Reader George shared his experience at the Minute Suites at BWI airport. That’s the airport lounge alternative that gives you a private room to use with a couch for rest and a desk for working.
He used his Priority Pass card for an hour’s free access, and was “required to pay a $5.30 ‘cleaning fee’ for entry” on top of the costs covered through his bank-issued card, “This was not optional and this was not due to any mess I made. This was merely for entry into the facility.”
He expressed concern with Priority Pass, and this is what he heard back: lounges and airport services accessible through Priority Pass can add on whatever charges they wish:
We understand your concern regarding the “cleaning fee” charged by Minute Suites on 5 April 2026. Please note that Priority Pass provides access to participating lounges and airport services as part of your membership. However, any additional fees imposed by individual lounges or service providers—such as cleaning fees—are managed directly by the lounge or service provider and are outside the scope of Priority Pass policy.
George wonders “[w]hat’s to prevent a lounge from charging a mandatory “silverware-usage fee” at this point?”
In most cases, a lounge wouldn’t want to do this because they maximize their revenue by maximizing swipes. Adding a fee at lounge check-in would require more staffing, and would chase away guests. The median Priority Pass lounge is limited in capacity only by the fire marshal. The more customers they bring it at around ~ $25 apiece, the more they make.
Minute Suites are private rooms, and each one just has a handful, so they can’t increase revenue just through sheer volume. In fact, a Priority Pass customer trades off with someone paying a higher rate. Priority Pass brings volume but it doesn’t help them scale above a certain limit.
I don’t actually think the response from Priority Pass is the correct one, though. I hadn’t seen a $5.30 ‘cleaning fee’ for entry mentioned anywhere else. And it’s not really consistent with their Priority Pass deal.
- The Priority Pass website shows a one-hour complimentary stay plus discounted additional time.
- terms say cleaning surcharges apply for smoking, damage, or extraordinary cleaning.
- And generally extra fees are disclosed on the Priority Pass website.
I did find a FlyerTalk user reporting a 3% credit-card surcharge sign at Minute Suites DFW. At New York JFK I saw a reference to a 3% “employee surcharge.” Those aren’t $5.30 cleaning fees, but they weren’t listed online, either.
There are also cleaning-fee complaints around Minute Suites/ Atlanta charged an additional $150 cleaning fee that was never communicated. That sounds like quite the time was had in the Minute Suites!
Nonetheless, add-on fees for lounge access are proliferating to some degree. And there’s a narrow path where I’m comfortable with it – when it’s a properly disclosed up front, and it’s set in a way that addresses crowding.
- Mandatory co-pay to use a better lounge: Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse LAX requires a normal Priority Pass plus a mandatory $35 per person paid to the lounge. That’s fully disclosed. Some customers consider it a ripoff, but you know up front the price. The lounge wouldn’t be accessible without the fee. It’s a nice space. It’s also small (just 4,401 square feet). And there’s real food.
The Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse Washington Dulles and Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse JFK are quite sad during Priority Pass hours – expect to pay $4 for an espresso, and bartenders aren’t allowed to take your order. Give me the surcharge instead!
- Premium buy-up: the new Plaza Premium First lounge at Dallas – Fort Worth costs $45 for passengers who have access to the standard Plaza Premium Lounge via Priority Pass or an eligible Amex card. Priority Pass gets you the base lounge, and then there’s a premium tier next door.
- Optional reservation fee for guaranteed access: You can pre-book at some lounges, such as The Club lounges. That’s separate from complimentary access, and you can still access lounges without pre-booking, but pre-booking gets you in at a specific time without the wait for a fee. Aspire lounges and some Escape lounges have this, too, but Escape offers it only in conjunction with paid entry not Priority Pass as far as I am aware. I’ve seen pricing like $7 and $9 for this.
- Paid extras in the lounge: Virgin Atlantic Clubhouses at JFK and Washington Dulles will sell you hot food, alcohol and espresso drinks. Aspire San Diego has an a la carte menu with extra payment required and both standard and premium alcohol are extra. Escape Sacramento shows premium alcohol extra. The Plaza Premium lounge at DFW Terminal E charges extra even for standard alcohol.
On the one hand, maybe extra charges are good because lounge lines can be so long? But a mandatory cleaning fee at the door for access is an undisclosed add-on, not listed on the website. It’s drip pricing.
A reservation fee or a meaningful premium upcharge is different. Those can actually improve passenger experience, creating a guaranteed slot or offering a better product and at the same time adding a lounge that wouldn’t otherwise be accessible through the network.
However, a flat $5.30 mandatory fee is too small to carry the load for demand management, reducing queues. It’s not going to deter enough people from going to the lounge to address crowding compared to a $35+ buy up.
What’s ultimately needed isn’t necessarily ‘no fees’ but at a minimum ‘fees must be disclosed in the listing’ and this should be a rare add-on, for things that truly aren’t part of the base lounge experience, not the baseline expectation – which would devalue Priority Pass to their detriment, as consumers would no longer value the card the same way, they’d no longer keep swiping, and reduced swipes would hit them in terms of revenue from the banks.
Why do people feel the need to patronize these overcrowded, barely above a Taco Bell lounges? Often with a line to get in. At least at an airline lounge you can get flight assistance.
Call it Peon Pass.