Priority Pass card: free with a premium card.

The Priority Pass card is not a payment card intended for payments for goods or services, but a club card that certifies membership in the Priority Pass international club. The presence of this card enables a person to use the services of business and lounges at airports in many countries.

Priority Pass service was launched in 1992. Since that time, the network of airports where you can access individual lounges using the Priority Pass card has exceeded 1000 pieces, and the number of members has long crossed the mark of several million people who live in 130 countries of the world.

Blues Business Lounge at Sheremetyevo

The main and only function of the card is to provide its holder with access to the Priority Pass VIP lounges at airports. The traveler, in order not to wait for his flight among the mass of people, can get into the lounge and take a break from the hustle and bustle there, as well as take advantage of all the benefits of premium service:

  • comfortable chairs, air conditioning;
  • newspapers magazines;
  • free drinks and snacks;
  • free alcohol (in some rooms);
  • free Wi-fi;
  • television;
  • computer, printer, fax;
  • charging to gadgets.

The Priority Pass card is a convenient accessory for travelers who value peace of mind and want to wait for their flight away from crowds. Convenient when traveling with family and children. The maximum age of children passing free of charge varies from a particular hall (usually 2-3 years). Some of the rooms have a children's room, shower, massage chairs, a room for smokers. All this will help while waiting for the flight in comfort and convenience.

The quality of each VIP room varies significantly: from luxurious to poor.

How to use the card

To access the lounges, you just need to show your Priority Pass card at the entrance. The cardholder has the right to invite guests with him as well. The maximum number of accompanying persons depends on the rules of the VIP room (no more than 10 people).

An employee of the hall makes an impression from the card or immediately reads information about the owner from the card. After that, he issues a visit ticket or enters information into a special journal. Further, the holder must sign on the slip or in the electronic terminal. The cardholder is recommended to keep a copy of the "Cardholders Copy" slip. The cost of the service is determined on the basis of a receipt for a visit ticket or in the registration log.

For each personal visit and for guests, a fee is charged in accordance with the service tariffs. The commission is charged from the main payment card of the client by the bank that issued the Priority Pass card.

Some VIP lounges may also admit people with a Digital Membership Card. This is a special barcode. It is valid only for a certain period of time and can only be used by the cardholder.

Also, Priority Pass users can install a special application on their phone, which serves as an electronic club card.

It should be noted that people who have tickets for the plane, the departure of which is scheduled on the day of the visit, are allowed in the VIP lounges. In addition to travel documents, passengers need to have a boarding pass with them (not required in the United States). The location of VIP lounges in the Schengen zones of the airport is also typical for Europe. This means that only people with a Schengen visa can get there.

The list of airport lounges where you can use the Priority Pass card is listed on the club's official website https://www.prioritypass.com.

Tariff plans

Priority Pass card provides three tariff plan for its members:

  • standard - its price per year of use is 99 euros. For this money, the holder gets the right to use the services of the business lounges of the airports of the world for 24 euros and to accompany the guest, for whom he will also have to pay 24 euros;
  • standard plus- will cost the client 249 euros per year. The advantages of this tariff are 10 free visits of the cardholder, in excess of this amount you have to pay 24 euros for each visit;
  • prestige- The annual subscription for this tariff is 399 euros. Priority PassPrestige gives the user the right to free access to VIP lounges, but for each guest you will have to pay the same 24 euros.

How and where can I issue a Priority Pass

The card can be issued in two ways:

  • independently on the official Priority Pass website. Disadvantages of this method: it is expensive, it takes a long time to receive it, you will have to pay for the delivery;
  • free of charge from your bank. The Priority Pass card is not presented in banks as a separate product, but comes as an addition to or to a premium service package.

How many times you can use the VIP-lounge for free and the number of invitees is determined by the card issuing bank to which the Priority Pass card is linked.

You can get a card in many banks. The most popular offers in the following banks:

Sberbank

Sberbank issues a Priority Pass card free of charge when registering a service package.

To become the owner of this package, you have to pay monthly service fees - 2.5 thousand rubles. (30 thousand rubles per year). The commission for Sberbank Premier is not paid if on all accounts, cards, deposits in aggregate on the last day of the month the balance is at least 2.5 million rubles.

The first 2 months of service - no commission is charged. The service can be terminated at any time at the bank's office.

Sberbank provides completely unlimited and free visits to lounges. The limit for visitors per 1 card depends on a specific VIP room.

Is the most popular and advantageous offer... It is also available to holders of the Sberbank First package, on the same terms as Sberbank Premier. - this is premium service for very wealthy clients.

