Priority Pass is facing another downgrade, and this time it’s a decision by their corporate parent and not the result of overcrowding or banks cutting back on cost. Several airport lounges in the United States where you can use your Priority Pass card now impose extra charges if you want to shower. That’s something posted to Priority Pass’s update page.
- This covers “The Club” lounges at San Jose, Pittsburgh, Las Vegas, Charlotte and Dallas – Fort Worth
- Also notable is that the new Plaza Premium lounge at DFW airport has already left Priority Pass.
The Club lounges are operated by Airport Dimensions, the lounge arm of Collinson Group. Priority Pass is also owned by Collinson. So this is Priority Pass deciding to charge their own customers more to access lounges they operate. It’s a margin play, squeezing their own customers.
Most Priority Pass cards are provided by banks. Banks pay Priority Pass, and Priority Pass pays lounges a fee per visit. They keep the difference between those fees, profiting on every card swipe.
But Priority Pass’s parent also operates lounges. Their primary lounge brand is The Club. That way they’re not just making a small arbitrage on the difference between swipe fees from banks and visit fees from lounges, they make money on the lounge side as well.
Their goal is to maximize visits in their lounges, and minimize cost so that the lounges are profitable – after the hefty rents they pay to airports, capital investment in the lounges themselves, and the cost of lounge staffing, food and beverages.
Several The Club lounges have showers, though most of them don’t. They no longer include use of the shower with a visit. This affects:
- The Club DFW Concourse D DFW International Airport (DFW)
- The Club SJC A8 (SJC)
- The Club SJC A15 (SJC)
- The Club Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT)
- The Club LAS (LAS)
- The Club CLT Concourse A Charlotte-Douglas International Airport (CLT)
I suppose getting a shower and lounge access was ‘too much’ value. You’re getting a lot more than you’d normally expect from a generic Priority Pass lounge, rather than a bank’s own lounge. Just like Plaza Premium has their two levels of lounges now, with their ‘First’ lounges requiring a buy up unless you’re on an eligible boarding pass where they’re getting revenue from the airline to cover the better food and beverage program.
Plaza Premium has had an interesting relationship with Priority Pass over time. They have somewhat nicer lounges (usually) and have tried to build their own lounge membership program, but it’s impossible to beat the traffic flow from Priority Pass if you’re looking to maximize visit revenue. It’s low revenue per guest (e.g. $22 – $30), so it’s a volume play.
That’s why the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse at LAX imposed a cash surcharge on Priority Pass visits, rather than going the opposite direction from the JFK Clubhouse and Dulles Clubhouse and serving almost nothing complimentary during Priority Pass hours and upcharging for most food and premium beverages (even coffees).
Back when Denver airport’s Timberline Steaks was part of Priority Pass, and before most banks put the kibbosh on restaurant credits, they were getting 18,000 visits per month from the card. It’s low margin, high volume business and Collinson is in the middle of each transaction.
They’re always looking for new ways to drive net revenue growth, but is there anyone today that doesn’t have a Priority Pass card? I think I have six. Shower fees won’t yield the kind of transaction volume that adding ‘experiences’ at airports did, before the banks cracked down to control their own costs. But shower guests were presumably unprofitable, and this corrects for that.
(HT: r/PriorityPass)
Ever since they got rid of restaurants, PP has been a joke in the US; sure, there are still some decent spots overseas, but it’s wild to have like 6+ Select memberships via all these premium cards, and basically to never use them at-home. (Besides, like, at JFK, the old Wingtips-HelloSky-whatever equivalent is truly the worst option at T4. Maybe worse than nothing.)
Well, Amex wants $$ just for me to bring my wife into the Centurion lounge.
So not surprised by second class lounges doing a money grab.
TBH, the shower is one of the most valuable parts of PP. But, mainly for the long US to SE Asia layovers. So, this won’t affet me as long as I avoid US connections. All the more reason to make all my connections in Asia. PP in the US is really a joke.
@1990: The Escape Lounges are still generally good and the large majority of their US locations are available with Priority Pass (the last few you need an Amex or paid day pass to get in). And they have nice locations in a bunch of midsized airports without many other options, especially for those without an airline lounge membership (SYR, PVD, BDL, PDX, MCI, CMH, TUL, etc)
Someone explain to me why one would spend money to go into a crowded (often a line to get in, SFO T-1 always has one no matter the time of day), dirty and noise ridden “lounge” for the purpose of eating WaWa like food and drinking free cheap booze. The free cheap booze probably being the selling point.
