Go Away Alex Travel Design

People think you need to be rich to get into the airport lounges. It’s just not true. The truth is there are several credit cards that can get you access to hundreds of lounges (and you could buy a lounge pass for a reasonable amount of money … or an unreasonable amount of money too.)

But why do that when you could just get a credit card that offers it for free?

Here are a few credit cards I personally love that will offer lounge access as a perk.

CAPITAL ONE VENTURE X

This is currently one of my favorite cards for travel. It may seem a little bougie with its $395 per year annual fee. But listen, this card is basically paying you to travel. Every year you get $300 of travel credit straight back to your account for anything travel related (hotels, flights, even rideshare). You can also apply for global entry and TSA pre check for reimbursement, which is a value of $100. After your first year, every year they give you 10,000 miles as a bonus. That’s equivalent to $100 of travel, at least. Feel like you’ve been paid back yet for that $395? Not even close. If you spend $4000 in the first three months, you can (right now at the time of this post) get a bonus of 75,000 miles. 75,000 miles is at least $750.00 worth of travel money. So I think that I’ve sold the card. There’s really no downsides. I absolutely love it. If you are interested in applying, check out my referral link in the title so I can get some extra miles.

But what about the lounge access? So capital one offers a Priority Pass membership as well as Capital One lounge access. As of right now, there’s only three Capital One lounges, but they’re looking pretty nice for Denver, Dallas, And Washington DC.

* Things to note for my LA friends. There are no longer any Priority Pass benefits at the LAX airport. There used to be at least four lounges, but they have all closed, and hopefully will return eventually. But you should all know before you jump into priority pass. **

If you want lounge access at LAX… this next card is it.

The Platinum Card from AMEX

I’ve never had this card. It’s a card I aspire to have, but I am currently waiting another year before I open another credit card, so I don’t get blocked by Chase’s 5/2 rule. Here are the details in screenshot form from my favorite website, The Points Guy, which, if you aren’t sold on my credit card ideas, definitely check out the points guy for all credit card information.

Chase Sapphire Reserve

Both the sapphire reserve and the chase preferred are excellent credit cards for travel. They offer awesome bonuses and they’re definitely worth their annual fees. The Chase sapphire reserve definitely changed my life in terms of travel credit cards a few years ago. This card comes with priority pass lounge access, as well as many more perks. A $300 travel credit, trip insurance, and a great travel portal. This card now has an annual fee of $550 which is worth it if you travel often. This card will not get you into a lounge at LAX. I would give you a referral for this card, but I closed it so that I can reopen it eventually and get another bonus in a couple years.

Airline cards

If you fly with one specific airline all the time, it would be advantageous for you to invest in an airline credit card. Often with airline credit cards, they offer lounge access. Specifically Delta has sky lounges in many airports. And if Delta is your airline of choice, I would definitely recommend getting a delta credit card like the Delta Sky Miles Reserve Amex. Or a less expensive Delta Sky Miles card that can help you get status with Delta. This card would get you into a lounge at LAX.

Don’t want a credit card? You can pay for the priority pass.

These prices aren’t totally outrageous, but I myself would just get one of the credit cards that offers it for free. But it’s good to know your options right? Just note, priority pass has no lounges currently at LAX.

Centurion and Sky Miles Lounge

You can only access centurion lounges with an AMEX platinum credit card.

You can purchase sky miles lounge access for $695 per year (or 69,500 delta miles). Pretty steep.

Bilt Credit Card

So this card doesn’t come with any lounge access, but I have to plug it because it is one of my favorite cards in my collection. With bilt, you can pay rent and earn points. So every month, I get at least 1000 points that go towards travel. And the travel portal on bilt’s app let’s you redeem miles for so much more than they are worth on other sites. And on the 1st of every month, all of the point earnings are worth double, with the exception of rent. So restaurants are usually 3x points… On the 1st of the month, they’re 6x the points. So you eat out and spend $100, you get 600 points. With this card, it is very easy to accumulate points fast. I have used the points for several trips, and I haven’t even had the card for a year. There’s also a lot of perks, like cell phone protection insurance, travel insurance for trip cancellations, rental car damage waivers, etc. What I love most about this credit card is that it’s clearly made for the consumer and not just made with banking in mind. It’s also really created for travelers and people who want to make paying rent work for them. Also, there’s no annual fee, so there’s really no reason not to get this card unless you don’t pay rent. And if you use my link above, I will get some referral credit.