85. Lounge like a Pro: Your Insider’s Guide to Airport Lounges Using Credit Cards with Traci Siegel

Welcome to Point Me to First Class, the only show for employed professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners who are looking to optimize their higher-than-average expenses to travel the world. I'm your host, Devon Gimbel, and I believe that your expenses are your greatest untapped asset if you know how to leverage them. Ready to dive into the world of credit card points and miles so you can travel more, travel better, and travel often? Let's get started.

Welcome back to the podcast everybody. Joining me again today for another conversation is my friend and points expert, Traci Siegel. Together we're diving into the world of airport lounges, including how they can transform your travel experience, what makes a great airport lounge, and most importantly, how you can access them using credit cards.

But this is where things can get a little bit tricky because not all rewards credit cards are created equal when it comes to which ones offer the best lounge access. Oftentimes, the best lounge perks offered by rewards credit cards are going to differ based on where you're located geographically and which airports you transit most frequently. 

But not to worry. Traci breaks down all of this and describes how to decide exactly which credit cards are going to give you the best airport lounge access. You're also going to learn how to identify which lounges are truly worth your time and which ones we think you're better off skipping entirely and how to maximize your lounge experience for smoother, more enjoyable travel. 

Now, if you're a visual learner like me, or just love a good algorithm for decision making, you'll also want to be sure to check out the episode show notes to learn how you can download your own lounge decision tree guide that Traci designed that makes choosing your best lounge access giving rewards credit card a breeze. I hope you all enjoy this conversation. 

Devon: Hi, Traci, welcome back to the podcast. I am so excited to have you here again and to dive into the vast world of airport lounges with you today.

Traci: I am super excited to be here. Airport lounges are something that I've dove into them very deeply because at first, I did not understand what the point of them was. Over the years, I have become sort of a lounge snob. So I'm super eager to talk about this with you. It's always fun. 

Devon: Well, I think that's such a great starting point. Because admittedly, I think a lot of people don't really know like why does it really matter? Should anyone really make an effort to access lounges when they're traveling? What is so great about these anyway? So walk us back to kind of where you started in terms of what you thought about lounges and why you now consider yourself to be an airport lounge snob. 

Traci: Yeah, so when I started doing points and miles back in 2011, I really didn't quite understand what lounges were for because the thing that didn't click in my brain was that once you get in them, you don't have to pay for anything. At first, I naively thought oh, well, it's just sort of like an exclusive. Like a country club for businessmen, and it's to keep them away from families with kids. Once you get in, you still have to pay for stuff. So what's the point? Like, I'll just go to a restaurant in the airport. 

Well, I didn't realize that it's all free. I mean, there are some minor exceptions. But for the most part, every lounge you go in, the food and the drinks are free, and you can get free wine and free cocktails and free really good food or free mediocre food. So it sort of runs the gamut of what's available.

Once I realized, oh, that can make the airport experience less painful because I'm sure with everyone traveling so much more these days, airports are really crowded. Sometimes you can barely find an empty gate to find an empty seat away from people. If you don't want to be smashing with people or you have a big family and you can't find seats together, just finding an empty gate to sit in for quiet is impossible. Then also, if you're paying for food and drinks at the airport, like if you're on a layover and you're starving, or if you want to eat right before you get on a flight because you know that the food's not going to be great on the plane, you don't want to spend an arm and a leg. The more people you're traveling with, the more expensive that gets. 

So once I realized, wait a minute. This is a really great way to kind of get out of the hubbub of the main airport area, get a quiet place to sit, theoretically, free food, hopefully good food, and your kids can like hook up to the Wi-Fi and do their Snapchat or whatever they're doing with their friends. Who knows? You can sort of get out of that airport nightmare. 

Like, I think it's especially if you have any kind of sensory disorders or it can be very overwhelming and very crowded. So that's kind of what I value in an airport lounge. Once I realized that that was attainable and you could just get lounge access through credit cards, that's when I was hooked. 

Since then, since I started, I've sort of tried to figure out what is the best way I can maximize my lounge experience. I don't want to spend an arm and a leg. I also don't want to have mediocre lounge experiences. I'd rather in some instances there have been lounges where I've gone, and I walk in, I look at the food, I see that there's hardly any seats, and it feels really crowded. I walk right back out. 

Because I'd rather literally go sit in an empty seat at a gate and pay for my own food that's decent than have like weird soup or terrible pasta salad or whatever it is they've got on their buffet. Right. Whatever kind of wine they've got. I don't even know. So if it's crowded in there and the vibe is off, I'm out. 

So I'm looking for lounges that have a good vibe, good food and have some space to spread out ideally or have some kind of amenities that like make it actually enjoyable to spend that time before your flight. If it doesn't make it enjoyable, there's no point. Right? Then you could just be out in gen pop airport land.

Devon: Yeah, I think those are all such great points. I know for me traditionally before I found points and miles, I was always the type of traveler, even when I was traveling domestic, short haul or long haul international, I was always booking the most economy of economy tickets. I think when you're booking a ticket like that, it's just sort of understood or assumed you're probably not going to automatically be granted lounge access as part of the ticket that you are flying on.

