worldwidedreamer

Although not a traditional loyalty program, Priority Pass serves a growing part of the traveling community.Traditional airline forums provide a space to talk about both individual locations (HKG) and more macro policies, e.g. United Club members lost showers this year, and while credit card forums allow Amex customers to discuss crowding in Centurion lounges, there is not a central place to discuss Priority Pass.

As the program becomes more complicated, having a forum increases in value. For example yesterday at MSP my Amex PP membership gave me access to a PGA Lounge which also included $15 credits at three different restaurants; which is the best? Would I have been better to just stay at the Escape lounge. Etc. More strategically, what is the best way to get a Priority Pass Select membership?

I know that starting a new forum here is not an undertaking initiated lightly, but feel that there is enough of a critical mass of audience and need for this to add a lot of value to our community. What do you think?

Bay Area Steve

Having found this suggestion while searching for same makes me think it a solid idea. I travel little, and contribute here even less, so not sure if others will agree.

The premium credit cards are opening up lounges to those of us who'd otherwise ignore. I've learned a lot in the AS forum, but a central wiki/forum seems kinda necessary, from here.

SanDiego1K

I'm open to the idea and would love to see people weigh in on whether they see such a forum having value.

swag

The PP thread in the Chase forum has ~1000 posts in 16 months. The PP thread in the Citi forum has ~300 in 4 months. So I think the post volume is sufficient for a new forum.

I see two potential big positives that might result:
1. Having all PP info in one place.
2. Encouraging separate threads for separate topics. Now, all PP posts in each of the credit card forums are intermixed into a single thread, and searching within a thread is much more cumbersome than searching for threads within a forum.

But I also have some reservations.
a. You would want some active moderation, at least at first, to encourage users of the credit card forums to use the new forum for PP posts.
b. Even then, there's ambiguity about access questions. "How many guests can I bring to PP lounge with XYZ credit card?", would that best fit in the PP forum, or the CC forum? What about "If I cancel my XYZ bank CC, how long can I still use the PP card?"
c. For questions about the lounges themselves, they would still naturally fit in both the PP forum and the airline's forum. Yes, a majority of FT'ers using the TK lounge at IAD are likely using PP to get in. But if someone flying TK J class has a question about the wine selection in that lounge, should they really be asked to post in the PP forum and not the TK forum? And if not, then we haven't necessarily solved the info-spread-across-different forums challenge.

I'm interested what others think.

JDiver

/Mod hat off

There are other Lounge schemes than Priority Pass out there as well. Airport Angel. The Club Airport Lounges. Lounge Club (I believe it’s related to Club Airport Lounges, but affords access to others.) Airspace Lounges. Plaza Premium at plaza-network.com. LoungeBuddy. There are other smaller or stand-alone Lounges and schemes I’m probably missing.

I’d recommend all non-airline and credit card lounge access systems be Inc,used in this forum. These two should continue being be discussed in their own fora, IMO, such as Board Room Alaska Lounge in the Alaska Airlines | Milesge Plan forum or Centurion Lounge in American Express | Membership Rewards forum. And a name that indicates the broad nature of the forum, not just PP.

RichMSN

What he said.

I have specific interest in PP as I have a membership through one of my AMEX cards, but there are a LOT of independent lounge schemes out there and I can search through a forum to find what I need.

krazykanuck

I broadly agree with JDiver's thoughts. It would be nice to have a forum where we could have threads like "Plaza Premium lounges at YYZ" or other consolidated threads.

We can easily put this in a sticky that many people won't read, but hey, at least it'll be there.

goodeats21

I like the idea of a PP forum. I do think that there will be some initial confusion about where to post, as much of the airport specific questions tend to get pushed to the Destination Forums.
But over time, it should be easy enough to get things consolidated.

It would be great to have the info all in one spot, including individual lounge questions as well as overall program issues.

RichMSN

Stickies are so over. There are Wikiposts now!

tmiw

I'm thinking that those questions should still go in the CC specific forum. The PP/lounge forum should be more for questions about the specific program (for example, reviews of specific lounges on the network).

mia

Airport Angel is defunct.

Priority Pass is owned by Collinson Group. Most Priority Pass lounges are contracted, but The Club lounges are operated by Collinson.
Lounge Club is a subset of Priority Pass (also Collinson).
LoungeKey is another subset of Priority Pass (also Collinson).

Airspace, Aspire and Plaza are lounge operators with multiple locations. All have a relationship for free entry with American Express (USA), but may also have relationships with other entities in other countries.

tcook052

Why can't such a discussion be held in the Canada destination forum?

Colour me unconvinced there's a real demand for such a stand-alone forum as many of the PP posts in existing forums relate to that program or credit card more than the lounges themselves. Further topic segmentation isn't user-friendly in the long-run but that's merely MHO.

squeakr

mapleg

I think it's a good idea to have a lounge forum for lounges outside the specific airline offerings.

wetrat0

As I see it there are several distinct types of discussions going on related to PP:

1. Relationship between credit card and lounge program (e.g., how long does it take to get my PP card from Chase?)
2. News and discussion about specific lounge programs unrelated to credit card (e.g., which lounges are entering the PP program?, why did I get denied entry with PP?)
3. Characteristics of specific independent lounges (e.g., does The Club at SEA have hot food?)
4. Access and airport issues (e.g., can I get to a lounge in ORD T5 if I have a boarding pass for a flight leaving T3?)

Discussions in category 1 clearly belong in the credit card fora. Discussions in category 3 and 4 could be housed in the destination fora, but it's not as clear, especially since a lot of people are looking to use lounges in transit (at a connecting airport) and so wouldn't naturally look in destinations. I have seen a lot of discussion in category 3 and 4 in the airline fora (usually in the forum of an airline that has a lot of connecting pax at that airport). For instance there is a thread in the Southwest forum discussing PP lounges that are accessible from Southwest terminals-- it's a jumble of information that probably would be much more useful if it were separated into multiple threads, but a lot of the info in that thread would also be useful for passengers flying another airline, so it doesn't belong in the Southwest forum.

I agree that it would be valuable to centralized discussion of Priority Pass and other independent lounge programs (independent = not affiliated with one airline or one credit card), with the exception of discussions that belong in category 1 (i.e., discussion about lounge programs that are related to a specific card provider).