capital One Venture X, which offers Capital One Lounge and Priority Pass access, plus Amex Platinum, Business Platinum, and Delta Reserve cards for Centurion Lounge and Delta Sky Club access.
They also discuss American Airlines lounge access, including the Citi AAdvantage Executive Card for Admirals Club access and the Cardless Qatar Airways Visa Infinite, which can grant Qatar Airways Gold and Oneworld Sapphire status for potential American Airlines Flagship Lounge and Admirals Club access.
Listener questions cover how to find lounge locations using resources like thislounge.com, the current state of Priority Pass restaurant access, and which cards may be best depending on your home airport, travel habits, airline loyalty, and willingness to pay annual fees. Justin also shares upcoming travel plans using Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts credits, Hyatt stays, and Hilton free night certificates.
Timestamps
00:00 Points And Miles Intro
00:45 Why Airport Lounges Matter
04:15 Priority Pass Basics
04:47 Beginner Lounge Cards
06:27 Premium Priority Pass Picks
09:59 United Lounge Cards
14:41 Venture X And Lounge Networks
17:11 Amex Platinum And Delta Access
18:57 American Airlines Lounge Cards
20:21 Support The Show Break
22:22 Qatar Card Flagship Hack
25:47 Listener Questions And Tips
33:57 Wrap Up And Upcoming Trips
36:19 Outro And Credits
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Rough Transcript:
Travel at low cost with points and miles. Credit card rewards bring the smiles. Many adventures, tales to be told. Make and save money, the world will unfold
Fight the war on happiness, pick up the gold. Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast breaks the mold
You’re listening to the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast. I’m your host, Justin Vacula, here to help you make money, save money, and travel the world at low cost with credit card points, miles, benefits, and loyalty programs. Food and drinks in airports are usually expensive, so I have a solution with airport lounges.
Many credit cards offer lounge access in addition to high welcome bonuses, other travel benefits, and much more. Which cards are good for beginners in the miles and [00:01:00] points space? Which cards could advanced listeners appreciate? The right credit card can get you a quiet space, all-you-can-eat food, and all-you-can-drink alcohol.
On with today’s episode, recorded June 27th, 2026. Welcome back to the show, Darren. Thanks, Justin. Excited to talk about airport lounges and all the goodness and joy that they bring to our lives, Justin. We’ve said before that the vacation starts at the airport, as both of us often get to airports hours before our flight to go to airport lounges.
Here in Philadelphia, we have many great lounges, including the Chase Sapphire Lounge, the American Airlines Flagship Lounge, the Centurion Lounge, and more. I’ve passed through Denver, which has Amex Centurion Lounge, American Airlines Admirals Club, Capital One Plaza Premium Lounge, Delta Sky Club, United Lounges, and more.
As usual, the answer to everything is more credit cards, so it’s nice to have multiple ways to get into multiple lounges, especially when some are [00:02:00] far away from where connecting or departing flights may be. I’m getting credit cards not only for lounge access, but also for the high welcome bonuses, other benefits, and points earning.
Yeah, no doubt. Lounges always make time at the airport better, Justin, whether that’s a layover like you talked about there or getting to the airport early. And that, of course, assumes that all our flights are on time, and we know that’s just not the case. As my kids found out recently trying to go visit family up in Michigan, they spent 13 hours in the Philadelphia airport, and I’m ashamed to say, Justin, they do not have Priority Pass access.
They were stuck in the general population. So they’ve already been petitioning me for a way to have lounge access before they do that little merry-go-round again, and I’m sure we’ll find a way maybe in this call even to talk about how we could get them into Priority Pass lounges or maybe even better next time they’re in that situation.
And when [00:03:00] your flight gets delayed, you have extra time in the lounge rather than sitting in the general terminal. That’s a nice thing, and you also get the customer service element. If you’re in an airport lounge with a specific airline, they can often help you rebook a flight, figure out what’s going on, many other benefits other than the quiet space, the food, and the drinks.
For sure, and that, if we’re traveling for business, Justin, that’s a little different story, of course. I myself have enjoyed the quiet part of a lounge to be able to try to get some work done, work calls, Zoom calls, that sort of thing, versus trying to take those calls in a sort of public place makes it awkward and challenging to hear sometimes.
