In this post, we have featured an in-depth Priority Pass Review 2019 that includes detailed insights of its services, lounges, pricing plans, pros & cons, customer support and more. Let's get started here.
(Detailed) Priority Pass Review 2019: Is It Really Worth The Hype??
More About Priority Pass
Priority Pass is the original and market-leading airport experiences program. It provides discerning frequent travelers access to over 1200 lounges and airport experiences in more than 500 cities across 143 countries, including 1174 lounges and access to a growing number [59] of airport dining and spa offerings worldwide that can be accessed in the same way as lounges.
Using the Priority Pass app for iOS and Android, Members can quickly and easily discover locations welcoming Priority Pass, instantly check their visit entitlement and use their Digital Membership Card to access airport lounges and experiences.
Priority Pass is operated by Collinson, a global leader in customer benefits and loyalty.Collinson delivers exceptional travel, insurance and assistance products that differentiate value propositions, and loyalty solutions that win deeper, more valuable customer relationships. For over 30 years, we've been chosen by the world's leading payment networks, 600+ banks, 90+ airlines, and 20+ hotel groups to craft customer experiences that win competitive edge. This enables them to acquire, engage and retain the most profitable, but most demanding customers.
What does the company do, and what services does Collionson offer?
Collinson is a global leader in loyalty and benefits. With unique insight into high earning, frequent travelers, we craft customer experiences that enable some of the world's best-known brands to acquire, engage and retain the most demanding and choice-rich customers.
Collinson has more than 30 years' experience working with the world's leading payment networks, over 600 banks, 90 airlines and 20 hotel groups in 170 countries to create loyalty, deliver smarter travel experiences, and protect and assist their customers in times of need.
Here is my experience at Priortiy Pass Lounge Access at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport Departures :
Its clean & super friendly staff.
Moves to enhance Priority Pass Experience
We continually improve the Priority Pass lounge offering to provide Members a richer experience. We have very close relationships with lounge operators, working with them and inputting into their priorities to improve the customer experience.
Recent examples of where we have introduced innovative features to enhance guest experiences range from a PlayStation Room and Clarins Wellness area at Heathrow T4, to sleep pods at Dubai International and even a mini-movie theatre in Beijing Capital International.
How The Priority Pass improving the experience outside the lounge?
As well as continually expanding the traditional lounge portfolio and enhancing the in-lounge experience, we are now evolving Priority Pass to give Members a richer experience out of the lounge.
Alongside the 141 additions to the traditional lounge portfolio made between June 2017 and June 2018, Priority Pass introduced 34 new dinings, spa and relaxation experiences that can be accessed in the same way as lounges, broadening the choice for Members while at the airport
Recently, we have made the airport richer by adding offers to the Priority Pass proposition. Delivered with our merchant partners, offers to allow Priority Pass Members to enjoy special discounts, value- adds or gifts with purchase from leading retail, lifestyle, spa, and dining brands. So far, we have launched more than 800+ Priority Pass offers around the world.
What Priority Pass is doing to improve the lounges experience?Complementing the airport experience, we now give travelers access to tailored information on 84 airports from around the world. Available from the Priority Pass website, Airport Guides offer useful expert tips and interesting facts about the airport, including specific information about terminals.
Travelers are embracing Airport Guides - in the first 3 months since launch in June 2018, Airport Guides received over 1.5 million page views. Proving the value and relevance of the guides, travelers spend more than 40 seconds dwell time per page. Alongside the Priority Pass app, Airport Guides are another aspect of our investment in providing connected travelers with 'digital-first' experiences that intelligently help them navigate and discover great experiences throughout their trip.
From the Priority Pass Blog:
What Is Priority Pass doing to improve overall?
We continually enhance the Priority Pass proposition to ensure it retains its premium positioning and its ability to drive loyalty, even with the most demanding and choice-rich customers.
Since 1 October 2017, we have progressed a broad range of initiatives as we seek to bring together premium connected travelers with intuitive, personalized and highly targeted experiences as they travel using their program membership: to and from the airport, as well as within it.
