Yesterday American Express announced that effective August 1st cards that come with Priority Pass would no longer be able to access non-lounge experiences (e.g restaurants, cafes and bars). Chase, Citi & U.S. Bank all offer Priority Pass in one form or another, in addition when asked if they plan to introduce a similar rule they all three card issuers stated that they have no plans to change Priority pass at this time.
These type of public relations statements don’t actually mean anything, as you can see they all “no plan for changes at this time” (emphasis mine). I suspect what has happened is that the American Express contract was up for renewal and Priority Pass wanted to charge more for access to these “non-lounges” and American Express decided it was too expensive. The real question will be what Chase/Citi/U.S. Bank do when the fee increases are passed onto them as well and if American Express’ removal of this benefit causes their own acquisition/retention rates to increase.