Plus free food usually good food plus depending on the lounge, I guess we can talk about that. Plus some of the free drinks if you’re on vacation or maybe it’s been a long work week and you’re on your way back having a little special drink, so to speak, Justin, a cold beer or cocktail, whatever it is that you enjoy on the [00:04:00] way home can help you unwind a little bit, get ready for the weekend.
Much better than a six or seven dollar coffee or a $15 salad that’s a very small portion. You’re definitely getting usually good food and unlimited food as well. We’ll start with Priority Pass when considering these lounges. Many cards grant access to Priority Pass. You get lounges, spas, minute suites, these are small hotel-like rooms, and much more.
Even a Game Way I went to recently where you can play video games and you get a large snack and a drink. Usually Priority Pass is around $300 a year with 10 visits included and then $35 a visit after that, but many credit cards have Priority Pass included, some with unlimited access as well. One way to get four Priority Pass lounge visits per year is with the U.S.
Bank Altitude Connect personal credit card. At the time of recording, it has a 20,000-point welcome bonus that’s worth about [00:05:00] $200, no annual fee, a TSA PreCheck credit, and decent earning with four times points on most travel, two times points with dining, groceries, and streaming, 1X points on everything else.
Normally, I wouldn’t suggest this card, but it could make sense for someone starting who doesn’t want to pay a high annual fee and just wants to get into the lounge experience Or Justin, if you’re like me and you have the U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve and you’re tired of waiting on U.S. Bank to figure out when or if there ever will be transfer partners, and they of course nerfed their point system where you used to be able to redeem a point through real-time rewards for a cent and a half, now it’s down to a cent or sometimes even less.
This is a lower annual fee card that still has some of those Priority Pass benefits and other benefits, including GigSky, Justin. That’s an eSIM, so that’s some international data that you could use with your [00:06:00] phone.
We’re just looking at that. My daughter is taking a trip to Greece and Italy for school, and we were trying to figure out how to get her connected. So she’s gonna be our guinea pig on GigSky. I think the U.S. Bank Altitude Connect is a nice card here, either as someone that’s just getting into the game and is looking to stick their toe in the water as a no annual fee card, or like you say, a downgrade from a more expensive annual fee card that maybe isn’t carrying its weight anymore.
And we have the Bilt Palladium Card. This offers unlimited Priority Pass visits, unlike the four with the Altitude Connect. This has a $495 annual fee, but a 50,000 point welcome bonus, more than a wash in year one as the points can easily be worth more than a cent per point. You also get 2X points on all spending or 3X points with the Point Accelerator feature.
You get $400 yearly hotel credits and many other benefits when redeeming their secondary currency, Bilt [00:07:00] Cash. For more on Bilt, listen to my recent Bilt Bulletin podcast episode. We won’t get too much here on Bilt since that’s its whole separate thing, but it’s good to mention here for Priority Pass as you get Priority Pass access as a cardholder
Another Priority Pass option though is under the radar, maybe a little more challenging card to get these days, but it’s the Ritz Carlton card issued by Chase.
It’s no longer available for new applications, but you can product change from a Chase Marriott personal card. That card speaking of Priority Pass provides unlimited Priority Pass visits for the cardholder and two guests. And importantly, you can add authorized users for no annual fee, and they get their own Priority Pass membership, including access to Chase Sapphire Lounges that you mentioned earlier, Justin.
And I’ll tell you, in Philadelphia, that is by far the best lounge that I’ve been to. And it’s definitely one that we try to target [00:08:00] when we’re in the airport. So I’m already making plans to product change my personal Chase card to the Ritz Carlton, probably add my kids as authorized users and make sure that in the future, should they hit the airport and have some delays, we can make sure they don’t have to spend 13 hours in Gen Pop and can sneak into the lounge and find a little reprieve there.
