I’d read some time ago that Priority Pass now allows you to redeem a ‘lounge visit’ towards dining credit at some hotel restaurants – I’ve been curious about it for some time, but never flew through any of the airports with restaurants offering such redemptions. (Priority Pass doesn’t seem to explicitly filter their lounge list by type, but the list on Points Yak seems pretty comprehensive.)
Well, I recently flew out of Brisbane International Airport and finally got the chance to try it out there. How it (probably) works is that Priority Pass pays the restaurant a fixed (discounted) sum of money for each ‘lounge visit’ – for the Corretto Cafe & Bar in Brisbane, this translated into AUD$36 for each ‘visit’.
Armed with unlimited PP visits (for main cardholder and guest) from my Citi Prestige Card, I decided to see what my AUD$72 of restaurant credit could get me.
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Corretto Cafe & Bar
Corretto’s actually part of the BNE International terminal’s public (landside) food court, so you’ll need to check it out before clearing immigration. Interestingly enough, I wasn’t asked to show my boarding passes at all.
The prices on the menu are a little higher than what I’d pay for on my own, but with $72 credit to play with (and a limited appetite) it didn’t seem too limiting. In fact, I think a couple could comfortably get by just using $36 credit.
We ordered a pizza, calamari, a lemon curd tart and two juices – the menu didn’t list the price of the juices (and we didn’t get an itemised receipt), but assuming they’d cost $6 each that represents a total retail value of about AUD$63.
The food was surprisingly good; I was rather impressed by the freshness of the ingredients. Or maybe that’s just Australia. Whatever the case, I was happy to be having a quality cooked-to-order meal instead of a (often sub-standard) lounge buffet.
(Although the Plaza Premium Lounge at Brisbane International Airport did look rather respectable, and was apparently serving steak and chips on request; unfortunately I never got to try it out as I was already stuffed from the visit to Corretto.)
Conclusion
It’s a bit of a moot point since airport restaurant / lounge availability is unlikely to be a large factor in your choice of destination, but when travelling I think it’s certainly worth checking out airport restaurants if they give credit to Priority Pass holders.
If you’re looking for somewhere quiet to work, this probably isn’t the thing for you; but if you prioritise free food, most times I find that cooked-on-demand almost always beats buffet offerings hands down.
You can check out which cards offer lounge access via Priority Pass here.
There is a PP restaurant at changi – forgot the name but it does Korean-Japanese food . Passholders can pick a bento meal from a choice of maybe half a dozen? I chose the sashimi bento so the food was freshly “uncooked” to order.
TGM (Think it was previously called The Green Market). That’s actually my preferred choice in SIN too! ?
It’s effectively a restaurant, but operates like a lounge (fixed entrance charge) so mentally I didn’t categorise them the same way.
I went to TGM last Nov on Plaza Premium access and subsequently visited another PP lounge on the same day as well. Food at TGM was decent and was cooked-to-order.
Yes it’s always to TGM first for a proper meal, then to Plaza Premium for alcohol haha! The sashimi bento set is rather good. I’m surprised it has swordfish sashimi!
Its a waste that you didnt order some awesome coffee (merlos) from there.
[…] The increase in price to USD32 has definitely been coming given that Priority Pass lounge access prices have not increased for quite some time. Priority Pass can also be used for dining at certain restaurants in select airports around the world where you will receive meal credits to offset the cost of dining. You can have a read of Louis’s experience with that here when he was at Brisbane. […]