Digital initiatives towards connected traveler experiences include:
Brand new digital platform (February 2018): Simple and intuitive, the new Priority Pass app gives customers effortless access to their benefits and offers, supported in 12 languages. The app is the key enabler for an expanding set of innovative features and services which enrich the customer's airport experience, from check-in to the plane.
Alongside digital enhancements, there is continued effort and focus on improving the lounge experience:
New Features Rolling Out of Priority Pass
Airport Takeout will be delivered through our partnership with Grab®, and will initially be available to Priority Pass retail members, who use the English version of the app.
- Using the app's open APIs, corporate clients like payment card issuers, banks and telcos can choose to integrate the functionality into their own apps.
- Digital partnership to drive innovation (February 2018): Priority Pass partnered withLocusLabs to become the first lounge membership program to integrate LocusLabs indoor mapping and wayfinding. Designed to guide travelers through the airport, indoor maps are available to Priority Pass Members in 10 of the world's busiest airports: Dubai, Hong Kong, London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Singapore, Manchester, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Mexico City, and Istanbul Ataturk.
- Rich airport content (August 2018): Priority Pass launched bespoke Airport Guides to support travelers' trips and enhance the airport experience. Available from the Priority Pass website, Airport Guides offer useful expert tips and interesting facts about the airport, including specific information about terminals. Tailored information on 84 airports around the world is now available.
The service will be launched as a pilot across 15 airports in the UK and US including:
- Expanding the network (June 2018): Priority Pass reached the 1200+ lounges milestone and is now welcomed at locations in over 500 cities and 143 countries. New exclusive partnerships announced in the last year gave Priority Pass Members access to premium lounges in the United States (Washington DC Dulles, New York NJ Newark) and the Middle East (Muscat International Airport in Oman, Dammam King Fahd International in Saudi Arabia). We continue to add new lounges and partnerships to our global network every month.
ATL, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport DFW, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport DEN, Denver International Airport
LAX, Los Angeles International Airport MIA, Miami International Airport
MSP, Minneapolis -Saint Paul International Airport PHX, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
SFO, San Francisco International Airport
- Improvements to the in-lounge guest experience: Innovations to enhance the guest experiences across our lounge portfolio range from a PlayStation Room and Clarins Wellness area at Heathrow T4, to sleep pods at Dubai International and even a mini-movie theatre in Beijing Capital International.
BHX, Birmingham Airport
- Grab®: in September 2018, Collinson made a significant investment in Grab, the airport e-commerce platform. Providing mobile order-ahead capabilities at airports across the UK and US, Grab allows travelers to skip the queue. For travelers, it means a better pre-flight experience, with less waiting and hassle. Collinson and Grab will work together to create new services for travelers and commercial opportunities for airport restaurants and retailers. The partnership is an exciting example of Collinson's wider airport strategy to work with external partners to continue to grow and develop its market-leading airport loyalty proposition.
- Airport Takeout: this service will enable Members to order food and drinks whilst making their way through the airport. It will give time-poor travelers alternative dining options, enhancing their airport experience.
EMA, East Midlands
LGW, London Gatwick Airport
LHR, London Heathrow Airport
STN, London Stansted Airport
MAN, Manchester Airport
Priority Lane: for most travelers, security control slows down the pre-flight journey through the airport, meaning extensive wait times and stress. Collinson has developed a premium priority lane offer to enable Priority Pass Members to pre-book security control fast track.
US - 9 AirportsPriority Lane gives Priority Pass Members the option to reserve access to express lanes at Security Control (departures) and Passport Control (arrivals) in select airports.
Airports available at launch: Express Security Control
Intelligent Wayfinding Indoor Maps
Priority Pass Members can use our indoor maps to quickly locate and navigate to a range of locations in the airport: including lounges, retailers, departure gates and other amenities.
UK -6 AirportsCurrently available on the Priority Pass app and web, covering 10 major airports worldwide, including some of the world's busiest hubs. Airports covered include:
We will continue to improve and expand coverage through future releases.
