One of the nice perks of having a premium travel credit card is getting lounge access at many airports around the world. That is….it’s nice until it gets taken away from you.
Over the past few months, more and more travelers have been turned away at multiple Alaska Airlines lounges due to “capacity constraints”. This has caused more than a little consternation to travelers. It feels like you are being robbed of a benefit you already paid for as part of the annual fee for your card. However, it is completely at the lounges discretion to turn away Priority Pass holders.
So far there had been no official policy to the Alaska Boardroom closures, except that they were becoming more frequent, especially at Portland and Seattle. It is likely that the flood of new Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders is part of the cause of the increased Alaska lounge traffic.
No more guests at 4 Alaska Lounges
I headed to the Priority Pass website to see if I could find any more info on any coming policy changes. Sure enough, three of the Alaska Boardroom lounges has a note saying:
“Effective 01MAY, due to capacity constraints, the lounge cannot accommodate accompanying guests at this time. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”
The lounges affected are the boardrooms at Portland, Los Angeles, and Seattle (both). The Portland lounge hurts the most, as it is the only Priority Pass lounge at the airport. In Seattle there are two other non-Alaska options.
I am assuming the third Seattle lounge will be under the same constraint when it is completed (if it even joins the program). The Anchorage lounge appears unaffected.
Will Alaska cut ties with Priority Pass completely?
There is some speculation that this could be in the works, but there aren’t any details as of yet. Back in March View from the Wing speculated that this was a possibility for the Alaska lounges as a means of combatting overcrowding issues. One Mile at a Time has a rundown on their communication with Priority Pass, and nothing indicates a severance of the relationship.
Ultimately, we’ll have to see how this plays out. It is unfortunate that most Alaska lounges are now limiting Priority Pass members, but at least there is an official policy that travelers can (hopefully) anticipate. It’ll be frustrating if many of the lounges still decide to turn away Priority Pass members entirely.
Featured image courtesy of Traveling Otter under CC 2.0 license.
This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as thepointsguy.com. This may impact how and where links appear on this site. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them
User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
One point that needs to be made is AS lack of foresight in keeping their lounges updated including their sizes. Membership has continued to grow yet their reaction has been slow to none. Example, SAN where AS has been on a roll in expansion yet they refuse to reopen the old UA clubroom there. If one goes through SAN that terminal is packed and will be more so when Virgin moves over.
PDX which I think is their best run and managed lounge in the system has been over looked for a long time. They tried a refresh but —–
I am a high mileage FF with AS and after 15 years I dropped my Boardroom. But since my travel is up front I still get in.
The Priority Pass memberships for Amex Plats and Chase Sapphire Reserves and some other bank card holders meant a lot of people who would buy Alaska or other airline lounge memberships could skip out on buying the memberships from the airlines.
The airlines with paid lounge membership programs don’t want to see substantial airline lounge membership revenue decline due to substitution out of the airline lounge programs and into the bank card-provided Priority Pass lounge fees. Limiting/cutting ties with Priority Pass works for the airlines when the airlines don’t really need the Priority Pass business for a particular lounge and also don’t want to see their paid lounge membership revenue cannibalized by members substituting away from airline lounge membership and into competitor programs.
I’ve been turned away the last two times I went to an Alaska lounge, but I noticed earlier this week that one of the other non-Alaska lounges has extended it hours. It used to close at 5 pm I think. Maybe the other one extended as well.
Well I’ll just walk pass the Alaska lounge next time I’m traveling with a companion. I’m sure they’re not going to miss the revenue that they get for the list visits due to all the PP policy changes lately. They should be forced by PP to drop PP if they exclude PP people more than often than they allow them in.
PP just has so many holes at major airports in the US. Flying around the West, 90% of my trips involve a connection in DEN, SLC, PDX, or SFO. DEN and SLC have no PP lounge and the single lounge at PDX and SFO are functionally inaccessable.
PP is great in Europe but bordering on a scam in the US.
It’s not just guests. The sign posted right now at this minute is all priority pass and lounge buddy passes at SeaTac near D.
your a bit off in your head line. Those AS lounges will allow PP when occupancy levels allow. Suggest you research more before you go for the headline