VTB 24

VTB24 Priority Pass card is issued within. It will cost the client 2500 rubles. per month. In order not to pay a commission, the user must ensure that one of the following conditions is met:

  • make non-cash payments on all debit cards for a total amount of 55 thousand rubles,
  • to provide cash receipts to the master account of the card in the amount of 120 thousand rubles,
  • balances on absolutely all bank accounts must be at least 2 million rubles.

For the fulfillment of these conditions, the client is provided with 8 free passes to separate rooms or 4 together with a satellite.

Promsvyazbank

The Bank offers its users the Orange Premium Club premium program. Customers with a Priority Pass card get access to services in the VIP lounges of international airports.

The monthly fee for the premium package of services is 2800 rubles. from the second month of service. Costs can be avoided provided that the total monthly balance on all bank accounts is 2 million rubles. or 1 million rubles, but the amount of settlement transactions with payment cards is at least 50 thousand rubles.

As a bonus, in the first month, the client is entitled to 2 free visits to the lounges. If in the future the user fulfills the above conditions of free service, then he and his guests are given full unlimited free visits to business lounges.

Gazprombank

Gazprombank issues a Priority Pass card for holders of Mastercard World Elite / World Signia / Black Edition or Platinum premium cards.

The cost of the first year of servicing the card is 15,000 rubles, the second - 25,000 rubles;

Bank Avangard

Bank Avangard provides the card as additional service to Mastercard (except Cash back) and Visa (except Visa Electron).

The cost of an annual subscription to service classic credit cards RUB 600 / 25 dollars / 25 euros, premium Platinum classes cost 5500 rubles. / USD 200 / EUR 200, and MasterCard World Elite.

You can get a card for free by making average monthly settlement transactions in the amount of more than 20,000 rubles. Elite card users receive Priority Pass free of charge.

The cost of visiting the hall for one person is USD 27.

UniCredit Bank

Unicredit Bank issues a Priority Pass card to holders of the Prime package. Its cost is 3000 rubles. per month. The client can save money and not pay this amount if the average monthly balance of balances on all his bank accounts and in mutual funds exceeds 2 million rubles.

Unicredit Bank also provides customers with additional bonuses:

  • if his accounts have from 2 million to 4 million rubles. - 2 free visits to the hall,
  • from 4 million to 6 million rubles - 4 free visits,
  • more than 6 million rubles. - 2 free visits to the hall per day.

Rosbank

Rosbank issues a Priority Pass card for Premium package holders free of charge. The monthly service fee is 2500 rubles.

You can avoid expenses if:

  • the average monthly amount of balances on all accounts is more than 2 million rubles;
  • or monthly salary in the amount of 150 thousand rubles;
  • or the amount of average monthly balances on all accounts from 750 thousand rubles. at the same time, the average monthly expense transactions on the main card amount to more than 50 thousand rubles.

The package includes 12 free passes to airport business lounges throughout the year.

Alfa Bank

Priority Pass card is issued free of charge to those who have issued an Alfa-Miles Signature card. At the same time, visits to the VIP room will be paid ($ 27).

4 visits per month to the business lounge are free for those who meet the following conditions:

  • RUB 3 million on accounts;
  • or 1 million rubles. on accounts + purchases were made for goods, services in the amount of 50 thousand per month.

You can visit the hall without restrictions if you have:

  • 6 million rubles on accounts;
  • or from 2 million rubles. on accounts + purchases were made for 100 thousand per month.

When receiving a Priority Pass club card from a bank, remember that the bank can change the terms of service for the card at any time. Before using the card, you need to look at the current tariffs so that later you do not worry about the debited commission.

Is a program covering over 1000 business and VIP lounges at airports. Priority Pass cardholders can enter these lounges and use all available services - most of them are already included in the price. Usually, the lounges have wireless Internet, as well as computers with access, free hot and cold snacks, refreshments and alcoholic drinks, soft comfortable chairs and a minimum of airport bustle. It is unlikely that you will meet noisy children or backpackers there, although some of the services of the VIP rooms would be useful to them, for example, a shower and a hearty breakfast. It is believed that this is a special area for business people, since you have to pay for entry and usually you cannot enter without the card itself.


To get a Priority Pass card even without a single paid entrance to the business lounge, you also need to pay money. With such a "bare" card, each entry will cost $ 27. If you are a cardholder and want to take a guest with you, it will cost an additional $ 27.
With a direct purchase on the site, a "naked" card for a year will cost $ 99, for 10 free entries - $ 299, for an unlimited number of free entries - $ 429.




There are several life hacks on how to save money on the Priority Pass purchase, and we will reveal them now.
You can use a discount coupon or promotional code. They are both freely available - partner discounts for hotel chains, airlines, etc., and more "hidden" ones.
For example by this link a permanent 10% discount is available, and by this- 20% discount for Standard and 25% for Plus and Prestige.


