As someone who travels quite frequently, I used to dread going to the airport. I was the person who would show up as late as possible without missing flight (although one time I did). Arriving to the airport frazzled and worried I might miss my flight would make the travel experience not the best. Things changed when I discovered lounges. My first experience with a lounge was about a year ago when I had a 9 hour layover in Atlanta. I didn't want to sit in the airport at the gates for those 9 hours, so I figured I'd suck it up and pay to enter a Delta Sky Club Lounge. Overall it was a pleasant experience, but the promised area to nap was not as good as I was hoping. That being said, it made the layover more bearable. Including the free food and drinks, the expense for a day pass was not that bad. I don't recall how I first heard about PriorityPass, but I began seriously researching it when I began to travel a couple times a month. Often times, higher end credit cards include PriorityPass with the annual fee. Unfortunately, those weren't an option for me so I would actually have to pay for a membership. There are a few different options. One that gives you access to enter lounges for a small fee for every time you use it. This option is good for those who only would use it 2-4 times a year. The second option gives you a fixed number of visits. I believe it is currently 10 visits. You have to do the math on how much it costs, how likely you are to use them all, and then how much you would save. The last option and the one I opted for is unlimited usage. Basically, if you use it more than 12 times, it pays for itself. As you can see from the picture above, I have already visited 14 different lounges since April of this year. Some of these are 2 lounge visits in one day because you can visit multiple lounges in some airports and also visit a lounge in first airport and layover airport. PriorityPass has agreements with over 1200 lounges worldwide that you have access to with a membership. If you travel frequently, I would definitely suggest checking it out. Look into the airports you most frequent and see if there are options available in those airports because that will determine how often you can use. For instance, I fly out of and into Fort Lauderdale often and they don't have any options. Also, I've been in and out of New Orleans twice this year and there are no lounges there. Certain airports also don't have a lounge in the terminal you may be flying out of so check that out as well. I ran into this issue in Cancun when the lounge wasn't yet open in the new terminal and the other lounge was in a terminal they wouldn't let you enter if you weren't flying out of. Overall, I have had pretty great experiences with using my PriorityPass card in the airports I've flown in and out of. Depending on how much I plan on flying in the future, I may decide to downgrade to the lower plan.
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You Only Live OnceAt the risk of sounding like a lame millennial trying to be cool, I want to talk about "YOLO" as it relates to travel. Basically, you only live once... so travel the way you want and don't judge others who choose to travel differently.
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ScottI love to travel the world and see new places. Read about my latest adventures and exploits. Archives
August 2018
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