Priority Pass and AMEX Platinum

[Bell21]

I'm relatively new to the AMEX Platinum card and I'm trying to work-out the specifics of how PP access might work for a large family (3 adults and 3 teenagers). We have 2 PP memberships (1 for basic and 1 for supp card holder) and we can therefore each bring in 1 complimentary guest each as well, which covers 4 of us for lounge access (room permitting). Particular questions:

1) When you use PP at one of the relevant Syd/Melb restaurants, I understand you can receive up to $72 off the total bill per card ($36 for the card holder and $36 for the guest), which is $144 in total for us, but does the restaurant swipe the card based on the total number of guests (ie, 6), or just the number of times you request? (ideally 4 swipes in our case, 2 swipes per PP membership card)

2) At a PP lounge, if 2 of the 6 are travelling business class, which gives 2 of us lounge access plus 1 free guest each travelling on the same flight (4 in total), can we double-up and also use the PP cards to give the 5th and 6th members of our party access? (ie 2 swipes in effect per card, granting extra guest access per card) - I'm fine to pay for the extra 2 if needed, but I wasn't sure if a lounge would permit this based on the 'double-up' use?

3) At a PP lounge, if we have Platinum Reserve, which gives us 2 complimentary guest passes per year, can we use that to get our 5th and 6th guests into the lounge, in addition to the, in effect, 4 complimentary passes we have with the Platinum card? (I suspect the technically 'correct answer' is no and I'm fine to pay for the extra 2 guests if needed)

4) At Virgin Lounge, will they let each of basic and supp card holder access the lounge with 1 complimentary guest each, plus a 12 year old - ie, 5 in total? (I understand Virgin allows 2-12 year old in free. Also understand that formally only the basic card holder gets access)

Thanks so much!

 

[Mr_Orange]

2) At a PP lounge, if 2 of the 6 are travelling business class, which gives 2 of us lounge access plus 1 free guest each travelling on the same flight (4 in total), can we double-up and also use the PP cards to give the 5th and 6th members of our party access? (ie 2 swipes in effect per card, granting extra guest access per card) - I'm fine to pay for the extra 2 if needed, but I wasn't sure if a lounge would permit this based on the 'double-up' use?

As I understand it, travelling business class makes no difference to PP. To invoke your J class lounge access you would need to front up to your carrier's lounge or another lounge in the same alliance. The chances are you would be allowed one guest each which gets you to 4 pax still leaving 2 pax out in the cold.

 

[hossein_au]

1) When you use PP at one of the relevant Syd/Melb restaurants, I understand you can receive up to $72 off the total bill per card ($36 for the card holder and $36 for the guest), which is $144 in total for us, but does the restaurant swipe the card based on the total number of guests (ie, 6), or just the number of times you request? (ideally 4 swipes in our case, 2 swipes per PP membership card)

I believe you tell them you want to order to 4 people, and they swipe the cards for as many people (2 persons per card). You then get up to $144 credit that you can use to order whatever you want... who is to say 4 people should not order 6 steaks??

Note that this is up to $144 credit. You won't get any money back if you order less, and you need to pay the difference if you order more.

2) At a PP lounge, if 2 of the 6 are travelling business class, which gives 2 of us lounge access plus 1 free guest each travelling on the same flight (4 in total), can we double-up and also use the PP cards to give the 5th and 6th members of our party access? (ie 2 swipes in effect per card, granting extra guest access per card) - I'm fine to pay for the extra 2 if needed, but I wasn't sure if a lounge would permit this based on the 'double-up' use?

I have not come across any airline lounge that is also a PP lounge (well, not widely here anyway; there are quite a few Skyteam lounges that are also PP lounges). Under the scenario you described, you can get 4 people into a PP lounge (2 cards, 2 people per card) and 4 people into the airline lounge (2 people traveling in business, plus a guest each I guess).

3) At a PP lounge, if we have Platinum Reserve, which gives us 2 complimentary guest passes per year, can we use that to get our 5th and 6th guests into the lounge, in addition to the, in effect, 4 complimentary passes we have with the Platinum card? (I suspect the technically 'correct answer' is no and I'm fine to pay for the extra 2 guests if needed)

I think you might be overthinking this. Each complimentary pass you might have as part of any credit card offering gets 1 person into the lounge. This is regardless of whether you have used your 2 platinum cards to get 4 other people in. So, if you have your 2 platinum cards as well as 2 other complementary invitations, you can get 6 people in.

4) At Virgin Lounge, will they let each of basic and supp card holder access the lounge with 1 complimentary guest each, plus a 12 year old - ie, 5 in total? (I understand Virgin allows 2-12 year old in free. Also understand that formally only the basic card holder gets access)

I cannot answer this one; but I am interested in finding out

 

[JFi]

Just answering what I can base on my own experience:
1. They only swipe your card (or scan your barcode in the app) once and they select 1 guest on their terminal. So in your case, they'll probably swipe your cards once each and select 1 guest each time. Make sure they select only 1 guest (maybe they see your big group and select more) otherwise you'll have to pay for the others.