One thing that I think can be a little bit nebulous is understanding just broadly what are some of the main ways that someone can have access to airport lounges? Like, do you have to be flying in a premium cabin like business or first class, or do you have to have a high level of status on the airline you're flying in order to have access to airport lounges? 

Traci: Right. Well, so there's four main ways that I know of to get lounge access. One is flying in a premium cabin, right? When you fly in a premium cabin, that usually comes with access if you're in business or first. There are certain exceptions. Like on Alaska Airlines, if you're flying like a certain length of flight and you're in a first class or whatever, you can get it then. But usually it's for like international flights first or business. Then it comes automatically with your ticket. If that airplane has a lounge or has a contract agreement with a lounge provider in that airport you're in.

If you have status that can get you in a lounge, too. But usually only when you're flying an airline that is a partner in that alliance. So like if you have like One World Emerald status, you can get in an American lounge usually if you're flying on a plane or in an airline that is in that alliance. So if you're flying United that day and you have One World Emerald, you're out of luck. But that is one way that you can get in. 

Another way is sometimes you can buy a day pass. If you don't have any kind of credit card or anything that gets you access, you can schedule an appointment and get a day pass. The prices on those vary. Sometimes they're hard to find because they can get really booked. 

But then the best way, I think, to get lounge access is through a credit card. Certain premium credit cards come with lounge access. What access you get varies by credit card. It varies by bank. Usually the higher annual fee you pay, the better deal you get on what kind of lounges you're allowed to get into, with the exception, I would say, of the Capital One Venture X, which I think is kind of the best overall card for lounge access. But it also depends a lot on where you fly out of and all that stuff. So I can get into that more later. 

But I think there's a lot of factors in play. But I think one of the most economical ways is to, if you don't care about status and you're not flying in a premium cabin, is to just get it through your credit card.

Devon: Yeah. I think that this is something that really fundamentally changed the way that people in the world of credit card points and travel could experience travel about 10 years ago because I think that there was really kind of like a landmark shift in this whole experience of lounges and accessing lounges with credit cards when American Express really kind of changed the game back in 2013. Because they were the first major credit card issuer to enter into the lounge space when they introduced their Centurion lounge that you could access just by virtue of holding a specific credit card or specific credit cards that they offered. 

Of course, the Centurion lounge network has now expanded to include I think over 20 total lounges, both domestically and internationally. Then since that time, and much more recently, we've seen other credit card issuers, specifically Chase, you mentioned Capital One, kind of get into this game themselves and open up their own network of lounges. 

Now, there's also an entire category of airport lounges that are part of larger networks. So not specific to a single credit card or credit card issuer like the Priority Pass lounges. So now more than ever, holding a credit card can really be key to accessing airport lounges when you travel. 

But you just started kind of touching on this idea that there's not necessarily one right credit card for everyone in terms of lounge access or one best credit card for lounge access. So for people who are really, really interested in experiencing what a lounge has to offer when they travel, where should people even begin? Where should they start to figure out what is the best credit card for them for lounge access? 

Traci: Okay. So this is a problem that I wanted to solve. So I actually created a decision tree that's pretty complicated, but it walks you through step by step, depending on how you answer certain questions, which lounge option through which credit card is the best option for you.

So I think the best default category or the best default card if you don't know anything else about someone and you're just talking to like random person number one. The best default lounge getting credit card is the Capital One Venture X or the Venture X Business because you pay the lowest annual fee, but you get the most benefit out of it. So it gets you Priority Pass access. Then you also get Capital One lounge access if you have one of those that you're going to. 

Their authorized user situation is really great because you can make people authorized users for free. You can make your children authorized users, and each authorized user and cardholder gets two guests. So if you have a large family or you're traveling with a big group, you can get everybody in for no additional cost. So that's a really good default place to start with like that. If that's your best option, you're still in good shape.

But depending on what airline or what airports you fly out of most, either connecting through a lot or flying out of like your home airport, you might have some better options than that card. The really lucky people are the ones who the Capital One Venture X is still their best card because they live in Dallas or they fly out of Dulles or they have a Capital One lounge near them. Those lounges are amazing. 

So if I lived in an area where I flew out of Dulles all the time, no question, that would be the card I'd get. But I don't. I live near Seattle, so I fly out of SeaTac. So we don't have a Capital One lounge. We also don't have a Chase Sapphire Reserve lounge. So my next best option is going to be Amex Centurion. We have a really great Centurion lounge here. So for me, that's my personal choice. 

So what I did to sort of figure this all out because I feel like in general, people just talk about lounge access and cards that get you lounge access. But it really does depend on what your home airport is. Because if you live in like Lexington, Kentucky, you're not going to have a Centurion lounge. You're not going to have a Capital One lounge. So what is your option that's best? Or if you live in Boston, like if you live in Boston, you're going to want to get the Chase Sapphire Reserve because you've got this awesome Chase Sapphire lounge. 