And the Chase Sapphire Reserve, that has Priority Pass lounge access and the Chase Sapphire Lounge access, as you mentioned. Indeed, my favorite lounge in 2026, the Philadelphia Chase Sapphire Lounge. You also get a 100,000 point welcome bonus and many benefits many benefits from StubHub to Chase Dining to the Edit Hotel bookings, rideshare credits and more to offset what’s now a $795 annual fee.
But with a 100,000 point welcome bonus and many benefits, it’s hard to argue against it for year one, as long as you [00:09:00] travel a decent amount and actually use the benefits, I think it’s worthwhile, and maybe even a keeper card for those using the benefits and traveling often.
If you compare the annual fee for the Ritz Carlton Card and lounge access is your primary focus as it is in this show, you can come in at a much lower price point, $450 per card, and there is a $300 travel credit. It’s a little more complicated than the Sapphire Reserve, which should be able to just automatically debit that.
You have to, I think apply or ask the Ritz folks to apply the credit towards travel spend. But the folks that I know that have that card have had very little trouble getting that done. Something I’m gonna try to do, if you have a old Marriott personal card kicking around and you’re looking for lounge access and balking at the Chase Sapphire Reserve annual fees, maybe something you wanna consider, too.
Good. That’s Priority Pass and the Chase lounges. [00:10:00] Now we have specific airline lounge access. We’ll start with United. The United Explorer card, also with Chase, has a 50,000 point welcome bonus at time of recording, end of June 2026. You get two one-time use United lounge passes per year, free first checked bag when flying with United and using the credit card to book the flight, even to pay for the taxes and fees, 10% off United points bookings, rideshare credits, Instacart credits, TSA PreCheck or Global Entry statement credit, and more benefits.
The first year is no annual fee. After that, it’s $150 per year. I think a good deal, $150 a year if you’re flying United enough, taking advantage of the free checked bags, the points discount, and other benefits. As I mentioned, United has many lounges in Denver. I’ve also used United lounges in Washington, DC, Chicago, and Houston
Yeah, I think for a [00:11:00] no annual fee card, this is a pretty good deal. If you fly some United, you’re thinking I could use a little more, a few more United miles, and, accessing the United Lounge would be a nice perk,” I think this is a pretty good deal. If you’re traveling more than that, if you’re looking to get into the United Lounge more often than that first of all, you may consider one of these other lounges that are probably a little nicer than United Club that we’ve already talked about, the Chase Lounge.
I guess we haven’t talked about the Centurion or the Capital One Lounges yet. Those are yet to come. But yeah, for a dip your toe in the water type scenario, pretty good card, a nice place to start at least. If you’re flying more with United, we have the United Club personal card, 90,000 point welcome bonus at time of recording, end of June 2026.
You get unlimited United Lounge access for you and a guest. You also get free checked bags, two free checked bags, more rideshare [00:12:00] credits, more Instacart credits, and progress towards status with United. If you spend enough on the card, you will get silver status, potentially more, which gives you seat upgrades and other benefits.
This card has a $695 annual fee, the other one 150, so you’re paying a little bit more for that lounge access and some more of the benefits. So if America loves math, it makes sense for you based on your frequency of travel, the United Club card could be a good option this is definitely an America loves math card, Justin.
$695 annual fee. Hey, certainly we love that 90,000 point welcome bonus, United miles. You can transfer over from Chase Ultimate Rewards and some other places, right? But they’re not the most valuable probably miles out there. And yeah, Instacart credits, right? Like at some point, how many more Instacart credits do you need?
And day passes are 60 bucks a piece, so [00:13:00] you can buy quite a few day passes for $700. This is not the only card or airline that offers a high annual fee card in order to access their lounge, with some other benefits certainly. But I think this is definitely a situation where you want to definitely do the math to figure out, “Hey, how many times I’m, am I gonna fly United?
How often am I gonna be able to use this lounge and am I gonna get the $700 worth it? And is $60 worth it either? I guess that’s another question that- Oh, I would not pay $60. Yeah. 10 or 15 I think is reasonable, but definitely not $60.
I think it’s only 59, but we’ll do round- … rounding for purposes of today’s p- podcast. So 60 you can pay for what, 11 plus, Day passes, United day passes. That’s a hard thing to justify for me, but I’m not, I’m certainly not in a United hub.
