Link: Apply now for the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card
There are lots of great benefits to the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card (review), including a $300 annual travel credit, triple points on dining and travel, the best bonus we’ve seen in over five years, and more. There’s not much of a learning curve to taking advantage of the card’s benefits. For example, the $300 annual travel credit is applied automatically to any eligible travel purchase.
The one significant Chase Sapphire Reserve perk that needs to be activated is the Priority Pass membership. I think this is worth specifically pointing out since some people don’t realize there’s an activation process. Just recently I was entering a Priority Pass lounge, and the person in front of me was being denied for trying to enter with a Chase Sapphire Reserve, rather than with a Priority Pass membership. “But I was told my card came with a Priority Pass membership.”
It does indeed, but you have to activate it.
In this post:
What is the Chase Sapphire Reserve’s Priority Pass membership?
Priority Pass is the world’s largest network of independent airport lounges, with over 1,300 member lounges around the world. Priority Pass as such doesn’t operate lounges, but rather it’s a program that pays third party lounges to admit its members. While you can buy a Priority Pass membership directly, this is also offered as a perk on many premium credit cards.
In the case of the Chase Sapphire Reserve, both the primary cardmember and authorized users are eligible for a Priority Pass membership. That can be a good deal, since you can add authorized users to the card for just $75 each, which is a deal for an annual lounge membership, if nothing else.
How many guests can you bring into lounges?
The Priority Pass membership issued through the Chase Sapphire Reserve allows members to bring two guests into lounges with them (in addition to the cardmember, for a total of three people). It doesn’t matter if these are family members or friends.
Do note that while this is Chase’s policy, some individual lounges may have further restrictions on how many people can be brought in. For example, some lounges only allow Priority Pass members to bring at most one guest with them, so make sure you check Priority Pass’ website for the lounge you plan on visiting.
Which Priority Pass locations can you access?
The Priority Pass membership offered with the Chase Sapphire Reserve gets you access to all Priority Pass lounges around the globe, and you can make an unlimited number of visits. In other words, you could visit multiple lounges at the same airport on the same day if you wanted to.
Also note that the Priority Pass membership issued through the card offer credits at Priority Pass restaurants. Priority Pass has partnered with select airport restaurants, where cardmembers can receive a credit towards food & drinks in lieu of access to a lounge.
The membership through Chase cards also offers those credits, which is worth calling out, because memberships issued through American Express cards specifically exclude that.
How do you activate your Priority Pass membership?
The process of activating your Chase Sapphire Reserve Priority Pass membership is quite easy. Go to the “Card Benefits” section of the Ultimate Rewards website for your card. Once there, just scroll down until you see the section for “Complimentary Airport Lounge Access.”
There you’ll see an option to activate your membership. Once you select that option, the card should be mailed to you within two to three weeks at your address on file (though often it comes even faster than that).
How do you activate memberships for authorized users?
When you click the button to activate your Priority Pass membership, you’ll be sent Priority Pass memberships for the primary cardmember and all authorized users. All the cards will show up at your address, and then you can distribute them.
The only slight complication is if you request these cards and then later add an authorized user. The Chase website will still show the membership as being “activated,” so to get a Priority Pass membership for an authorized user added on after the fact you’ll need to call the number on the back of your card.
How do you get a Priority Pass mobile membership?
Priority Pass also offers mobile membership cards, which I appreciate, since it’s one less card you have to carry in your wallet. In order to activate this you first need to wait for your physical Priority Pass card to arrive in the mail, since it will come with a letter that has a PIN, and you need that PIN to activate your online membership. Make sure you don’t throw away the letter you get with the Priority Pass card, at least not before jotting down the PIN.
Once you have that you can download the Priority Pass app and then sign-up for an account, where you’ll get a mobile membership card, which you can add to your Apple Wallet.
Unfortunately there’s not a practical way to get access to Priority Pass lounges before your card arrives in the mail, so make sure you leave a few weeks between when you activate your membership through Chase’s website, and when you’re actually traveling.
Bottom line
The Priority Pass membership offered with the Chase Sapphire Reserve is one of the card’s best perks, and one of the main points of differentiation between this and the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (review). This benefit does require activation, so that’s one of the first things you’ll want to do after receiving the card.
While several premium credit cards offer Priority Pass memberships nowadays, one awesome perk with those issued by Chase is that they offer credits at Priority Pass restaurants. That can save you a huge amount of money. That’s not even accounting for all of the other lounges you get access to around the globe.
What has your experience been with the Chase Sapphire Reserve Priority Pass membership?
Question: in the airport, do you have to have to present your boarding pass to use your PP benefits in getting something at the PP participating restaurants or market?
New PP card came through Sapphire Preferred card; previous PP membership card expires in January and the new one is valid through 12/31/25. In Chase web site, it says already activated. In the PP app, however, I still have the 1/23 expiration date and when I try on PP's web site to do anything involving the new card number, it won't go--but if I enter the new card number and click Forgot Password, I get...
New PP card came through Sapphire Preferred card; previous PP membership card expires in January and the new one is valid through 12/31/25. In Chase web site, it says already activated. In the PP app, however, I still have the 1/23 expiration date and when I try on PP's web site to do anything involving the new card number, it won't go--but if I enter the new card number and click Forgot Password, I get nothing. Of course, I always get nothing even if I enter the associated email with the current card and click Forgot Password. And yes, I checked Clutter, Junk, etc. and nothing ever comes to any folder.
It will be OK for travel early January--I think--because the date on the app digital card is later in January, but is there some trick to updating the expiration date of the PP membership through Chase? Or will it magically update after the current expiry? (United's Premier digital cards would always do this nail-biting inducing change in expiration date just as the prior date is reached, so maybe this behaves similarly?)
P.S. I said Preferred instead of Reserve for whatever reason--too many people around me interrupting. :P
Just denied access with priority pass in every lounge at LAX international Airport...very disappointing.
Was just denied access to diamond lounge in BRU terminal A. Told Amex priority pass has access but Chase cards do not - but you write that every lounge globally is accessible? Not sure who is right?
BRU Diamond Lounge is no longer a member of the global Priority Pass program as of the start of this year (2022).
I would speculate and say this is due to overcrowding. If AmEx members are allowed access to BRU Diamond Lounge, AmEx must have worked out a deal with them independent of Priority Pass.
How is it different from the Ritz Carlton card ? The $300 credit on the Ritz is upon request (which is better).