So I went through and figured out all the lounges that come with or you can get access through through all the cards in all the major airports in the U.S. and kind of laid it out step by step. Is one of these your home airport? Okay if it is, you need to get this card. If not, go to the next question. Is this one of your home airports? If it is great, here's what you should get. If not, here's the next question. 

So it sort of just walks you through going on the assumption of you want a good quality lounge experience. You don't want to pay extra if you don't have to. So like you shouldn't bother paying the higher annual fee for a Centurion card or for a platinum card to get in a Centurion lounge if you already have like a Capital One lounge. If I lived in Dallas, I'm not paying $695 for an annual fee so that I can get in the Centurion lounge when I have a much lower annual fee with Venture X. So I have that lounge to go to.

So it just kind of walks you through my personal logic on all of that valuing can I get into the lounge? What's the experience like? Is the food quality good? What is the cost? 

Devon: Yeah, those are absolutely great considerations. For anybody who is interested, Traci has been so generous. She is going to make this decision tree, which I consider to be like a lounge diagnostic algorithm for deciding which credit card is going to be the most beneficial for you. She's going to make that available to all of you. We're going to link to that in the episode show notes and the descriptions that you can get your own copy of this to walk through.

But we're going to dive in a little bit deeper to some of these specific types of lounges and also other considerations that people might want to take into account as they're making these decisions. So one of the things that you had mentioned was that basically if one of your local airports or an airport that you transit pretty frequently has a Capital One lounge, that these are, in your opinion, just some of the best lounges around. 

So I'm curious here because I've never been to a Capital One lounge before, despite having a Capital One credit card that would give me access to one. I've never been in one before. So what is it that makes specifically the Capital One lounges so amazing? How do we know if our airport has a Capital One lounge or not? 

Traci: Okay, well, unfortunately, it's very easy to know if you have one or not, because it's either Dallas, Fort Worth, Denver, Dallas, or pretty soon Las Vegas is going to be getting one. I think JFK is getting one too soon, but I don't know if there's been a date announced for that yet. I might have that wrong, but I think that's right. 

But anyway, so if you live in one of those places, this is an absolute no brainer for you. You should be getting the Venture X, either the personal or the business. They're really great lounges. First of all, it starts with the issue of sometimes lounges get crowded, right? For Capital One lounges, they also get crowded because they're really great and people want to flock to them. 

So if you go into the Capital One app on your phone, like when you land for your connection or when you're on your way into the airport if you're leaving, you can get into the waitlist and get put on the waitlist from the app on your phone. So if you time it right, you can get in there and not really have to stand around and wait to get in the lounge if it's crowded. Sometimes it's not crowded. So that's something that's really cool.

Then once you get in, their food is really good. Like honestly, my favorite part of the Capital One lounges is the grab and go section because they have this whole like refrigerator case of grab and go meals and drinks that you can take and desserts.

I literally planned a trip last fall where I purposefully made a stopover in Dallas Fort Worth just so I could go to the lounge because I hadn't been to one yet. It was either a choice of stopping in Dallas or stopping somewhere else. It wasn't like I had a nonstop, and I just made a connection for no reason. But I literally had like 10 minutes in the lounge, and I was like, I'm going to go. I'm going to do it. 

So I went in there and I was just like awed by it because all of the food, it's like a buffet, but it's all individual portions and they're all pre-portioned. So you're not like scooping out of a buffet or anything. The food's actually really good. They have quiet rooms. They have relaxation rooms. I think they have a multi-faith prayer room. They've got showers, which I think is really great, especially if you have a layover from an international flight. 

Like my personal thing that I think is really cool is they have a Peloton room. So if you wanted to exercise during a long layover or something, you can go and the bikes actually have a view of planes so you can get a shower afterwards and all that stuff. Like I said, all the food, the drinks, it's all free, and it's actually good. Like I would eat that even if I had to pay for it. So it's actually pretty cool. 

Devon: Yeah, I think the Capital One lounges seem to uniformly just get rave reviews from people, and I love how accessible they are making it with that feature, like you said, where you can log in on the app because it can be really frustrating to go to an airport lounge and see a huge line out the door or to be told that they're at capacity. So you can't actually go in that day, even though you have a credit card that might give you access to that.

That's something that I think we see, or at least I've seen much more commonly and frequently, recently with the American Express Centurion lounges. I remember when they first opened, they seemed to be really incredible quality, again, great service, great food. Now more and more, the rare times I actually have been in an airport that has a Centurion lounge, they have seemed incredibly crowded. Even if you can get in, it's challenging to find a seat to sit in. 

I'm curious to hear from you because Capital One, as amazing as it sounds like their lounges are, they don't have a huge footprint right now. So chances are you might be transiting through some airport that doesn't have a Capital One lounge. So if you couldn't access that and you had to pick between an Amex Centurion lounge or a Chase lounge, what would be your next pick and why? 