Looking forward, we are working with partner LocusLabs to build location technology into the Priority Pass app that will "push" special offer recommendations to the Members. Members with push notifications enabled on their smartphones could receive recommendations of services when entering an airport to help them navigate to lounges and special discounts.
Priority Pass Membership Benefits:
Priority Pass Offers
Launched in October 2018, Priority Pass offers to allow Members to enjoy special discounts, value-adds or gifts with purchase from leading retail, lifestyle, spa and dining brands. So far, we have launched more than 800 Priority Pass offers around the world.
All registered Members can access offers directly from the Priority Pass app on their mobile devices or via the website. The process couldn't be easier: all they need to do is simply log in and search for their departure/arrival airport or city to view all live offers at their location. They then generate a unique code and present it at the point of purchase to redeem the offer.
- BGY, Bermagui
- PMO, Palermo Airport
- LBA, Leeds Bradford Express Passport Control
- BAH, Bahrain International
- LGW, London Gatwick
- MCT, Muscat International
For our merchant partners (retailers and other airport experience providers) Priority Pass offers to mean new opportunities to grow their revenues, average transaction values, footfall, and sales volumes with direct access to the discerning, high-value frequent travelers who are Members of Priority Pass, the world's largest airport lounge access program.
[If applicable add Priority Pass boilerplate - retailer might not know who we are and contextualizing allows easy identification of key audience retailer they would like access to - airport lounge customers = high-value nonshoppers]
For the Member offers to mean a richer airport experience, with special discounts, value-adds, and gifts with purchase.
- Amsterdam Schiphol, Netherlands (AMS)
- Dubai Intl, United Arab Emirates (DXB)
- Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok Intl, Hong Kong SAR (HKH)
- Istanbul Ataturk Havalimani, Turkey (IST)
- Los Angeles International, CA, USA (LAX)
- London Gatwick, United Kingdom (LGW)
- London Heathrow, United Kingdom (LHR)
- Moscow Sheremetyevo, Russia (SVO)
- Mexico City Benito Juarez Intl, Mexico
For Priority Pass, offers to help us fulfill our vision for richer "check-in to gate" airport experiences.
How many places can you use your Priority Pass?
Priority Pass is now welcome at locations in more than 500 cities across 143 countries including over 1300 lounges and access to a growing number of airport dining and spa offerings worldwide.
They continually add more lounges to the program to meet traveler demand for premium airport experiences:
between June 2017 - June 2018, Priority Pass added 141 new lounges.
- How does a member use Priority Pass offer?/How does offers work from the Member's perspective?
Where is Priority Pass expanding?
They are expanding Priority Pass around the world to reach more locations and give Members more places to enjoy their Priority Pass experience: between June 2017 - June 2018, Priority Pass added 141 new lounges globally. Looking at the growth picture regionally over the year:
- Why would a retailer participate in offers?
Memberships Offered By Priority Pass
1) Standard = Annual fee $99, Member visit fee $32, a guest visit fee $32.
2) Standard Plus = Annual fee $ 299, Member visit fee 10 free visits, then $32, guest visit fee $32.
3) Prestige = Annual fee $ 429, Member visit fee all free, a guest visit fee £20
With memberships, travelers are not only saving on lounge access - the selection of complimentary snacks and drinks available should be weighed up versus the cost of other food and beverage options in airports and transport hubs.
Priority Pass members can also use their lounge visit entitlements to receive discounts at a growing number of dining outlets in airports around the world - Gatwick's Grain Store Café & Bar is one example of our dining partners here in the UK.
Pricing Increase: from 18th September 2018, Priority Pass adjusted the fee for chargeable lounge visits to
$32 per visit per person. <see: https://www.prioritypass.com/en/visitfeeincrease >
Priority Pass Mobile Apps (More Flexibility)
What is the Priority Pass app?
The Priority Pass app is the Member's digital gateway to Priority Pass, providing access to lounges, out-of-lounge dining, spa, and relaxation experiences and the growing range of Priority Pass offer.