At least with an airline lounge there may be staff there to help you with travel issues.
@Gary the simple solution is, if a customer no longer finds value in a credit card, stop using the card. It makes no sense to me people who retain a card that provides them with reduced value. They might as well burn whatever money they have. Instead of constantly complaining about reduced value, find another credit card and move on.
Actually, I think it’s reasonable to change extra for lounge showers. Few lounge visitors want them (I rarely use them even on crazy ultra long hauls) and regular lounge guests shouldn’t be subsidizing them. If you really want an airport shower, $15 ot $20 extra doesn’t seem crazy for a mass-market PP membership.
I agree with @George Romey (WOW! like me, he uses his real name, lol).
Lounges are overcrowded, food is sparce/not good, and you have ‘installed people’ who collonielize their area with luggage and backpacks while they drink water.
I would rather take a bar/restaurant, near the gate so I can watch, where if you pay money you get good service.
Because my time is worth a LOT. It’s funny how travelers devalue their time by waiting in lines, then complain about the wait. Ummm…..that’s the transaction you are agreeing to.
@Ben — Good caveat. I will say, the Escapes at FLL T3 impressed me. Cuban sandwiches. Yum. (CMH?! Oh, @This comes to mind should know all about that…)
@e-squared — It is said… that some even go “PP” in the PP showers… *gasp*
@George Romey — Ehem, Wawa sandwiches might be an upgrade, sir. Personally, I’m all about that Piggly Wiggly, dawg.
You can get into Plaza Premium lounges with showing a Amex Platinum card. I have done this at multiple Plaza Premium and you get free shows use which you do not get when you enter with a Priority Pass card.
Not a huge loss typically have only used showers Int’l.
The exception is West Coast red-eyes (normally at SFO Polaris lounge) before a long 10+ hr flight the shower – helps me sleep a bit better.
Have also used it after a red-eye on a longer connecting layover in the EU (try to avoid transiting UK).
I can see it being beneficial if an IRROP ex-Int’l leads to a long domestic layover.
The whole PP thing is a shambolic mess. Was on. PIT lounge and the coffee machine was broken and the water dispenser empty. At 9:30 am.
@George Romney is correct. In fact, the whole lounge experience has been seriously devalued over the past decade. I rarely bother with them anymore even though I have a AMEX Plat and Cap1VX. Usually I just get a table at a concourse restaurant. The Cap1 lounge at DFW is good provided you get there during a lull and don’t have to get on a waiting list.
@ 1990 — You had it right on the first comment — PP is a joke. The lounges are generally awful. The gate area is often better.
PP lounges are fine for a work space and a light bite coming home from a trip, nothing more. The primary purpose is having a table and plugs. Sometimes the gate is better, but not always. I rarely use a lounge on the outbound (unless international), though the C1 Landing at LGA is a nice place for a light bite and a cup of coffee — there’s plenty of space there.
At this point, lounge access is a cherry-on-top benefit for a functional credit card. I would never possess the Amex Plat for lounge access, and I despise having my spending shaped by a bunch of partner credits. The VX is fine for lounge access in a pinch because the travel credit is super easy to use. But I probably use lounge access on 50% of travel, maybe a little less.
I don’t understand people that fixate on lounges just like I don’t really understand “free” breakfast. To me, the benefit of breakfast is mental offloading (I don’t have to think about where to get breakfast). It is almost always mediocre or worse. But it can get you fueled so that you can think about something else for most of the day. It is nice when it is there, but I don’t always use it. Getting worked up over it (or doing work to secure it beyond paying a “breakfast inclusive” rate) seems like time not well spent. If I wanted to think that hard about breakfast, I’ll find somewhere that has a really good breakfast. That is rarely a hotel.
The Plaza Premium First lounges don’t always let you in just because you’re there on an airline ticket. In early April my wife and I visited the new Plaza Premium lounge in DFW terminal D as that was the lounge for our Turkish Airlines Business class flight ticket and we were told that the upgraded first area would come with their standard upcharged fee (I forget if it was $40 or $50). We declined but then showers would have been an a la carte fee.