Traci: It would probably be a Chase lounge because a couple of reasons. One, the annual fee or at least the net annual fee on the Chase Sapphire Reserve after you take out the $300 travel credit, which I think is super easy to use, it's much lower than the Amex Platinum. The second reason is you can get two guests in free with your being a cardholder for that lounge. If you want to make someone an authorized user and have them also be able to get two guests in for free, it's $75 to make an authorized user. 

So for the Amex Platinum, when my husband and I first started our Platinum journeys, you paid like I think it was $175 flat fee, and you could get up to three authorized users, no problem. Then you could all get into the Centurion lounges. Well, because of wanting to stop this overcrowding problem, they have increased that. So now it's $195 per person to add an authorized user, which is kind of crazy. So – Our best option for lounges in SeaTac is the Centurion lounge. I actually really love it. Like as far as Centurion lounges go, they have the best coffee. 

So I was like okay, we need to do the math on this. How many times a year are the kids going to travel with us? Because it's $30 to pay for a kid under 18, or it's $50 to pay for an adult to come in with you if they're not an authorized user. So we actually did the math and figured out like okay, on average, this is how many times they're going to come in with us. Here's what it makes sense to pay. 

So we have taken it to where I have my own Platinum card. He has his own Platinum card, and we just pay for the kids when they travel with us, the $30 because we'd be spending $30 in an airport restaurant anyway probably. This way we can all be together. They get free Wi-Fi that's good instead of the airport Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is a really big concern when you have teenagers. I'll just say that. We're all pretty happy with it. I wish it were less expensive, but we do try to take advantage the most we can of the Platinum credits that you get with that card. 

So we're trying to make that it still makes financial sense for us just because when you go to an airport where there aren't any lounge options and you end up buying a meal for four, even if you're like super judicious with what you pick, you're still going to spend at least $100. I mean, and that's easily made up by the benefits you get from the card in addition to the signup bonus and all that stuff. So for us, that's worth it. 

But if I had a Sapphire lounge here instead, I would probably go for that one because the Sapphire lounges have seemed to, they've been taking off into the Capital One footprint and kind of like following their lead. I think they're all following the Centurion lead, but they're sort of trying to one up Centurion. Right. The lounges that are coming out now seem even nicer than the original Centurion lounges. So I feel like they're sort of upping the stakes and making them better and better, which I think is great. 

Devon: Yeah, I agree. I cannot wait to go and visit a Chase lounge. I've also not ever been to one of those. 

Traci: Me neither.

Devon: So, that in a little bit.

Traci: I've salivated over the photos and the descriptions of them from people who have. I'm like man, I wish I had a reason to go to Boston. But yeah, so far, not yet. 

Devon: Yeah. One of the things that you just touched on and kind of alluded to is this idea of a footprint. I think that that's something that is really good for people to be aware of when we are talking about lounge access, especially lounge access that is tied to a specific credit card brand. So Chase lounges, Capital One lounges, Amex lounges. Can you talk a little bit more about the footprint of each of these lounges? I know you already mentioned the few airports that right now have a Capital One lounge, but how does that compare to the footprint of the Chase lounges and the American Express Centurion lounges? 

Traci: Centurion definitely has the biggest footprint. They have the biggest footprint in the U.S. domestically and then they also have a pretty decent worldwide footprint. I think there's a lot of room for them to expand. But I think the only Sapphire lounge that exists outside the U.S. is in Hong Kong. I think that's right. Then there are no Capital One lounges outside the U.S. 

So but Amex Centurion, you know, there's one at Heathrow. There's I think they're opening a fourth one in Mexico City. They've got Centurion. I think there's one in Haneda that they're opening soon. Like they're kind of all over the world. So you're going to have much more chance to get into one of those if you're elsewhere. 

Then, you know, there's the three bank lounge systems. But then there's also this giant priority pass system. Then there's also like the Plaza Premium system that I don't think I've ever knowingly been to one of those, but it exists. It's sort of I think it has a smaller footprint than the Priority Pass. So most people just talk about priority pass. Sometimes I'll talk about Priority Pass. I really, really just mean both. But they both start with PP. So I think it's their own fault that we sort of mix them up. Like, why are they naming everything the same? 

But Priority Pass is a huge network and they have lounges all over and you can get Priority Pass lounge access through any of those three premium cards. So if you're just looking for a Priority Pass lounge because you don't have Capital One or a Chase Sapphire or an Amex Centurion lounge anywhere near you or you don't go through those airports, getting a Priority Pass lounge getting card is your best shot. You should get the card that has the lowest fees and has the most access, which, again, I would say is the Capital One Venture X. 

Devon: So can you explain that a little bit more? Because if Priority Pass is just a lounge network and you can get a Priority Pass membership as a benefit of one of several different premium level travel credit cards, then why does it matter if you get a Priority Pass membership through a Capital One card versus a Priority Pass membership through an Amex Platinum card?