Maybe if I were flying out of Newark, New Jersey or [00:14:00] Dulles or Houston or one of those places, I would feel differently. I did for a while hold the American Airlines Citi Executive card, which had a slightly lower annual fee than this, but did allow access and anyway, we, I carved that up with some P2 and some other players to make that cheaper.
But yeah, I’m not sure that I can justify the $700 roughly here to get to the United Club, which is nothing special in my experience. Minus some of the benefits and plus the potential status, I keep the card. I’m flying a lot with United. I’m flying through Chicago, so it makes sense for my situation, but maybe not all listeners.
But what can make sense for some listeners is the Capital One Venture X card. This is another good one for lounges. You get the Capital One lounges in Denver, Las Vegas, and other locations. Venture X also gives Priority Pass access, and you get [00:15:00] a 75,000-point welcome bonus, easily worth $750 or more transferring these points to travel partners.
You get a $300 annual travel credit, a 10,000-mile anniversary bonus, Global Entry or TSA PreCheck statement credit, and 2X points on all your spending, sometimes more. The card has a 395 annual fee, but it’s a good deal, especially in the first year, and even after that, you’re getting a $300 travel credit and 10k miles that are worth at least $100, in addition to continuing lounge access.
I think this is a nice one for those that don’t want tons of benefits and a higher annual fee, but still getting Priority Pass and the Capital One lounge access Yeah, and this is overall just a good card. 2% quote-unquote, “cash back” or points that you can then transfer. Plus again, like you said, a number of benefits including the annual travel benefit, which largely offsets the annual fee.
Pretty easy to [00:16:00] use. Certainly my p2 has had this card for a number of years now. Good cards and good lounges. This is one that I’ve heard a number of people say they really like the Grab & Go feature from the Capital One lounges. Venture X, I think, is a good option for those early to this space, and they can still get approved for cards with Capital One. But they’re notorious for declining people with lots of credit cards, especially if you have more credit cards than your age, as is the case with me. The answer to everything being more credit cards, of course, for more of these benefits, the lounge access, the welcome bonus, and more flexibility Yeah.
I think the advantage may be if some of the airline credit cards and airline lounges are much more likely to be present at the airport you’re flying in and out of, especially if you’re flying out of a hub and through a hub, whereas Chase lounges, even Centurion lounges are limited in their geographic scope.
So if you really need one maybe [00:17:00] one of these cards is helpful. If you know you’re in one of the airports that has one of these nicer lounges, Capital One, Chase, even Centurion Lounge, it might be worth checking out one of those.
And speaking of the Centurion Lounge, you can get access with Platinum and Business Platinum cards with American Express, and they also give you access to Delta Sky Clubs when flying Delta, a limited amount now that you get per year, but still, I think a generous amount.
I usually don’t recommend these cards to beginners because of the very high annual fees and the many benefits, and even the higher spending requirements in some cases, as they want you to spend up to $20,000 and maybe even more to get these welcome bonuses.
Many benefits can offset these annual fees, and especially in year one, they’re winners. I recently got a 300,000-point welcome bonus for a Business Platinum, and I think the Platinums have been around that territory or somewhere around 200,000 points. Again, year one [00:18:00] with credit cards with these annual fees give high welcome bonuses typically, so that’s a very good deal.
The Delta Reserve Personal and Business cards can also be good for lounge access, and you also get the Centurion Lounge access with the Delta Reserve cards and you can always cancel in year two if American Express doesn’t give you a retention offer for you to keep the cards.
This is always something to do in an annual fee post for the second year. Call in, say you’re considering canceling the card due to the high annual fee. Is there any kind of offer that you can provide me to keep the card, offering a statement credit, bonus points? And sometimes they’ll even waive the annual fee
Yeah, that retention call is always time well spent, or even chat these days, Justin. Lots of times I can do retention chat with Amex for both personal and business, and just check and see, what’s going on with this card? I’m considering canceling it. And yeah, it’s been a nice way to do that.