The app also includes a mapping and wayfinding function to guide Members through the airport and make it easier to locate lounges, retailers, restaurants and find other amenities inside terminals.
- Asia Pacific: They added 64 lounges to the network, including lounges in Adelaide and Melbourne airports for the first time, and access to an additional lounge in Sydney's Terminal 2.
- EMEA: They added 48 new lounges, including the Kandinsky Lounge at Moscow Sheremetyevo and access to the Prime class Lounge in the new Muscat International Airport in Oman.
- North America: They added 27 new lounges including the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse in Los Angeles - LAX International Terminal 2, the first Virgin Clubhouse lounge in the Priority Pass program.
- Latin America: They enriched the program, offering more experiences to Members. News deals with bars and restaurants included Bleriot Bar & Lounge and La Bonbonniere in Brazil and Peru.
Designed to give Members a simple and intuitive user experience, the latest version of the app includes a one-click login with biometric recognition. With this feature activated, Members will be able to login to the app using their fingerprint or facial recognition (depending on the capability of their device).
The Priority Pass app includes support for 12 languages: Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin American Spanish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese - with more to follow.
Are members using the app?
The latest edition of the Priority Pass app is easier than ever to use and offers Members new features including mapping and wayfinding. Since its introduction in February 2018, customer usage of the Priority Pass app is rising. Views of the Priority Pass Digital Membership card have increased by 105%.
Additional Issues: Capacity etc.. (Must Know)
We want to give Priority Pass Members a consistent premium experience in our lounges. To do that, we carefully monitor conditions in our lounges and this includes the number of guests at any time.
We have been working with our lounge partners to manage capacity constraints. For one, we have introduced more efficient seating configurations. When a lounge is nearing capacity, our hosts will actively find available seats for guests. Lounge hosts also carefully manage the waitlist and call-back service, to make sure we are making the best use of available space.
However, some lounges at key airport hubs are very popular and reach full capacity during peak times, leading to some cardholders being unable to gain access.
We are currently developing solutions to improve the situation, which will enhance the overall airport experience and increase cardholder choice. We are exploring the following solutions:
*Additional costs do not contribute to visit entitlement. Entitlements will be deducted at the time of the visit.
with retailers to extend this offering.
As a longer-term solution, Airport Lounge Development (ALD, a subsidiary of Collinson) is increasing lounge capacity at key airport hubs. ALD has recently launched Club Aspire lounges at Gatwick North and Heathrow T3. A further lounge in Gatwick South will open early 2019 and will be available to customers on all programs.
They have a seven-point set of global standards for excellence which a lounge experience must meet if it is in the program. These include standards for cleanliness, quality food and refreshments and the presence of appropriately qualified and trained personnel.
They use our seven-point global standards for excellence to assess a lounge at the time it is admitted to the program. Lounges are subsequently regularly assessed against the seven global standards.
- What actions will you take if the lounge is overcrowded?
When They judge that a lounge is failing to live up to our global standards for excellence we suspend it from the program to give our employees and partners the opportunity to resolve any issue.
No, absolutely not. To feature in our program, lounges must deliver a rich visitor experience that meets our global standards of excellence.
They are also continually improving our lounges to give Priority Pass Members the kind of premium experience they expect. We have introduced innovative features to enhance guest experiences across our portfolio: recent examples range from a PlayStation Room and Clarins Wellness area at Heathrow T4, to sleep pods at Dubai International and even a mini-movie theatre in Beijing Capital International.
Additional Issues: Value for money 💰 💵 💶 💴 (Some Questioners)
- Pre-book [see below descriptor]
- Alternative lounges
- Other airport experiences
- What real-world examples can you give me of these new solutions?
Using the airport lounge, or being a member of an airport lounge access program like Priority Pass, offers the traveler a range of benefits. For one, the lounge gives the traveler more choice about how they spend their time at the airport:
- Pre-book: Priority Pass Members can reserve a space in No1 Lounges (subject to availability) at Gatwick (including MyLounge), Heathrow T3 and Birmingham. Pre-book will cost £5*, payable by the Member.