Traci: Well, the annual fees for those cards is a major concern. I think most people would probably prefer to pay 395 a year rather than 695 a year. Just all things being equal. The other thing is the authorized user benefits and how many guests you can bring in. So if you want your whole family to get into the lounge, you're going to be way better off with the Venture X if you're just looking at Priority Pass lounges because you can make even a child an authorized user for free. Then the authorized users also get two guests and you get two guests as the cardholder. So like you could get a whole family in, you know, with no extra costs. 

But if you have an Amex Platinum and you're looking at that, then for your priority pass membership, like you'd have to make someone an authorized user if you've gone beyond two guests. Then you're looking at that $195 fee. So just to do it the most economical way, I think it makes sense to start with the cards that give you the best access and the lowest fee. 

Devon: Yeah. Do you think it matters at all when it comes to access or priority pass membership to go with a card that not only gives you access to the priority pass lounges, but also has this attached restaurant benefit? Do you think that should factor into the decision whatsoever? 

Traci: Well, I still have the Chase Sapphire Reserve and not the preferred because of that restaurant benefit, but it went away for the most part. So because you can't get the restaurant benefit anymore. What that is, is if someone's not familiar with it, in addition to the lounge access, if you had the Chase Sapphire Reserve, there were certain restaurants in a lot of airports where you could go and show them your reserve and Priority Pass card, and they would comp your meal basically up to twenty eight dollars a person. 

So we used to take advantage of that because we weren't really that thrilled with our lounges in Seattle. They were just sort of mediocre. We would go to like Bambuza or Brewtop Social or whatever those restaurants are in our home airport that we could get free meals from an actual restaurant. 

So I think it was July 1st of this year they took that benefit away for the Reserve. So for us, I'm like, well, does it really make sense to have that card anymore? I'll have to think about it. But I want to say maybe with the Venture X business, you can still get that restaurant benefit. But if you want to do that, you know, you're committing to quite a hefty minimum spend to get the bonus on that card. I think it's usually $30,000. There was a short time this year where they lowered it to $20,000, but it's back up to $30,000.

So that's something to think about if you have that kind of a situation at your home airport where the priority pass lounges are sort of disappointing, but you have good restaurant options under that program. But that's probably not going to be the best choice for most people just because that is the only card, I believe, right now that you can actually get that restaurant benefit with any more.

Devon: Yeah. Now you touched on this a little bit before when you were talking about, especially if you are traveling with a family, looking at different credit cards and the type of access you're going to get with a lounge for the lowest cumulative price possible in terms of having really nice authorized user benefits or nice guest access benefits to your lounges based on the credit card that you hold. 

Now, I'm curious if you think that beyond or in addition to that consideration, does the best travel credit card for lounge access change if you're primarily a solo traveler versus traveling with a family? Is there anything else to take into consideration? 

Traci: I think that's kind of the biggest factor. Like if I had a Capital One lounge and I had a Centurion lounge to pick from in my home airport, those lucky people like in Las Vegas or Dallas, you guys are so lucky. I never thought I'd say I was lucky to live in Dallas as a former Houstonian but here I go. Then there's no reason, in my opinion, why you would want to pick the Centurion lounge and the Amex option because you're going to be paying so much more to get everyone in. 

Other than that, like if you're just looking at straight up like Priority Pass access and you're not looking at the bank specific lounges themselves, I don't think there's a whole lot of difference between any of the cards unless there's something that I'm like completely overlooking. But just in terms of what's on my radar as someone who I do some solo travel, I do some travel just with my husband. Then we also travel with our kids a lot. So I sort of looked at it from all of those different perspectives for me personally, and I don't see that big of a difference. 

Devon: Now, one of the things that you just kind of alluded to that brings up a question for me is I feel like when it comes to lounge access, specifically using credit cards, in some ways, it's sort of feast or famine. Because there are some of these airports, like you mentioned, Las Vegas, Dallas. I think Denver is another example, Washington, D.C., that actually have a plethora of choices where if you hold one or several specific premium travel credit cards, you are going to actually have multiple choices of lots of great lounges to pick from. 

Then on the other side of the spectrum, we have other airports that for some reason, inexplicably, essentially no lounge access whatsoever. Yes, I don't think I'm ever going to be able to solve the riddle. So please tell me if you understand why an airport as large and heavily traveled as O'Hare has horrible lounge options. 

Of course, I rant about O'Hare because it happens to be my home airport. I literally don't understand why we have no good lounge options whatsoever with some of these major credit cards that we've been talking about. But there are a lot of airports that don't have a chase or a Capital One or an Amex Centurion lounge, or maybe even a Priority Pass lounge. 

So while that's true of O'Hare, it's also true of a lot of other airports around the country speaking domestically as well. So for folks whose home airport happens to be a lounge desert, despite it being the second most populated trafficked airport in the entire country and we just don't have any great lounges available to access using a credit card. What are some of the other options that we should consider or that might be available to us? 

Traci: Well, I feel really, really bad for everyone who has O'Hare as their home airport just because I think there technically is like one Priority Pass lounge, right? But it's like the Swissport lounge and it's –

Devon: We’ll get to that. We'll get to that.

