How To Register A Guest With Priority Pass

Using The Priority Pass "Friendly Traveler" Loophole at Restaurants

Priority Pass is a pop airdrome lounge access program and for good reason. Yous can buy a membership or become the benefits of one (for free) with one of several premium credit cards (east.g., Chase Sapphire Reserve, American Express Platinum, Citi Prestige, US Bank Altitude Reserve, etc.).

Not All Priority Pass Lounges Are Created Equal

I have Priority Pass memberships through the Hunt Sapphire Reserve and American Express Platinum. Priority Laissez passer lounges provide a nice identify to hang out on layovers to enjoy buffet food and an open up bar—for gratuitous.

Typically, all you take to exercise is hand the lounge attendant that sweet, shiny, plastic, number-embossed membership card—and your meal, caffeine, alcohol, and to-go snacks are free.

*cue Marvin Gaye – Sexual Healing*

The Priority Pass network likewise includes restaurants where membership gives you ~$28-30 credit per visit per guest (i.e., you and a guest receive $56-60 in restaurant credit by presenting your membership menu). It'south one of the height reasons why I recommended the Chase Sapphire Reserve to my Aunty (to no avail)…

This is Why We Tin can't Have Prissy Things: Existing Restrictions

I was ecstatic when Timberline Steaks & Grille joined the Priority Pass network as it was the first and is still Denver's only Priority Pass "lounge." I've been to Timberline at least fifteen times in the past two years and they are starting to scissure down on every loophole we take exposed.

No More To-Go Orders or Takeaway Macarons . I've never been asked to present a boarding pass earlier. I've been in a line of xx people arriving in Denver just to become takeaway Macarons. I knew this wasn't gonna concluding.
No More Plus 2+'s.Timberline now limits the $28 do good to y'all and i other guest for a total $56 max credit per visit. I'm not sure if this is how it's ever been but on several occasions, I've used my access for multiple friends.
No More Stacking Priority Pass Memberships.Timberline now limits "1 card per visit per Cardholder." I get it. I'm sad about it. Simply, I get it. I recall stacking both my memberships for me and two guests for a $168 credit. Information technology didn't experience right. Remember, tip your servers generously.
No More Amex Priority Pass Access.American Limited Priority Laissez passer memberships volition no longer include restaurants constructive August one, 2019.It's okay though.The Denver Centurion Lounge is slated to open up after this year and I couldn't be more excited.
No More "Quasi-Guests" and the "Point of Registration" Provision.I unfortunately learned the definition final week. I'll discuss further.

Live and Acquire, I Guess: Enforcement of the "Point of Registration" Guest Provision

My flight to Los Angeles was delayed by four hours last calendar week so I ~~found~~ stalked and fought for a spot at the open-seating bar at Timberline Steaks & Grille. The Timberline policy clearly states:

I get to the bar and tell my stellar bartender that (I'll call him Keanu) I'm using my Priority Pass. He didn't take my card or "register me." I gild a dirty martini. Keanu responds, "How dirty? Miley Cyrus or Madonna circa 1986?" I'll never forget that. Remember, tip your servers generously .

I meet some young man solo travelers who were also delayed and we start drinking. We enquire Keanu if nosotros can purchase each other drinks by using the guest credit. Since none of the states had been "registered" yet, he didn't see why not. $56 of food and drinks later—one of the travelers asks the other bartender (we'll phone call him Stone Cold Steve Austin) to close her tab. She informed him that I needed to be registered as her guest.

He saw my Priority Pass on the counter and said, "Y'all can't exercise that. Yous guys aren't together and he is using his Priority Pass." I told him that the v of u.s.a. were registering each other as guests to maximize our Priority Pass. He became livid and raised his voice."You lot tin't practise that. Nosotros annals you and a guest at the beginning and y'all aren't registered as guests."

I shouldn't take spoken again simply—two Madonna dirty martinis in…

"We were told past Keanu that this was okay. We specifically asked him beforehand to avert this situation. You're registering her right at present. Tin y'all just add a guest?"

"You'll all have to get out if that'southward what you're trying to practise." It was extremely uncomfortable.

Keanu came dorsum and honored his word with all of us. Nosotros tipped him generously.

Takeaway: The Demise of the Friendly Traveler Loophole

Almost every Priority Pass lounge requires that y'all present your membership card for registration of you and your guests prior to entering. So, what does "point of registration" mean when dealing with restaurants? It depends on your luck.

I've bought and received drinks for/from ~~strangers~~ new friends at Timberline on at to the lowest degree v occasions through the Priority Laissez passer. Clearly, the merely reason this is an issue is because some servers are registering restaurant patrons before they order and some are registering patrons when they shut their tab. It seems to me that Timberline is stilling working out bugs in their policies and procedures and that the "friendly traveler" Priority Pass loophole will presently come up to an end completely.

Either way, loopholes are (kinda) like a box of chocolates: "you lot never know what you're gonna get." There are some that exist out there for folks like us ~~to take reward of~~ to maximize our benefits. Others get shut down right away. And then, there's always the chemical element of gamble.

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