Update 6/17/21: 57 lounges will no longer accept Priority Pass (out of 120). Hat tip to OMaaT
Plaza Premium Lounges has announced that starting July 1st, 2021 they will no longer accept Priority Pass or Lounge Key members. Plaza Premium operates over 120 lounges, so this is a significant loss for Priority Pass. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Plaza Premium lounges exit Priority Pass, for example the Indian lounges were no longer accepting Priority Pass and then started accepting them again.
It looks like some individual lounges might still be accessible via Priority Pass, but that list of lounges is currently not available and it’s not clear if that will actually be the case or not. I also wouldn’t be surprised if this was a contract dispute that we see sorted by July 1st or if Plaza Premium lounges get readded in the future.
It’s possible to access these lounges without Priority Pass but fees range from $50 to $65. It also wouldn’t surprise me if a U.S. based credit card issuer made a direct deal with Plaza Premium to give cardmembers access (American Express Platinum cardholders will retain access through the Global Lounge Collection).
What does “Pipeline being developed” mean? That they haven’t found an alternative lounge or restaurant yet for the given Plaza Premium lounge that’s leaving?
Could be a plumbing issue.
very annoying. makes our annual fees less worth it
Going off the ones on the list I have direct experience with, it’s pretty terrible for Canada and Heathrow. I know at YVR the only other lounge in the USA transborder area is an Air Canada one and I think you can’t even get into those by buying a day pass if you really wanted it, and that you have to have either an Air Canada or United lounge membership; and IIRC that’s par for the course for the USA transborder terminal at Canadian airports, just a Plaza Premium and an Air Canada. And the Plaza Premium showers at Heathrow area can be a blessing flying there from the US west coast.
Don’t worry. Chase will be coming up with shoes.com $99 yearly credit to offset this.
Chase is better adding another lounge access program such as Dragon Pass. -something Canadian premium card issuers did this year to offset this loss. Or – negotiate some other way to access those Canadian lounges. There are plenty of their American cardholders who are traveling to and through Canada.
My trip to Asia starts June 28th…I was hoping to check out some of the lounges. Le sigh…
That’s a bummer. Thankfully the one at new Delhi is not in the list
Hi I’ve never used my Amex MS Plat (Global Lounge Collection) for Plaza Premium before. Do they charge the card and it gets reimbursed? Thanks!
No
How does it work? Do you just show Amex Plat and you get in free? Thanks.
Update 6/17/21: Vy is still outraged.
Update 6/17/21: Cinn thanks you for the update.
Priority Pass is pretty useless for me. I like the restaurant aspect. Need to add more of those.
Yeah but who still offers both restaurants and unlimited uses on their PP memberships? Just Chase from the ones I’m familiar with? Amex stop allowing restaurants on theirs, and I think the Altitude Reserve one allows restaurants but it’s only something like 4 free uses a year before you start getting charged the $28 entrance fee.
I hope Chase will add more lounges to the Priority Pass benefits. Chase Sapphire Reserve needs to compete with AMEX Platinum airport lounge and restaurant benefits. A nice benefit to have but lounges are inconveniently located in a different part of the airport from my flights.
It sure was nice of all these places to continue to collect fees from PriorityPass for the last 12 months.
Plaza Premium lounges are the only ones on PP that are decent lol…..
No kidding…after all the crap lounges I’d visited in the US my mind was blown by the Plaza Premium in HKG.
Even the one at YVR beats your typical US domestic airline-run lounge. Kind of cramped–the space and furniture arrangement itself is cramped even before you get into the fact that it’s often very crowded–and could use a refresh but hey, two actual hot food options that are both usually at minimum palatable and often legitimately tasty enough, especially given it’s free, plus you can pour your own booze.
I’ll still be able to get into the YVR one with Amex so I do wonder how the crowding will be the next time I’m in…I can’t speak to the other ones on the list but the YVR one often gets packed to the point they have to stop letting people in and then they have a line forming of people trying to get in. So wouldn’t shock me if this is a crowd control thing and that they’re betting that it won’t even cost them if they think they’ll still fill up while sparing themselves the mob scene trying to get in.
Superficially the overall list looks to skew heavily toward places I’d expect would get lots of US-based traffic and with how easy it is to get PP now I bet PP’s justification would specifically mention too much US-based foot traffic since super easy to get PP is mostly an American phenomenon.
P.S. I think I actually kind of liked the one in YVR more than the one I used in Heathrow. I forget the terminal but it was the one you go through before making the schlep to the United/*A area. The Heathrow one was a nicer space but beyond the showers felt sort of stingy on what was available without having to pay extra, I think it winds up feeling discordant/disappointing when you go from how nice the space is the spartan food and beverage offerings. I think on net I’d rather take the more tired lounge if the tradeoff is hot food and free liquor instead of basic bar snacks and a choice between a shitty Euro lager, a shitty red wine, or a shitty white wine.