Traci: It's like the furniture is falling apart. Like it seems like kind of a nightmare as far as lounges go. So I feel for you on that. Like we flew out of Austin recently, and Austin's not in great shape lounge wise either, which is surprising considering how much growth they've had. Like Tampa doesn't have any good lounge. Like there's a lot of places that don't have any good lounges. So for those people, I would say, where do you end up flying to? Where do you end up connecting? 

Because sometimes you don't have a good lounge because you come from a smaller airport. If you have a smaller airport, chances are you tend to connect frequently at Atlanta or DFW or IAH or LAX or something like that. So if you do, I would look to there to see okay, when I'm on my connections, I can't go to a lounge before I take off on my first flight. But once I'm connecting, is there a good option there in that airport? So that might help narrow down which card is good. 

Then also if you live in one of those places like Salt Lake City, for example, where they don't have any good lounge access, but let's say you fly Delta loyally, and you frequently could use the Delta Sky Lounge or Sky Club. It might make sense to get the Delta card that gets you the lounge access. 

Now Delta has had the same kind of crowding problem recently as Amex with their Centurion lounges. So they have been restricting people's admission into the lounges, even for their elites, that's like limited numbers per year. It depends on your status sometimes. 

But if you're flying Delta or a SkyTeam carrier, that might be a good option for you personally. I wouldn't advise getting an airline lounge branded card in general for most people because usually having the more universal lounge access is going to be way more helpful and way more bang for your buck. Kind of the same way we advise people in general to just earn transferable points rather than bring co-branded points, right? It's the same concept. You have less flexibility when you're tied to one airline and one lounge. 

So if I were in Salt Lake City and I did fly Delta a lot, I'd probably get that card just because it would be my best option. But yeah, in general, you want to kind of do the more general option. 

Devon: Yeah, I agree with you 100%. Like I said, I'm probably in a very, very strange position of holding a lot of high annual fee cards that have amazing lounge access that I have never, ever, ever been able to utilize because I just haven't yet transited through those airports. I think that this is a good, when we're talking about like a diagnostic algorithm, right? Like this is a good tier to land on once you've worked through a lot of the other aspects of the decision-making, which is that if you don't have any of these major credit card based lounges at your home airport, or again, an airport that you tend to transit very frequently. 

If you're not really going to benefit from a priority pass membership that comes along with any one of those premium travel credit cards, then I do think it can make sense to consider getting a co-branded airline credit card that comes along with lounge access, like you mentioned. 

One of the things that I think is important to take into consideration, and I kind of went through this whole entire decision-making process myself because I do travel a lot. I do travel a lot out of O'Hare. I don't really have great lounge access options with a lot of my credit cards, but there are a lot of United specific lounges and American specific lounges, at least in the main domestic terminals. We get, I don't know, maybe one and a half Delta flights a day. So there is apparently an amazing Delta lounge that's sequestered off in the international terminal. So Delta flyers at least get to benefit from that. 

But if you're flying predominantly domestically or United or American with high frequency in and out of O'Hare then I think the best option for lounge access can be getting one of these co-branded airline credit cards. So if you're in a similar position where your local airport or the airport that you transit a lot doesn't have otherwise great options. So you're thinking maybe it's worth it to get an airline specific credit card that automatically comes with lounge access. 

I think one of the things that's important to consider and weigh in your decision-making is that these all tend to be pretty high annual fee credit cards. Whatever airline it is that you're looking at, these are going to be the credit cards that have an annual fee of usually around $500 a year or higher. So I certainly would not advocate for one of these cards if you're a casual traveler. If you're taking one or two trips a year, I don't think that that's going to justify, the value that you're going to get out of that lounge access is probably not going to justify the fee you're going to pay. 

When especially one option, Traci, like you mentioned earlier in the conversation is that a lot of airline specific lounges, at least do offer day passes. So even if you're just traveling once or twice a year, it may actually be economical and worthwhile for you to just invest in a day pass to have access to a lounge day of travel. 

But if you do decide that you want to go with one of these airline specific co-branded credit cards for lounge access, I think one of the benefits of that is not only is your lounge access unlimited. Anytime you're flying that airline, you can go and use that lounge in any airport. It's also nice that it doesn't matter what class of service you're flying. So even if you're predominantly going to be flying  economy, that doesn't exclude you from accessing the lounge when you do hold an airline specific credit card. 

The other thing that I personally found really beneficial that is maybe going to be dependent based on, again, where you're traveling and the airports that you're accessing is that I, at least, have never experienced being turned away from a United or an American lounge at O'Hare because of capacity controls. 

Whereas I've seen other people who have sometimes a benefit of a lower annual fee airline credit card will be, I'm thinking of the United Explorer credit card that comes with, I think two annual, or excuse me, two day passes to a United lounge that you can use. They often are the first people to be told the lounges at capacity, even if they have a valid day pass that they could theoretically use. They're told well, you can't use it here. You can't use it today because this lounge is already at capacity. 

