The Alaska Airlines Lounge in San Francisco has returned to Priority Pass, but with a twist. You can access this lounge with a $15 co-pay.
That means both SFO airport Priority Pass lounge options in terminal 1 include a premium cash component, since The Club lounge there offers paid reservations to avoid queueing.
The Alaska Lounge cash co-pay is another example of add-on fees to access Priority Pass lounges, like the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse LAX which admits based on normal Priority Pass plus a mandatory $35 per person paid to the lounge.
Access to this lounge requires a standard visit allocation and mandatory additional fee of US$15 per person, payable directly to the lounge upon entry. This fee is in addition to any other fees your membership requires. Guests are subject to the same fee. This upgrade offers Cardholders an elevated experience.
Alaska’s willingness to monetize their lounge with Priority Pass shows just much the airline’s passenger presence has declined in San Francisco – they’ve really pulled down the hub that came with the Virgin America acquisition.
- Shortly after acquiring Virgin America, the two airlines operated 83 daily departures to 35 destinations.
- Today, they’re down to about 42 daily departures to 24 daily destinations.
After Alaska acquired Virgin America, they added several San Francisco routes including Philadelphia, New Orleans, Nashville, Indianapolis, Raleigh/Durham, Baltimore, Albuquerque, and Kansas City.
Since then, however, they’ve dropped Albuquerque, Austin, Nashville, Boston, Burbank, Baltimore, Dallas Love Field, Denver, Fort Lauderdale, Washington Dulles, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Mexico City, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Missoula, New Orleans, Omaha, Chicago O’Hare, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Raleigh/Durham, Salt Lake City, and Tampa.
They’ve kept cutting. Boston ended January 6, 2026. Austin ended February 11, 2026. Burbank, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City ended March 17, 2026. Orlando will end on May 12, 2026 and Newark on June 9, 2026.
The airline has largely been beaten by United in San Francisco. United had 45% of seats in 2018 and that grew to 48.7% in 2025. That growth of 3.7 points came at the expense of Alaska’s 3.5 point drop from 13% to 9.5% in that same period. Alaska retreated as limited aircraft were deployed elsewhere and San Francisco travel was slower to recover from the pandemic – but United stuck to its guns there.
It’s hard to see how the Virgin America play turned out to be anything other than a failure, considering they’ve also retreated from markets with scarce gate and slot allocations that the deal bought them, like Dallas Love Field and New York LaGuardia (leased to Southwest) and Washington’s National airport (leased to Southwest).
(HT: Chris)
Cool. Cool, cool, cool. Hey, any word on JFK Alaska lounge (currently closed)? Used to have one in T7, but they are knocking it down for the new T6/7. (Because, while I like the Atmos Summit, those of us on the east coast are gonna struggle to actually use those 2 passes/quarter.)
More ripoff fees come to PP. Just say no.
“That means both SFO airport Priority Pass lounge options include a premium cash component”
There are 5 SFO airport Priority Pass lounge options, 3 of which do not have a premium cash component.
Hmm.
This PP copay trend is a bit troublesome. I get that absent a copay the AS lounge and the Virgin lounge at LAX would likely not be choices at all. Yet if PP signals that such is an option, will the better lounges in their system demand the same? I am not certain this ends well.
@Gene — Our poor little PP… (between this and the loss of LH lounges via Platinum, what’r we gonna do now with our 8 “Priority Pass Select” memberships?!)
@ 1990 — Stay home. Thats $15 toward my TopoChico habit.
Not sure if I’d be paying $15/visit with PP there. That said, the SFO Alaska Lounge is beautiful. Maybe I liked it so much because it’s quiet and there’s few people there.
American Airlines Admirals Club members and Citi/AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard holders can access Alaska Lounge locations in Anchorage, Los Angeles, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle when flying on Alaska, American, or Hawaiian Airlines. This reciprocal agreement offers same-day lounge access. You should never need to pay an additional $15.00 to Priority Pass because you have a membership for access. Admirals Club Membership: Provides access to Alaska Lounges upon arrival or departure on an Alaska Airlines flight. Alaska Lounge Membership: Allows access to American Airlines Admirals Clubs.
Ehhh to paying on top of Priority Pass.
@1990 — Streets ahead reference!
@Ken A – thank you for the PSA as always
PP is turning into and Entertainment-style discount card vs. simple access membership.
Priority Pass is a failure and disappointment to me. The times I’ve written to them seeking and offering help to resolve a problem have resulted in weak cookie cutter responses. Now the extra charges being allowed by Priority Pass locations are adding insult to injury.
I would love to see Priority Pass replaced with a company that can do it better.
>There are 5 SFO airport Priority Pass lounge options, 3 of which do not have a premium cash component.
Good luck trying to get in those lounges except on off-peak hours.
Peon Pass has become a scam, skating on the reputation it earned when it worked properly.
I used the SFO Lounge for the first time two days’ ago. I believe Atmos Rewards Members should be given the option to purchase a Day Pass using points. Otherwise, it Is pricey. The hot food was welcome and the quiet space was relaxing.
My intention to use the lounge was participate in a class before my flight. Unfortunately, there was missed communication with the prof. Without a pay-with-points option, it’s unlikely I would use it again.
Lounges that accept PP at SFO are restricted to certain hours, which is not listed on the PP website. I tried to access the SFO lounges listed on PP but was turned away because I came after the cutoff time (I think that was sometime 4pm-6pm). It was ridiculous. They suggested the Virgin Atlantic lounge would accept PP (at the time I was there), and it did without a fee. But if more and more lounges start demanding ‘copays’ for PP access, what’s the point of paying for PP?
PP customer service is also a joke. I tried to fix an easy name mistake (they also listed my last name as my middle name, so my membership name was ‘firstname lastname lastname’. No one could fix this! OMG).
Alaska looks like it is retreating to its mega-fortress hub, Seattle, where it has beaten United into insignificance, 52.1% to 4.4%.
I don’t know what’s up with Alaska. They had a really classy operation at SFO and they appear to be abandoning it. Priority pass at their brand new lounge is another nail in the coffin. It’s a shame.
DOC reports that “[y]ou must also be flying Alaska or a partner airline”, which is a requirement I’ve never seen for a Priority Pass lounge before.
@ Charlie — Theu got a greedy new CEO, that’s what happened.