The other card speaking of airline cards, we talked [00:19:00] about United and Delta, I mentioned at the top about the Citi Executive American Airlines card. That’s a similar card to what you’ve talked about earlier with the other two main airlines in the US. It’s a $595 annual fee. It provides access to Admirals Clubs, which is the American Airline version, and if you’re flying out of Philadelphia or one of the other many American hubs, it may make sense for you.
Authorized users also have been able to get access. I think that is still the case, but I, before you apply, double-check that. It’s been a minute since I had a Citi card. Justin, I know you and I are on the same boat in the same situation with Citi. That card may also be something to consider.
Again, do the math. Is it really worth paying that large annual fee? I think they have had bonuses in the 90 to 100,000 American Airline miles range. So if you’re looking for American Airlines miles and still in good graces with Citi, it may be a card for [00:20:00] you to consider.
Justin, I think you’re gonna give us a different perspective on a slightly lower annual fee card that stills allows you to access Admiral Club’s lounges. Easier for me to say, Justin, goodness gracious.
We’ll get into that after the break, and we’ll also get into some listener questions we got for this episode. We have a lot of them today. Provide some feedback, info@HurdyGurdyTravelPodcast.com, and feel free to comment on YouTube with your thoughts on this topic or anything else. This show is like a job for me and is free for listeners with no paywall.
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Simply cancel existing flights and rebook when AutoPilot emails you about lower fares. Find my link in the show notes. We’re back to the show. Thanks once again to my returning co-host, Darren, who’s joining me to talk about credit cards offering airline lounge access, and we have a card here we don’t hear too much about.
I recently got this card and canceled it after one year. It is the Qatar Visa Infinite Card with Cardless . I got this card when the welcome bonus was higher, but at the time of recording, it’s a 50,000 point welcome bonus, more than $500 worth of travel. This is Avios rewards that work with many different airlines.
It has a [00:23:00] $499 annual fee. However, you get access to the American Airlines Flagship Lounges and their Admirals Club Lounges because the card gives you Qatar Privilege Club Gold status in the first year, which gives you OneWorld Sapphire status. Sounds complicated, but it’s been pretty easy. The status posted shortly after I got approved for the card.
I pull up the Qatar app. It shows my membership information and the Privilege Club Gold status. I show it at the American Airlines lounges, and they let me in. The Flagship Lounge is the more premium product, and you usually don’t get access to this with other cards, and sometimes you even have to be flying in business class, first class overseas.
I’ve gone in the Flagship Lounge for domestic flights using this Qatar status, and they gave me status for another year, which is really generous of them
[00:24:00] Yeah, I think that is a card that kinda lives under the radar, Justin. Remind us, is that a card where you need to spend a certain amount of money to get access to the flagship lounges and OneWorld Sapphire status? Or what are the requirements to get that? You automatically get the Privilege Club Gold status in the first year just for having the card.
But in order to maintain the status, you’re supposed to have to spend a lot and take four flights operated by Qatar. I did not fly with Qatar, but they extended the status. I’m not sure why, but I will take it. Maybe given recent conflict in the Middle East, they were generous in extending the status.
I think at one point they sent an email about extending status or the possibility of extending status, but as far as I remember they haven’t said anything solid about that saying, “Hey, we’re extending your status for another year.” I think there was just the possibility of that. But nice to have [00:25:00] it for two years even though I’ve only paid the annual fee once.
As they offered no retention, they said, “Oh, just pay the annual fee or cancel the card,” and I canceled it. You can sign up, you get that big welcome bonus, you get the benefits for a year, and you simply cancel after that year and move on to different cards.
Yeah, that’s the game we play, right? Don’t feel like you’re obligated to stick around and pay the annual fee year after year. What’s the book about, looking at the objects in your house and asking if they bring you joy?
It’s the same idea here, right? Is this card gonna bring me travel benefits in this next year that will outweigh the annual fee? And if not time to either downgrade or cancel. I think you made a good choice there, Justin. It got Marie Kondo’d. That’s her name. Thank you for saving me on that one.
We have some listener questions and comments thanks to supporters. You can subscribe on my subscribestar.com Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast page and you get [00:26:00] advanced notification of shows where you can ask your questions or leave comments. Thank you, Mario, for your question and comment. Mario asks, “Are there any apps, sites, articles, et cetera, which might still have up-to-date info on lounge locations?”