In my experience, I haven't had the same thing happen to me as a co-branded credit card holder of one of the lounge access credit cards. So I think that that's something that can be beneficial for those. So there is some hope for you out there. If for whatever reason, you don't have a Chase lounge, a Capital One lounge, or an Amex lounge at your home airport, you can always do the analysis to see if an airline specific credit card may be beneficial for you. Traci, do you think that there's anything important that I left out that you think would be good to mention or think about when it comes specifically to these airline co-branded credit cards? 

Traci: Okay. About the co-branded credit cards. I think that's a good point that you touched on about you being more likely to be let in if it's crowded if you have the fancier card that costs me. I personally have been turned away from United clubs. When I had my United Mileage Plus Explorer you get two passes a year or whatever. That's kind of a bummer. Because you're like well, why did I get this card? So that is really important to think about. 

Also if you're ever considering getting a day pass and paying for one or something like that, I would caution to do some research before you make that decision because – So here's an example from my family and I just got back from a round the world trip. We were in the Singapore airport, and the family in front of us wanting to check into a Priority Pass lounge. I think they were from New Zealand. They were asking about buying a day pass, and they were told well, we're at capacity. We can't let you do that. They walked away. 

Then once we got in the lounge with our Priority Pass membership, the food was so bad we walked right out. Like I was literally like no, immediately. No, no, we're gone. So if they had paid money for four people to go into that lounge, I would have felt really bad for them. Like do your lounge research first because if there's a good lounge, that can be a good option. If the lounge is mediocre and you're going to be disappointed and feel like you wasted money don't do that. Just like go to an airport restaurant is what I would say.

Because lounges can vary a lot in quality. Sometimes you go and there's like suspicious soup on a buffet and there's cheese and crackers and there's like really icky looking stuff. Then other times you go and a generic Priority Pass lounge, like in Istanbul in the airport, it's a dream. Like they have a billiards table and a massage chair and showers and the food is amazing. You can get multiple cocktails and they have ice cream or like whatever. The experience can vary wildly among Priority Pass lounges.

So do your research about where you're going, what the lounge options are, see which terminals they're in. I think that's also something to think about too, because sometimes trying to get from one lounge, like if you're flying one airline and you're out of terminal two and then the lounge you're thinking about is at terminal five, like that could involve an hour of transit time or going in and out of security again. 

So that's also something to think about just in terms of logistics. Like there have been lots of times when we've been having a layover somewhere, I've had a lounge in mind. Then when I finally realized oh, that's not in our terminal. No, we're not doing that. So we just skip it because it's not practical. So that's another big thing to think about. 

Devon: Yeah. So before we wrap up today, I want to play a little bit of a game. You just mentioned that lounges can vary a lot in quality. So let's play a quick game of best and worst. I'm really curious to hear, in your opinion, what have been your best and, well, let's just start with best. What have been your best domestic and international lounge experiences that if other people happen to be traveling and can take advantage of you would highly recommend.

Traci: Okay. My personal favorites so far, the ones that are near and dear to my heart are the SeaTac Centurion lounge because the coffee and also the coffee and the cocktails are good, but also sometimes they even have ice cream. Like they're making ice cream there in the little machine at the gate. I think that's amazing.

I really love the Capital One lounge that I went in. My goal is to hit all of them, but so far I've only gone to Dallas. I really want to try the Sapphire lounges. Then I really love the United Polaris lounges. If you do book an award flight in business class and you have a Polaris lounge, you get a la carte dining. They have a cookie skillet that everyone loves. Like you have basically a nice restaurant meal. They have all kinds of amenities, and it can feel pretty nice. They can get crowded depending on what time of day and if a bunch of flights overseas are leaving, but those are all pretty nice. 

I haven't been to probably nearly the number of lounges a lot of people have been. So I can't give like a whole overview, but out of the ones I've been to, those are the ones I like the best domestically. Then this is a funny story, but my probably most aspirational lounge experience abroad was the British Airways Concord Room. But I was so new to miles and points at the time that I did not appreciate how wild that was. But like my kids were sitting there in the Concord Room sipping on drinks, and they were four. 

I was just kind of blown away by like all the amenities they had. They had spa treatments and all this stuff. I didn't really get how cool it was and how unusual it was to be in there. But that was a pretty great lounge experience. 

Devon: Yeah. So your story reminds me of a story too because the very first lounge that I was ever in as a traveler happened to be a similar story that I mean, I knew it was amazing, but I had no context. I had nothing to compare it to. This was when I had booked my very first award booking was flying Lufthansa First Class from Chicago to Paris through Frankfurt. 

For those of you who don't know yet, when you fly first class on Lufthansa, especially if you are transiting in Frankfurt, not only do they have your traditional business, even first class lounges inside of the airport, but they also have a first class terminal, which is an entirely different building that you can access to. 

There's a lot of regulations about which tickets qualify for access, but it's an entirely separate building that you can access. It has a full service sit down restaurant. I mean, talk about shower and bath amenities. Just the service is ridiculously sensational. So my very, very first, quote unquote, lounge experience was actually the Lufthansa first class terminal in Frankfurt, which is wild.

