help me pick a credit card for travel and lounge access

[Anonymous]

I fly mostly out of IAD so we have the United card. I'm not looking for anything fancy, just a place to go with my family of 5 in one card and it allows that. The lounges are hit or miss for crowds. Sometimes it's nice and relaxed and sometimes there aren't any seats. When they're crowded, they at least put out a sign saying they aren't accepting day passes.

The annual fee is $700 though, although you can pay with miles after the first year. You also get priority boarding, which was important to me so I don't have to worry about boarding last and there being no overhead space.

[Anonymous]

Venice has one of the nicest priority pass lounges I've ever been to. A barista to make assorted coffee drinks, delicious hot foods including pastas, great breads and baked goods, free alcohol, nice seating area. Nice place to spend a couple of hours since you have to check in so early for international flights.

Worst lounge was Liberia Costa Rica, which is closing soon.

[Anonymous]

Rather than approaching this from a purely transactional perspective, I would think hard about which card aligns most closely with your family’s aspirational values. Every time you take that card out to pay, you are making a statement about your dreams and goals.

[Anonymous]

Any lounge that provides access to credit card holders is overrun these days. Especially Priority Pass - good luck even getting in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rather than approaching this from a purely transactional perspective, I would think hard about which card aligns most closely with your family’s aspirational values. Every time you take that card out to pay, you are making a statement about your dreams and goals.

Didn't realize ChatGPT was posting here now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is lounge access so important to you? Especially just for one trip? Goal is to get to the airport in a timeframe where you won’t be sitting around that long before boarding.

I’d focus on a card that prioritizes other useful benefits and points earnings based on your typical spending habits.

Ha, okay. Not OP but I'd rather be early and futz around than cut it close like that. Clearly you've never been in a nice lounge. They're key, especially on layovers for long international flights. Many of them have showers.

I am on team "get to the gate just before boarding", partially because I think you WAY overstate lounge quality in the US. The vast majority of lounges you will be able to access with cards discussed here, like Priority Pass lounges or say the United Club, aren't usually especially nice, and they certainly won't have showers. The types of lounges you are talking about are business class lounges like the United Polaris lounge, which are only available if you are booked into international business class, or sometimes cross-country flights in business like JFK-LAX.

The CapOne lounge at Dulles, for instance, is pretty nice, and the food is good, with nice coffee. I love the takeaway food option, its great before a long flight to grab a sandwich and salad as part of your membership. But sometimes there might be a 30-40 minute wait, so that destroys the value if you got there say 30 minutes before boarding started and wanted to grab some quick food for 15 minutes. The new CapOne restaurant at DCA looks great, but again may not be all that valuable if you aren't leaving at a meal time.

So it really depends on some specifics OP. But in general the CapOne VentureX is likely to be the best option for you as a DC-based flyer. But be ready to be very disappointed by say The Club lounge at BWI.

[Anonymous]

The Chase Sapphire lounge in IAD is nowhere near United for international flights, I discovered over the holidays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:check to make sure you can bring in that many people with your lounge access.

The priority pass from Ritz Chase includes unlimited guests. Unfortunately, no priority pass lounge in DCA. It has worked out especially well in Europe though.

My Amex platinum gives me centurion lounge access but just for me. Not worth $50/person for rest of family each time we travel.

Immediate family gets in the Centurion lounge for free if you charge more than $75k annually. It’s also not hard to get back the cost of the annual fee if you use their card benefits (Uber, airline fees, etc). The 5x points is a great benefit if you travel a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is lounge access so important to you? Especially just for one trip? Goal is to get to the airport in a timeframe where you won’t be sitting around that long before boarding.

I’d focus on a card that prioritizes other useful benefits and points earnings based on your typical spending habits.

I am jealous that you don’t experience layovers and travel delays.

I’ve never in my life used a lounge before a flight, but they are gold if your connecting flight gets cancelled/delayed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is lounge access so important to you? Especially just for one trip? Goal is to get to the airport in a timeframe where you won’t be sitting around that long before boarding.