4. My supps got in fine with additional guest. My dad guested mum and my brother guested his wife (they had a 2 year old as well). I am the primary but was not travelling with them.

 

[Bell21]

I believe you tell them you want to order to 4 people, and they swipe the cards for as many people (2 persons per card). You then get up to $144 credit that you can use to order whatever you want... who is to say 4 people should not order 6 steaks??

Note that this is up to $144 credit. You won't get any money back if you order less, and you need to pay the difference if you order more.



I have not come across any airline lounge that is also a PP lounge (well, not widely here anyway; there are quite a few Skyteam lounges that are also PP lounges). Under the scenario you described, you can get 4 people into a PP lounge (2 cards, 2 people per card) and 4 people into the airline lounge (2 people traveling in business, plus a guest each I guess).



I think you might be overthinking this. Each complimentary pass you might have as part of any credit card offering gets 1 person into the lounge. This is regardless of whether you have used your 2 platinum cards to get 4 other people in. So, if you have your 2 platinum cards as well as 2 other complementary invitations, you can get 6 people in.




I cannot answer this one; but I am interested in finding out

Thanks hossein_au for replying to each of my somewhat intricate questions! See below for my replies - will use numbers to refer to original question order

1) Yes, who's to say that 4 people shouldn't order 6 steaks (or maybe it's 8 steaks, based on my ravenous teenagers...)

2) I'm referring to the Fiji Premier Lounge at Nadi airport, which is both PP and airport lounge (for Fiji airways). The aspect I'm curious about is that theoretically, I should be allowed to get 6 into the lounge - 2 business class seats (on points) gives 4 of us access (2 card holders and 2 guests) and 2 PP memberships (via AMEX plat) gives us, in effect, another 2 (2 card holders and 2 guests). I just don't know if the lounge will allow us to double-up - ie, use the provisions of both business class and PP at the same time!

3) Practically, I hope you're correct, although theoretically, I don't think so - for 2 reasons, i) 1 of the 2 complimentary passes on the Reserve card needs to be use by the card holder (meaning at most, I should only be able to get 5 into the lounge - 4 from Plat and 1 guest for Reserve) and ii) I thought I read somewhere that PP won't allow 2 memberships in same name to be used at the same time in the same lounge (ie, access rights from an AMEX plat and AMEX plat reserve simultaneously) - hopefully, they just 'do 2 swipes' per card and then 6 will enter!

Thanks again

 

[Bell21]

Just answering what I can base on my own experience:
1. They only swipe your card (or scan your barcode in the app) once and they select 1 guest on their terminal. So in your case, they'll probably swipe your cards once each and select 1 guest each time. Make sure they select only 1 guest (maybe they see your big group and select more) otherwise you'll have to pay for the others.

4. My supps got in fine with additional guest. My dad guested mum and my brother guested his wife (they had a 2 year old as well). I am the primary but was not travelling with them.

Thanks JFi - I was thinking that per 1), I'll definitely have to be mindful of the 'number of swipes' for our party.

Re 4. Thanks - that's very interesting, especially as you weren't travelling with them.

 

[JohnK]

One of the benefits of a Platinum Rewards card is enrolling for Priority Pass and receiving 2 complimentary lounge visits per year. There's no mention of joining fee so assuming you get 2 complimentary lounge visits.

Has anyone enrolled?

 

[hossein_au]

One of the benefits of a Platinum Rewards card is enrolling for Priority Pass and receiving 2 complimentary lounge visits per year. There's no mention of joining fee so assuming you get 2 complimentary lounge visits.

Has anyone enrolled?

I don't have the exact card you are enquiring about, but any card I have ever had that comes with complimentary Priority Passes do so without requiring payment of any joining fee. And this is certainly true for the set of three cards I currently hold: AmEx Charge (unlimited PP visits), Citi Sig (free for life)(2x PP visits per year) and St George Visa Amplify (2x PP visits per year).

 

[Bell21]

Thanks for your input - I thought that I'd report back on our recent overseas trip that generated my original questions re lounge access (SYD-NADI-HNL-NADI-MEL-SYD). 6 of us travelling - 3 adults, and 3 teenagers (12-17), so lounge access tends to present challenges with so many of us. Overall, the plat card's lounge access benefits worked very well, albeit we probably received some good fortune on occasion.