Traci: How do you come down from that?

Devon: Right. Then let's just juxtapose that. Let's compare that to my home airport of O'Hare, which is just the most deplorable, if you haven't heard by now, the most deplorable in terms of just domestic lounge access. But in terms of great lounges, I agree with you that the Polaris lounge is phenomenal. That actually is a lounge that we do have at O'Hare. 

Again, it's not just generally admissible in terms of, you know, flying any United flight. You do have to be flying very specific flights or long distance Star Alliance carriers. But if you do have access to the Polaris lounge, those are amazing and beautiful. 

Then my other sort of shout out in terms of international lounges that I think are phenomenal is the Turkish business class lounge at Istanbul. I don't know if it's actually the largest business class lounge in the world. It's got to be one of them. I mean, this thing is essentially an airport in and of itself, but they have just incredible food. Again, they have prayer rooms, which is really, really lovely. They have family rooms. They have all of these different.

Traci: Golf simulator. 

Devon: Yeah, a golf simulator. I mean, yeah, we're not talking your average, you know, tiny little closet with a couple of coloring books in terms of having access to things. It's so wide open. You can overlook the terminal from there. So I love the Turkish business class lounge at Istanbul, but now let's take it in the other direction and talk about worst lounges. Who do you nominate as lounges? 

I love that you made this point before that like there are some lounges that are so bad that you are just better off, honestly, avoiding them altogether and just finding a different place to hang out in the airport. So what tops your list of worst lounges that we should all avoid? 

Traci: I mean, this might not be very fair, but the last time I flew out of BWI, there's The Club at BWI, which is, you know, I'm going to say ‘the’ twice. But the The Clubs, it's like a network, and they just have The Club at BWI or The Club at SEA or whatever your airport thing is. Anyway, it's super small. The food was not great, and it was so crowded. I was just like I can't wait to get out of here. I'm out. There was a wait to get into it. I was like why? Why would anyone wait to get into this place? I had to check it out just to see what it was like, but it was just kind of bad. 

Then that Singapore lounge that we bounced from recently, probably tops the list because I literally didn't even want to put anything in my mouth. I was just like this is not great. So those would probably be the ones at the forefront of my mind. 

Devon: I think the reason those are at the forefront of your mind is because you've never actually been to the lounge that I'm going to mention now, which you alluded to earlier in this conversation.

Traci: I've heard about it.

Devon: I'm telling you I almost feel like this is an intentional joke. I expect there to be cameras. Like this is just a rolling episode of Punk'd because this lounge is just that bad, which is I mentioned that we have no great credit card lounges at Chicago O'Hare international airport. The one, if you want to call it, an exception is that there is a single priority pass network lounge that's located in terminal five, which is the international terminal at O'Hare. It also is now where Delta and then like one Southwest flight a day come in and out of, but this is the Swissport lounge. 

Not Swiss Airlines, please don't mistake it for that. But the Swissport lounge in terminal five at O'Hare, I do not understand how a lounge could be this bad. Like, I don't think you could intentionally make a lounge worse than this one is. I mean, most of the time people get turned away for capacity control, which is actually a huge favor to them because there's really only like 10 maybe seats inside. 

But this lounge, it has no windows. It feels like a cave. The furniture is literally falling apart, and the food options are these packaged graham crackers that are the same exact things that I have flashbacks of from medical school where on the labor and delivery floor, anyone who's ever been in a hospital before will recognize this. 

On the labor and delivery floor, there's usually a little kitchen for food that patients can have, right, if they are able to eat. It's always these little packaged graham crackers where it comes like two graham crackers in a package or two saltines in a package, which is essentially what every med student and resident who's doing their OBGYN rotation lives off of. This is what it reminds me of. The Swissport lounge is more depressing than a hospital basement call room. I mean like literally just don't go there. I don't understand the situation there. 

So for any of you who are transiting through O'Hare, I sincerely apologize. We have not an amazing lounge situation, but thanks to Traci, hopefully now you have a really, really great idea about what some of your better lounge options are going to be and how to access them using specific credit cards. 

Now for those of you who do want to see your very own lounge decision tree handout that Traci made, we're going to go ahead and make that available for you in the episode show notes and in the episode description. Traci, thank you so much for joining us again on the podcast, for sharing all of your knowledge, your wisdom, and your extensive analysis about airport lounges. It was such a pleasure to have you here today and I really appreciate your time. 

Traci: I always enjoy talking to you. So I'll come back anytime and I love talking about lounges. So I think it would be great if we lived in a world where the airport experience was good enough on its own that we didn't need lounges. That's a different problem. But if it is the way it is, it'd be good to have a place to go to get good food. So.

Devon: I agree with you. Thank you so much for being here and have a great week everybody. We'll see you again. Same time, same place. 

Thank you for joining me for this week's episode of Point Me to First Class. If you want more tips on turning your expenses into travel, visit pointmetofirstclass.com to learn more. See you next week.