I’d focus on a card that prioritizes other useful benefits and points earnings based on your typical spending habits.

I am jealous that you don’t experience layovers and travel delays.

I’ve never in my life used a lounge before a flight, but they are gold if your connecting flight gets cancelled/delayed.

Sometimes yes, but a couple times I have been delayed by weather, and the lounge filled up like crazy as other flights got delayed also and people waited it out. It got so uncomfortably crowded I just left and found a gate area without any flights for the next couple of hours.

I guess my larger point is that personally they have limited value, and paying hundreds of dollars in costs for a few visits/flights wouldn't be worth it to me. I do have lounge access as a perk on cards that I have, and use it sometimes, but its purely ancillary value. For instance, Chase for a long time had a nice additional thing on it's Priority Pass cards that gave you access to restaurants at a number of airports and you could get $50-80 worth of food there. We used that usually 3-4 times a year. Then they killed that perk 6 months ago. So I downgraded the Sapphire Reserve to the Preferred, because the remaining Priority Pass lounges in the US are so weak it wasn't worth it. This, for instance, is what it gets you at O'Hare.

https://onemileatatime.com/insights/swissport-lounge-chicago/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rather than approaching this from a purely transactional perspective, I would think hard about which card aligns most closely with your family’s aspirational values. Every time you take that card out to pay, you are making a statement about your dreams and goals.

Didn't realize ChatGPT was posting here now.

Seriously lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:check to make sure you can bring in that many people with your lounge access.

The priority pass from Ritz Chase includes unlimited guests. Unfortunately, no priority pass lounge in DCA. It has worked out especially well in Europe though.

My Amex platinum gives me centurion lounge access but just for me. Not worth $50/person for rest of family each time we travel.

Immediate family gets in the Centurion lounge for free if you charge more than $75k annually. It’s also not hard to get back the cost of the annual fee if you use their card benefits (Uber, airline fees, etc). The 5x points is a great benefit if you travel a lot.

For many people it would take 6 months to put $75k on the card just to be able to enjoy lounge access.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is lounge access so important to you? Especially just for one trip? Goal is to get to the airport in a timeframe where you won’t be sitting around that long before boarding.

I’d focus on a card that prioritizes other useful benefits and points earnings based on your typical spending habits.

I am jealous that you don’t experience layovers and travel delays.

I’ve never in my life used a lounge before a flight, but they are gold if your connecting flight gets cancelled/delayed.

Sometimes yes, but a couple times I have been delayed by weather, and the lounge filled up like crazy as other flights got delayed also and people waited it out. It got so uncomfortably crowded I just left and found a gate area without any flights for the next couple of hours.

I guess my larger point is that personally they have limited value, and paying hundreds of dollars in costs for a few visits/flights wouldn't be worth it to me. I do have lounge access as a perk on cards that I have, and use it sometimes, but its purely ancillary value. For instance, Chase for a long time had a nice additional thing on it's Priority Pass cards that gave you access to restaurants at a number of airports and you could get $50-80 worth of food there. We used that usually 3-4 times a year. Then they killed that perk 6 months ago. So I downgraded the Sapphire Reserve to the Preferred, because the remaining Priority Pass lounges in the US are so weak it wasn't worth it. This, for instance, is what it gets you at O'Hare.

https://onemileatatime.com/insights/swissport-lounge-chicago/

LOLOL I have been to that lounge. THAT lounge at ORD is far far worse than the one at Liberia Costa Rica. Not even a contest. The Swissport lounge is truly depressing.

[Anonymous]

Priority pass is useless now. I just paid $79 for admirals club at dca and it was lovely. The venture x lounge is smaller but also nice. I would do Amex platinum or the City card for admirals. For IAD you want the United lounges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Priority pass is useless now. I just paid $79 for admirals club at dca and it was lovely. The venture x lounge is smaller but also nice. I would do Amex platinum or the City card for admirals. For IAD you want the United lounges.

Wait you paid $79 for a single visit to the Admirals Club at DCA? There is no way possible way it's worth half that, less if you aren't drinking.