- Other airport experiences: Priority Pass Members will also be offered experiences in other airport venues as an alternative. At Gatwick South, cardholders are directed to the Grain Store Café & Bar and the equivalent lounge fee is discounted from their bill. Collinson is building further relationships
Different travelers will have their own priorities and preferences: access to the lounge allows them to fulfill them. And this is not an "either/or" situation. A traveler can enjoy exploring the retailers, restaurants and other amenities on the concourse before going to the lounge.
As well as giving travelers more choices about how they spend their time at the airport, using the airport lounge make financial sense. Netflights.com examined airport lounges around the world, to see what you can expect to pay for visiting them and what you get for your money. It concluded that paying for a premium airport lounge experience could actually save passengers money, given the benefits - like free Wi-Fi, inclusive drinks and premium food - included with the lounge access
- What standards do Priority Pass assess the fitness of lounges in the program?
With individual lounge access costing up to £45 each time, frequent travelers can save money through lounge membership programs. For example, the Priority Pass Standard Plus membership includes 10 free visits for a one-off cost of £189, which means you only need to make a couple of return trips each year to make it worthwhile (assuming you make use of a lounge on each leg of your trip, there and back).
We want to give Priority Pass Members a consistent premium experience in our lounges. To do that, we carefully monitor conditions in our lounges and this includes the number of guests at any time.
- Are Priority Pass lounges becoming commodities?
We have been working with our lounge partners to manage capacity constraints. For one, we have introduced more efficient seating configurations. When a lounge is nearing capacity, our hosts will actively find available seats for guests. Lounge hosts also carefully manage the waitlist and call-back service, to make sure we are making the best use of available space.
However, some lounges at key airport hubs are very popular and reach full capacity during peak times, leading to some cardholders being unable to gain access.
We are currently developing solutions to improve the situation, which will enhance the overall airport experience and increase cardholder choice. We are exploring the following solutions:
Q. What are the main benefits of using an airport lounge compared to buying all the separate elements (food, drink, Wi-Fi etc.) in the airport?We continually invest to enhance Priority Pass and deliver the richer experiences Members expect, both in the lounge and through the airport journey <refer to Priority Pass Q&As about improvements>
- Some travelers will be seeking a tranquil location where they can rest, relax, and maybe even recharge by taking advantage of the spa and personal services that we are making increasingly available in Priority Pass lounges.
- Other travelers will want to be entertained using in-lounge gaming facilities (where available) or Wi-Fi to access entertainment and social media on their personal devices.
- For business travelers, the lounge offers the opportunity to catch up on emails or host a meeting.
Around the world, we are introducing a growing selection of lounge alternatives that give Members more choices for how they spend their time at the airport. Over 50 of these lounge alternatives are now available across airports in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, and the Asia Pacific. For the most part, lounge alternatives offer a range of informal dining options but we now also offer access to sleep pods at seven airport locations.
Pros & Cons Of Priority Pass
Cons:
Quick Links:
Q. How often does someone have to travel to make membership of a lounge pass scheme worthwhile?Conclusion: Priority Pass Review 2019 | Is it Worth trying??
Priority Pass is the original and market-leading airport experiences program. It provides discerning frequent travelers access to over 1200 lounges and airport experiences in more than 500 cities across 143 countries, including 1174 lounges.
Q. What are you doing to deal with the Priority Pass capacity issues?The PriorityPass mobile App for iOS and can enable you to look for air terminal lounges accessible on the courses you fly regularly. You can download the Priority Pass App here.
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- Pre-book
- Alternative lounges
- Other airport experiences
- VIP experience
- Wi-Fi Access
- Quiet, comfortable space to relax
- Access to shower facilities
- Bed and spa facilities to refresh in
- Free newspapers and magazines
- Free snacks, beverages, and Wi-Fi
- Access to over 1200 airport lounges around the world
- Comfortable spaces with complimentary refreshments
- Digital Membership Card to gain instant access