also called Priority Pass · Priority Pass membership · airport lounge access · airport lounge entry
Entry to airport lounges via status, a paid membership or certain cards.
The ability to get into airport lounges, whether through airline status, a paid membership or certain credit cards. How you get in shapes what you get: some cards bill for each guest, some lounges turn away membership-network guests when busy. Elite status is one route in, earned by flying a lot, but it is not the only one, and access is far from uniform.
Someone brings a travel companion to a lounge on a credit-card membership, expecting to walk in together. The lounge charges a per-person fee for the guest, or refuses contract guests entirely that day, and the relaxed pre-flight plan turns into a doorway negotiation.
Access varies by membership tier and card; some visits bill per person and some lounges exclude contract guests.
The difference is the whole point, so here is each one in a line.
Elite status is a tier earned by flying that unlocks lounges, upgrades and priority, and a status match is persuading one airline to grant it because a rival already did.
Miles and points are the loyalty currency you redeem for travel, transferable points are the flexible bank or card version you can move between programs, and devaluation is when a program quietly raises the miles a reward costs, shrinking what your balance is worth.
Devaluation · Elite status · Miles and points · Status match
A new term lands on this site every day, and the email is how you get it the day it lands. No digest, no roundup, no pitch. One term, what it means, and what it costs you to get it wrong.
Unsubscribe in one click, any time. We do not sell or share your address.