Total comes out 59, 186 and 299 dollars, respectively.

If the previous discount suddenly fails, there are almost always coupons in German Groupone .




As a result, the same $ 59 for the "naked" Standard comes out, $ 63 for the Standard with 1 free admission (the next for $ 27) and $ 186 for the Standard Plus with 10 free passes to the salons.
That is, while the previous promotion is running, it makes no sense to buy using Groupon coupons in this way, since the same cost comes out as with the free code. Unless someone wants to try once for $ 63 to go to the lounge zone, but usually this is how much it costs to enter without any cards.

So far, the best price for Priority Pass

And here comes out quite cool: 58, 135 and 220. And DOLLARS! Don't be confused by the pound icon, the payment will be charged in dollars. If you are afraid that they will suddenly "patch" this hole and it will be you who will be charged in pounds, make a limit on the card or leave a sufficient amount. Country of residence is automatically indicated in the UK, but this does not affect anything - feel free to enter your data, your phone number with international code(+375 for Belarus), real home address where the plastic card will come.

We checked that everything works, on January 3, 2018, exactly $ 220 was withdrawn from the Belarusian card.
And one more last but not least good thing - the card for this promotion is valid 15 months, instead of the standard 12.That is, $ 14.6 per month versus $ 33.25 at the standard price.

You can still get confused and try to get $ 20 cashback in addition to the discount on the card Topcashback.
Register by link topcashback.com , find Priority program Pass and click on the red Get CashBack Now button. Another promotion will automatically be registered there, so you have to do some magic: manually select another country - we need United Kingdom (Great Britain), the currency is GBP, and write the code DAMBCA1108ST



The result is the same as in the previous case - the currency is indicated in pounds, but debits in dollars, but another $ 20 will come to your account in the Topcashback cashback service, which are then easily withdrawn to PayPal.

If you are an active traveler and fly at least several times a year from airports with VIP lounges (by the way, you can check the list on the site), you should definitely get yourself a Priority Pass card. Even if your ticket from Vilnius cost 9.99 euros, it will be nice to spend a couple of hours from the arrival of the transfer to the airport "Minsk-3" at 4 am to departure after 9 hours in a comfortable environment, an easy chair, silence and with a coffee machine ...

Example of lounges at nearby airports



VILNIUS (photo prioritypass.com)


WARSAW (photo prioritypass.com)



WARSAW (photo prioritypass.com)


MINSK (photo prioritypass.com)

If you have visited business lounges at airports and you have something to show and tell, offer news in the group

Budapest is an interesting city not only ancient architecture, thermal springs and pokatushki on "Ikarus", but also the airport. Liszt Ferenc Airport (BUD, LHBP), which has won the title of the best airport in Eastern Europe from Skytrax for four years in a row, was recently renamed: it used to be called Ferihegy after the same name locality with the railway station of the same name. Old Terminal 1 is located here, which is currently closed and new terminal 2 is located at a considerable distance from it and further from the city.

Old Terminal 1

Getting to the airport is not easy. The most affordable way is to take the city bus 200E to the nearest metro (it takes about half an hour), and this will be the final station (Köbanya-Kispest), from which it takes the same amount of travel to the city center - in general, if you have luggage, the pleasure is dubious, but the cheapest, buses run every 6-7 minutes. Tickets can be bought directly at the airport. If you are traveling to Budapest for a few days, it makes sense to take a 72-hour pass for 4000 forints (1000 rubles at the rate of 2018). You can take a bus to Ferihegy station near Terminal 1 and take an electric train to Nyugati station, it will be a little faster. But the easiest way is to take the express bus 100E and come to the very center for 900 forints without stopping. A regular taxi costs about 8000 forints (2000 rubles). There are also route taxis in the classical sense of the word: they collect passengers who need to get to a particular area of ​​the city and deliberately deliver them to addresses - much like transfers in Turkish hotels. Accordingly, here is how lucky: someone will be delivered first, someone last.

The cost of a trip to the center is from 3200 forints (800 rubles) and is significantly reduced if you are not traveling alone. The minibus can be ordered in advance through the website www.airportshuttle.hu, or you can choose, in this case you will not have to queue at the order counter, but you will be able to get on and go almost immediately. However, there are usually no special queues at these counters.

Terminal 2 is formally divided into 2 terminals: 2A and 2B, but in fact it is one airport complex: inside they are interconnected and the waiting rooms are also common. The only difference is that 2B are non-Schengen destinations and low-cost airline check-in counters, and 2A are counters of traditional airlines and intra-Schengen destinations); so, flying out, for example, by Aeroflot, you check in at 2A, but you will have your boarding gate at 2B. At the same time, the inspection zone is common, you can go through control from any terminal, and then it goes to the general Duty-Free store, from which you find yourself in a huge spacious hall overlooking airfield, shops and inexpensive restaurants, a children's play area and even a massage spa. There are plenty of benches in the waiting area and near the gates, and on the columns near the gates you will find a number of outlets.




