g289t

I have a couple questions about Citi Priority Pass and families. I have a large family, and we are American expats. This means that we travel between our present home and the US occasionally. The airports we frequent have decent Priority Pass lounges, and this would be a huge value for us. I currently have Priority Pass via CSR, but I would consider signing up me or my wife for the Citi Prestige card to get the family benefit.

1. Is there a limit on family size? The most I've seen used in data points is a spouse and 2 kids. What will Citi say if I have 7 guests (depending on the lounge's free child age limit; we have young children) on a visit? We are a traditional family, two parents with children, all with the same last name.

2. I know that the lounge itself doesn't worry about the charges, but some do limit the amount of guests. I have already tried to take 2 guests into a lounge and was told that I can bring only 1 guest. Do lounges make exceptions for families? Or, isn't a lounge limiting the number of guests generally a problem? Was it just a lounge I happened to try?

akr1970akr

We've never had issues with a lounge caring too much about our family (also two parents+two kids) for PP guest/family rules. However, as I mention upthread, the limit we tend to encounter is that lounges don't want to displace their J customers, so sometimes they just aren't taking PP guests at all.

lsquare

So I don't see any way to activate the Priority Pass in my Citi account. How do I activate it?

ithinkurdumb

I believe it's activated automatically, unlike Amex. You should receive your PP card a few weeks after getting your credit card.

EmpressRouge

I've had 2 PP memberships for a few years, one from Amex Platinum and one from Citi Prestige. I initially registered/activated the online PP accounts w/ the Amex membership since I got that one first, and probably never set up an online account associated with the Citi membership (I just kept traveled with the physical PP card from Citi). Fast forward to today, and my physical Citi PP card expired last year (didn't really pay attention because...2020), and the Amex PP no longer provides restaurant credits.
So I want to switch over my online PP account to the Citi membership, and also get a new physical card with an updated expiry date. I managed to get a Amex PP new card when I logged into PP online, but don't know how I can do that with my Citi PP membership. I tried to activate my Citi membership online, but it's asking for a validation code/web pin emailed or sent to me with the welcome packet. Since I got the Citi PP membership years ago, I probably deleted/threw that stuff away. Any ideas on how I get the renewal?

mia

You will need to create a separate account at prioritypass.com for each Priority Pass membership. If you did not receive a renewal packet for your Citi Priority Pass I would ask Citi to have one sent. It should include the codes you need to activate the online registration.

DCAview

A question on the Priority Pass membership included with the (now-discontinued) Citi Prestige: The card allows free admission to Priority Pass lounges for the cardholder and either (a) two guests or (b) the cardholder's immediate famiy. Additional guests are charged at $27 each, per the Prestige's terms.

Does anyone have any experience using the Prestige's Priority Pass to allow admission for the cardholder, their spouse, and several children? Will the lounge agents know that the Citi card includes immediate family as free guests so that we don't get charged $27 for each additional guest beyond two? Or should I expect to see a charge and have to fight it out afterward? Or is there some other way that this works?

ithinkurdumb

I’ve used Priority Pass a few times to bring more than two family members in. The receipts did show the actual number of guests, but I’ve never seen extra charge on my card.

mia

The lounge agent knows nothing about anyone's Priority Pass membership. They merely report the number of people, and Priority Pass handles the billing according to the terms of sponsor's contract. I imagine that Priority Pass bills Citi for everyone, but Citi does not pass through to Prestige cardholders.

quendin

I noticed this verbiage in my Citi benefits portal

"Immediate family and up to two guests traveling with you can also access the lounge"

I am traveling my my parents, sibling, and wife who still has her last name on ID and have so many questions.

1. I've been to dozens of priority pass lounges, and have never been asked who is family and who is a guest- does their software actually support this?
2. How are they determining who is immediate family to begin with? Is it by last name on ID?
3. What happens if my family gets logged as normal guests and I go over the "two person" limit? Does citi or priority pass send me a bill in the mail?

My suspicion is there is no billing/software mechanism between PP and Citi to track who is a guest vs family - and it's simply up to the front desk rep to make the decision if they reasonably believe your guests over the two person limit are family. So as long as the desk lets them in I probably don't have to worry about being charged after the fact.

Anyone have experience with this?

mia

The lounge staff knows nothing about your Priority Pass membership. All they do is report the number of guests. Scroll back for previous discussions. To my knowledge we have no reports of Citi billing any cardholder for Priority Pass guests.

Bear in mind that each lounge sets its own guest policy, and may limit the number of guests they will accept. The Citi terms do not override the lounge's policy.

quendin

Got it- my post got merged into this thread, but this thread is helpful.

From what I've gathered

1.) You can bring as many as guests as the lounge allows (i.e. not make it too full for their business class customers).
2.) Citi has a very narrow definition of "immediate family"- it's a spouse and children under 18
3.) Citi has the right to verify your extra guests were immediate family, but it is very unlikely they will charge or investigate you as long as you don't have a pattern going over the limit. (I actually couldn't find a single post online about someone ever being charged)

So while my spouse, sibling, and two parents are technically 1 over Citi's limit as defined by their policy, it is very unlikely I will be billed.

moe8555

From personal experience, I have exceeded the two-guest limit via immediate family and have never been charged. I highly doubt there is truly a mechanism in place for the lounge to make the call concerning who exactly is family or not. It is most likely boilerplate language for Citi to reserve the right to investigate should a pattern of exaggerated guesting arise, as you speculated.

g289t

Does Citi see the names of the guests? I realize the posts I quoted here are conjecture, but what if someone would take in more than 2 guests with different last names? Would Citi see that and charge for the extra guests?

bg26892

Does anyone know what the process is for obtaining a priority pass membership for an authorized user?

I've called both citi and priority pass - both seem to be helplessly pointing their fingers at each other.