Sorry, Priority Pass™ Members: You’re Losing Chase Sapphire Lounge Access

The Chase Sapphire Lounges by The Club are some of the most impressive airport clubs we’ve seen in a while. The food and drinks are great, the designs are upscale, and each location gets local touches (a taproom in Boston, for example).

And unlike American Express Centurion Lounges and Capital One Lounges, they’ve been open to anyone with a Priority Pass™ Select membership. (Priority Pass™ perks come with a dozen-ish travel rewards cards.)

But all of that is about to change.

All information about the Chase cards below was gathered independently by Eye of the Flyer. It was neither provided by nor reviewed by the card issuer.

Chase Sapphire Lounges Leaving Priority Pass™

Effective August 15, 2026, Chase Sapphire Lounges will leave the Priority Pass™ program. You’ll need a Chase Sapphire Reserve® or Chase Sapphire Reserve® for Business to enter a Chase Sapphire Lounge. (The J.P. Morgan Reserve Card and Ritz-Carlton Credit Card also keep their access.) Our colleague Summer “Mommy Points” Hull notes that the Sapphire clubs are also leaving LoungeKey.

We attended a preview of the first US Chase Sapphire Lounge — their Boston Logan location — in May 2023. Frankly, I was surprised the lounges were accessible to Priority Pass™ members at all. (Priority Pass™ cardholders could — and through August 15 still can — enter once per year for free. Additional visits run $75 each. Both of those go away, too.) Was this the plan all along? Get people into the lounges as a “teaser” — and then get them to apply for a Sapphire Reserve?

I’ve heard horror stories about long lines to get into the Sapphire Lounges, so maybe this will alleviate some of that.

(Make sure to read our posts about the New York-LaGuardia and San Diego Chase Sapphire Lounges.)

Layover Hours Extended

Mrs. Hull also pointed out that Chase is improving an access rule for its Reserve cardholders. Starting the same day, travelers connecting through an airport can enter a Sapphire Lounge up to five hours before their next flight — up from the standard three. (If you’re starting your trip at that airport, the three-hour window still applies.)

Five hours is a long layover. It’s also, not coincidentally, the same window American Express offers — so Chase is matching the competition while simultaneously kicking the competition’s cardholders out. Efficient.

Final Approach

This one stings if your Priority Pass™ comes from a non-Chase card — but let’s be honest about what’s actually being lost: one free visit a year and a $75 paid-entry option. That was always a courtesy, not a benefit anyone was building a card strategy around. The surprise isn’t that it’s ending; it’s that it lasted three years.

For Sapphire Reserve cardholders, this is quietly a win twice over: shorter lines at the front desk, and two extra hours of lounge time on connections. Chase built genuinely nice lounges, watched them fill up with everyone else’s cardholders, and decided its own customers should come first. Hard to argue with the logic — even if you’re the one now standing outside.

If you’ve got a Priority Pass™ visit banked and a trip through a Sapphire Lounge airport before August 15, use it. After that, it’s Chase cardholders only.

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