If you are flying a low-cost airline, you can get from hall 2B to security check and passport control without the typical queues by purchasing a ticket for priority security for 1,500 forints (a little less than 400 rubles) from the vending machine. However, in the case of low-cost airlines, such an amount can be comparable to the cost of the ticket itself. Therefore, you can save money and after check-in (or if you have an online check-in boarding pass) go to Terminal 2A and from there go to the security line; there are no queues. For business class passengers and members of elite tiers bonus programs the service is free. If the turnstile does not open when scanning the boarding pass, show it to the airport employee and he will open the SIM-sim manually.

On the third floor of Terminal 2A, there is an exit to the observation deck, from which you can observe the apron and one of the longer runways (13L / 31R), which is used most often (the second is currently under repair). While on the terrace, you can see the full cycle of aircraft servicing at the airport: from landing to taxiing to the gate and unloading baggage to refueling, towing, launching, taxiing and taking off. This process takes a long time, but for avid spotters there is even a small, but very decent cafe on the terrace. The entrance to the terrace is paid and costs 500 forints (125 rubles). Tickets are sold at a machine right at the entrance.




However, for aviation lovers, the terrace is not the only entertainment before departure, since there is an aircraft museum in the immediate vicinity of the terminal! Most of the exhibits once flew on the now bankrupt Hungarian airline Malev. These are mainly Soviet aircraft - in particular, there are An-2, Li-2, Il-14, Il-18, Tu-134A, Tu-154B2 and Yak-40. At the same time, you can not only look at the planes from the outside, but also climb inside, sit in the cabin, and, most importantly, in the cockpit, examine all the instruments and hold the steering wheel.

And this is not really a museum: behind the bushes on the territory of the airport lies the fuselage of a Boeing 767-200 HA-LHB of Malev airlines, they could not attach it and therefore dismantled it for parts. Keel is in the museum.

Terminal 2A has 4 bridges, which have proven to be so reliable that they have been in operation since the terminal was built in 1984. Initially, there were 6 terminals, but one had to be dismantled during the construction of Skycourt: a shop and restaurant area between 2A and 2B, and another was put on a permanent parking and attached to the portal part a staircase leading to the platform and from it to the landing gallery for low-cost airlines. The gallery is just a canopy over an asphalt concrete surface, so if you save on your ticket, you will have to spend some time in Spartan conditions without toilets, restaurants and all that.

This boarding bridge is almost 35 years old, and it works

The pedestal boarding bridge does not have wheels for moving along the apron; this design is simpler, cheaper and more reliable.

They pinned the stairs down to one of the bridges

Low-cost passengers are literally open to all winds

As for restaurants, only a pseudo-Irish pub remained in Skycourt from a decent one, where you just can't enter: you need to wait for an administrator who will sit you at a table, as in the best houses in London and Paris. The prices are appropriate: a set of a glass of beer and a burger will cost 5,000 forints (1250 rubles). However, there, on the second level, is full of all kinds of fast food, and there are not only burgers, potatoes, cola, but also quite healthy food and not the worst coffee.

The gate number is announced only shortly before boarding, so that passengers do not crowd around the gate, but go to shops and cafes.

Take your time to shop at the main store at Skycourt: this is the Travel Value store. If you are flying to Russia, then after passport control in terminal 2B there is already a real Duty-Free, where many positions are cheaper, although the choice here is not so wide. However, booze, perfume and Hungarian souvenirs are present, however, souvenirs even on the tourist streets of Budapest are cheaper by one and a half to two times.

In 2B, next to gate B10, there is also a wonderful Platinum business lounge with a large selection of food (including hot ones) and drinks. The drinks, however, are average - for example, whiskey contains only Red Label and Jim Beam bourbon (by the way, there is champagne in small bottles, you understand) - but the panoramic windows offer a gorgeous view of the platform. Not the same, of course, as from the terrace, but from here you can see the platform from two sides, and in the future, when the so-called Pier B is completed, it will be possible to admire long-haul aircraft from here.

View from the business lounge to the platform ...

... and Pier B.

Hot food

Cold Champagne Bottles

There is practically no transfer passenger traffic in Budapest. And all this because the base airline - Wizz air- does not sell connecting tickets. However, no one bothers you to buy tickets with separate reservations and visit Budapest during a transfer. Or not to visit: in January 2018, the airport opened inexpensive hotel Ibis Suites where you can ride out the night between flights.

By the way, Budapest is the best airport in Eastern Europe.

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