With more and more travelers holding credit cards and pass programs that allow them into the airport lounges once restricted to airline elites, many lounges have placed restrictions on when and how long some visitors can stay.
Usually, access is limited to members and their guests holding tickets for that day, but even that is being narrowed; numbers of programs now limit visits to three hours, or to the three hours just before the flight is scheduled to leave. Arriving passengers may also be denied access.
The restrictions fall especially on travelers whose access comes not through an airline but through a program such as Priority Pass, which is often bundled as a benefit with credit cards; they are usually the first to be told ‘Sorry! Not today.” One U.S. lounge chain, The Club, has just placed a three-hour restraint on Priority Pass.
As restrictions spread, of course, Priority Pass will seem like less of an amenity to program members; only time will tell whether the shake-out will include more lounges built, or less access granted.