You had an answer to this one, Darren. Yeah. There’s a website called thislounge.com. Has probably the best overview of lounges In the airport in which you’re interested, you can search by airport, you can set your home airport. It’s free to join, and you can provide feedback on which lounges are enjoyable and so forth.
There’s a rating scale. I think it’s number of airplanes that are rated, so three airplanes are the best, one airplane is the worst. I guess there’s also a thumbs down, so I guess maybe that’s, is actually the worst. Yeah A crashed plane. It’s a, do not [00:27:00] pass go, do not collect $200 type thing.
Frequent travel award enthusiast Kevin Song is one of the folks behind this website. For anyone that’s been to a travel meetup, you may have seen Kevin or heard him speak, so someone that understands the game and certainly does a nice job of keeping this up to date. So would recommend thislounge.com for anyone that is interested.
Mario also notes, “Does Darren know he sounds like Matthew McConaughey? Good vibes.” All right. Thank you, Pa- thank you, Mario. I appreciate that very much. First Matthew McConaughey I think comp I’ve gotten, but I sure appreciate it. We’ll take it, and you almost said Pablo or maybe did.
Pablo, thanks for your comment or question. Pablo says, “If you can speak about the credit cards that we still have access to restaurants will be helpful.” Yeah, sorry, Mario. I was reading ahead in the script and got- A lot of O’s … confused there. Yeah. [00:28:00] Yep. Still have access to restaurants, and that’s through Priority Pass probably that Pablo is talking about, Justin?
Yes, but that’s been very limited as those benefits have been going away.
It’s not very many and in the airports I commonly fly out of, there’s so few as to not even bother to keep those in mind.
But that’s a good thing to, to ask because I think it still is valuable for some folks. I think it’s more of a West Coast thing compared to the East Coast where we have so many lounges, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC and more. But with the West Coast, sometimes you don’t have all the lounges and they have these restaurants that partner with Priority Pass
The Ritz was one. The Chase Sapphire Reserve was another. I think Capital One Venture X business card also had this, but lost it.
Cards that still hold it Bank of America Premium Rewards Elite credit card. So that’s a possibility [00:29:00] for those of us that still have Bank America Access. The Citi Prestige Card, which is closed to new applicants, much like the Ritz,, JetBlue Premier World Elite MasterCard.
That’s… Is that one that you have already, Justin? Oh, the new or revamped JetBlue card. That’s interesting.
Finally, Michael Trager of Travel Zork says, “The most important airline lounge is having access to one where they can rebook flights and act as angels when there is a flight issue.
This makes Flagship even more valuable.” That’s the American Airlines Flagship Lounge, as we mentioned. “It’s a bougie and solid lounge and has flight support. I also think the Capital One Lounge at Las Vegas is the best option, mostly due to location for me and airlines I fly and also seems to have less or no wait, at least in my experience.
But the new guesting issue has really devalued it. Not so much for me, since I am mostly solo in Vegas. Thanks for your comment and [00:30:00] support. Any further thoughts on that, Darren?
Yeah, I think this goes back to the idea of when you’re in a weather delay, or some mechanical issue, you can either stand in the long line and try to speak to the gate agent or if you’re already in the lounge, which I’m assuming you and I and Mr. Trager would all be, right? Waiting for the flight and you see that delay, if you recognize you’re gonna miss your connection, being able to go to someone in the lounge, especially if it’s a airline associated lounge, right?
They can then help you get rebooked. I think that is tremendously valuable depending again, number of times you fly. But I also agree the other Capital One Chase lounges again, for me Chase in Philadelphia has been fantastic. Historically we’ve had the Admirals Club lounges there.
We’ve had the Centurion lounge there. The Chase I think is well above both of those, and I have not embraced the Qatar card, Justin, so if I [00:31:00] do, perhaps I can access the American Airlines flagship lounge, which according to thislounge.com gets three airplanes as good as the Chase Sapphire Lounge, it is nice, and it also has the QR code order from table, so you get freshly made custom-made food and you could edit the options rather than just taking the stuff from the buffet. I think the flagship and the Chase Lounge are quite nice in Philadelphia. I’ve also been in other flagship locations and they’ve been good too.