SYD AMEX lounge - as mentioned in another thread, things were complicated - we all got in, based on primary card holder + 2 guests + kids up to 17 years, although the front-staff debated whether it was <17 or 17 and under for the 3rd teenager. I also noticed in the other thread that SYD lounge actually states that access is 2 guests OR spouse & kids 2-17 (there's also ambiguity re whether supps count as part of the 2 guests - I will follow-up). It appears we were lucky to get everyone in.

NADI Premier Lounge - firstly, what a fabulous lounge (much better than SYD or MEL QANTAS business lounge IMO). Each of our PP memberships from Plat were swiped twice, as well as 2 swipes for the PP mem'ship from the Plat reserve. It appears, as expected, that 5 guests got in for free, but we were charged for 1 guest from the Plat reserve. My belief is that we were charged for the 1 guest for the latter, even though it provides 2 complimentary visits per year, because PP's system picked up that 1 person used 2 PP mem'ships in the same lounge simlutaneously.

NADI premier lounge (on return - no HNL lounges were open on the return leg) - 2 of us were travelling bus class, which gave those 2 access, and the other 4 got access via the PP mem'ships (card holder + guest for 2 swipes each card; I believe no charge)

MEL VA lounge (domestic) - only 5 travelling this leg (2 adults, and the 3 teenagers) - plat cards got 2 card holders + 2 guests into lounge, as well as 12 year old into lounge, although the front-desk rep explained that the '12 and under free kids' rule only applies to Virgin members, and not to Plat card holders (who get 1 guest max) - however, they kindly didn't enforce the rule on this occasion.

 

[JFi]

NADI Premier Lounge - firstly, what a fabulous lounge (much better than SYD or MEL QANTAS business lounge IMO). Each of our PP memberships from Plat were swiped twice, as well as 2 swipes for the PP mem'ship from the Plat reserve. It appears, as expected, that 5 guests got in for free, but we were charged for 1 guest from the Plat reserve. My belief is that we were charged for the 1 guest for the latter, even though it provides 2 complimentary visits per year, because PP's system picked up that 1 person used 2 PP mem'ships in the same lounge simlutaneously.

Thanks for reporting back. Wasn't aware that the Platinum Reserve also gave PP membership for 2 visits per year. Can you tell where did you apply for that?

 

[woodborer]

Thanks for reporting back. Wasn't aware that the Platinum Reserve also gave PP membership for 2 visits per year. Can you tell where did you apply for that?

There's a form you need to fill out and send to Amex.

 

[Bell21]

Thanks for reporting back. Wasn't aware that the Platinum Reserve also gave PP membership for 2 visits per year. Can you tell where did you apply for that?

As per woodborer's comment, I think you can google for the form from memory - somewhere on AMEX Oz's site - you get a separate PP card and membership for the Plat reserve card, but in the same name as the PP card via the Plat card

 

[JFi]

Thanks guys!
Googled, found the form and submitted. Having 2 invites a year from the Citi Signature, I always wondered if it was possible to use both for me and a guest then I got the Charge and didn't need to think about it.
Bell21's experience suggests it's not so having another membership should mean when traveling in a big group like in this case, I could possibly get 4 people in for free if the lounge staff will allow it (2 from Charge, 1 from Reserve, 1 from Citi Sig).

 

[daft009]

so I've just started to look at this, PP access via the reserve card. is it really only open to the master card holder? no supps?
found this form on the amex site, https://www.americanexpress.com/content/dam/amex/au/content/pdf/prioritypassform.pdf

does the system work similar to the citi & charge cards where you get a PP black card and once you swipe more than twice you get charged, & under 2 is free every year.

 

[Bell21]

That's my understanding of how it works - note when i presented 3 pp cards at the fiji lounge from memory, I was charged for one person - I didn't bother to challenge because technically that is correct! (And $35usd to get 6 people into a lounge like that one is fabulous).

Ie 2 free on Plat pp main card, 2 free on Plat pp sup card and 1 free on Plat reserve pp card --- my assumption was I got charged for 1 person on Plat reserve pp card because their system registered me as entering into a lounge at the same time under two separate memships (and so charged me for one entry)

 

[daft009]

Thanks. So looks like only you as the master could apply for the reserve pp

 

[Bell21]

Yes - only master gets pp reserve

 

[potm]

The limited PP on the reserve only works for the cardholder. Any additional guest will cost money. You cannot use your 2 passes for yourself and a guest.

 

[Bell21]

maybe that's why I got charged for 1 person when I used the PP reserve in combo with my PP plat card (ie, the system didn't recognise I'd entered the same lounge simultaneously using 2 memberships, but charged me for the guest - ie, 2nd person?)

 

[potm]

Yes it was probably put through as 1 plus 1 guest on the reserve PP.
Strictly speaking you would have been entitled to charge PP cardholder plus 1, charge sup PP cardholder plus 1 and reserve card holder for free. Since reserve and charge cardholder are the same, you would have only been entitled to the 2 cardholders and the 2 guests free.