New travel hack – lounges!

Okay, maybe you know about this travel tip already, but I’ve recently become obsessed with lounges at airports.

Changing travel styles

When I was traveling solo, I would get to the gate about four minutes before they started boarding and I would eat a sandwich I packed in my bag when I got hungry.

But boyfriend likes to get to the airport three hours early, eat at an airport restaurant, drink at an airport bar and buy some airport water for the airplane. He prefers low stress travel. We were easily spending $50-$75 at the airport each time we hopped on a plane. That adds up as we travel every month or so.

Plus, you can’t always pack a sandwich for long flights and layovers and such.

Oh, and when we went to Belize, we cut it too close and had to ask people if we could cut in line and almost missed our flight. That experience traumatized me, so I’m now team low-stress travel.

We needed a new system.

Lounges

Enter lounges. Lounges are spaces in airports where only members can hang out. There’s free food and drinks, outlets galore, and space to chill out before the flight.

We got a credit card (American Express Platinum) that gives us access to the nicest available lounge — the Centurion Lounge — in the airport where we live (Denver). It cost us a whopping $695 per year plus an additional $195 for an authorized user. Which, I know, is a lot for a credit card. But! It ends up being cost effective for how much we travel.

With one trip alone, we went to east Asia with three friends and they each came into the lounges free with us. We went to lounges in Denver, Los Angeles, Taipei, Bangkok, Phuket, Saigon, Taipei again, and LAX again, eating and drinking for free along the way.

We save hundreds, if not thousands, and easily get back our membership fee.

So now I get to the airport early, enjoy the buffet, maybe get a drink. It’s all very relaxing. All free. Some lounges even have showers and massages, games, comfy couches. There are also minute lounges where you get an entire room to yourself to nap. It’s fabulous!

And I know this goes without saying, but I would be remiss in not saying. Don’t put money on a credit card if you can’t pay the balance immediately. Don’t pay interest to credit card companies! I know my audience is really smart and wouldn’t do that.

There are so many card benefits.

Card benefits we’ve used so far

1. Access to lounges.
   Lounges are the main reason we use the card. We don’t have access to every lounge in every airport, but a whole heck of a lot of them. This perk pays for the credit card, but there’s more!
2. $50 Saks Fifth Avenue credit every six months.
   We’ve purchased bike bells and boxers so far with the Saks credit.
3. $15 in Uber cash each month ($35 in December for some reason) to use on rides or food delivery. We use the Uber cash on scooters mostly.
4. 80,000 bonus points.
   We actually received 120,000 bonus points in introductory welcome points. It depends on your credit score and what the CEO was thinking that day, I guess. We used part of the points to pay for a hotel.
5. $200 airline credit for one airline’s incidental fees.
   We use the airline credit for wifi and drinks on planes. You can also use it for checking in bags. Not flights though.
6. $189 for Clear Plus.
   We used this credit to get Clear as an alternative to TSA precheck in U.S. airports, which lets you go through the line even quicker sometimes.
7. $100 for Global Entry or $85 for TSA PreCheck.
8. $155 for a Walmart+ membership.
   We use this new membership instead of Amazon for a lot of things these days we want delivered. You also get Paramount Plus for free, which is Walmart’s version of Amazon Prime.
9. $20/month for digital entertainment.
   We use the entertainment credit to pay for a New York Times subscription.
10. Purchase protection for 90 days.
    Boyfriend bought an iPad and lost it in Malta when we were traveling. He had used this credit card to purchase it and it was within ninety days, so they reimbursed him $867, the cost of the iPad.
11. $200 for a hotel.
    We used this hotel credit in Miami on a recent trip. The hotels that qualify are expensive though, so it’s a hard perk to use. But with this perk, you get $100 for “experiences” (dinner/drinks) and free breakfast. They also gave us a free welcome chocolate.
12. Status at car rentals.
    We were able to skip the line when we rented a car and they upgraded us to a BMW in France.
13. Status at hotel chains.
    We were given late check out and free water. Hey, it’s something.

Benefits we don’t use or haven’t used yet.

1. $300 for an Equinox gym membership.
   We don’t have an Equinox close to us.
2. $500 for trip delay insurance.
   We haven’t used this yet. Thankfully.
3. $10,000 trip interruption insurance.

So far, for us, the first year has been worth the fee. Next year when we don’t get any introductory bonus points, it may be a different story and I might switch cards to get a new introductory offer. I’ll tell you about it if I do.

Here’s a link to apply for the American Express Platinum credit card. I get some points if you are approved. Well, for the first five people anyways. I’m only recommending it if you travel enough. Then it’s a great deal. It might not be worth it if you’re not a fan of leaving your house, much less your city. You have to spend $8,000 in the first six months.

Readers, I love all of you equally, of course, but you’re my favorite.