Yeah, that’s a nice nice tip there on the Qatar card. It’s probably your future, especially since no more Citi American Airlines lounge access, and you could use your Alaska miles to book American Airlines and get the lounge access when you’re flying with them. Oh, I already use the Alaska miles.
That’s been a deal a real lifesaver flying out of Philadelphia all the time. I will likely pivot to the Ritz that we talked about earlier to make sure I continue and my family [00:32:00] continue to have Chase lounge access but that line can get quite long. I imagine that the line for the American Airlines flagship lounge, though, is quite short.
As long as you’re flying American, that should work out really well. I’ve never seen a long line, and they have multiple agents at that check-in desk, whereas with the Chase lounge, it’s just that one person outside, and then you have to usually join the queue. But I haven’t had long lines for Chase either, so I’ve had good experience in Philadelphia, Las Vegas.
I’ve had maybe 15, 20 minute wait for the Chase lounge, and it’s also in a different location as you have to walk maybe five to 10 minutes to get there, then walk another five to 10 minutes back to take the tram to get to the terminal. Not the best location with the Chase lounge in Vegas, but it’s still nice.
I think a lot of options for listeners here, whether they’re flying Delta, United, or they get [00:33:00] access to Chase lounges, Centurion lounges, Capital One lounges that aren’t tied to a specific airline.
Yeah, advantages and disadvantages for sure. Sorta like Hyatt, right? We’ve long thought Hyatt was the best hotel point program out there. Quality hotels, really easy and f- fairly low cost as far as points go, even with recent devaluation. But the geographic location of those hotels maybe not quite as frequent or widely dispersed as, say, IHG or Hiltons.
It’s probably the same deal here with the lounges. I certainly prefer the Chase or the Capital One, even the Amex Centurion over United or American or Delta lounges generally, but some lounge is better than no lounge by and large, and if you already have that perk certainly I’d be interested in stopping in for some Wi-Fi charge my phone, and maybe a quick drink.
I hope this was helpful for listeners new [00:34:00] to the credit card space and also for intermediate to advanced listeners. Lounge access is a good reason to get credit cards, but it’s not the end of the story because you’re getting high welcome bonuses, travel benefits, increased point earning with categories, and much more
Agreed. Justin, what do you got coming up? I have a trip to Savannah, Georgia. I used American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts credits. I booked two nights at one property, one night at the other, as one hotel was much cheaper and the other one was a little bit under 300 for one night. Three nights there, and they’re also at Hyatt properties, so I get the Hyatt Elite qualifying nights helping maintain my Hyatt status, and I get many of the benefits from the Fine Hotels & Resorts program with American Express.
With a lot of the Business Platinum cards we’ve signed up for, we have more of these hotel credits to [00:35:00] use. This will be a new location and I’m excited to go there. I’ll also be back in Atlantic City in mid-July, going with past podcast guest Deker, redeeming another night with my Vegas
There’s also the Hermitage Bay in Antigua that’s coming up too as I’m using my Hilton free night certificates, and it looks like the rack rate or the normal price is somewhere around $2,000 a night for this all-inclusive luxury property. So it’ll be nice to use the Hilton free night certificates to pay zero.
Zero is my favorite price for a hotel, Justin. I’m not sure if you knew that. Yes. We’re living up to the show’s intro of traveling at low cost with points and miles, and that’s certainly the case with these Hilton free night certificates, a perk of spending on various American Express Hilton credit cards.
Very nice. That sounds like two great trips. My wife and I visited Savannah a number of years ago and [00:36:00] really enjoyed it, so I’m sure you’ll have a great time, and nice to be able to double dip on the Hyatt stays there as well. All right. Thank you for joining me again today. Always a pleasure, Justin, and thanks everybody.
Appreciate any other compliments you want to send my way about sounding like famous actors, I’ll absolutely take. Thanks everybody. Thanks everyone for listening and stay tuned for future episodes. For more content between shows, follow Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast on Facebook and X. Follow Justin Vacula on Instagram.
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