Get complimentary lounge access with Visa Infinite during flight delays

A while ago we wrote about a program that Mastercard runs which offers complimentary lounge access in the event of a flight delay. As it turns out, Visa has its own version too, if you hold a Visa Infinite card.

Visa is running this program from 1 June 2018 to 30 May 2019 and your flights must be completed by 30 May 2019.

How to register?

Simply download the “Airport Companion” app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store and create an account with your Visa card.

Receive complimentary lounge access if your flight is delayed by more than 2 hours

After setting up your account, you must register your flights in the app to be eligible for complimentary lounge access if your flight is delayed. This must be done at least 6 hours before the scheduled departure time of your flight.

To qualify for complimentary lounge access, your flight has to be delayed for a minimum of 2 hours and the delay has to be pushed through to the system which DragonPass uses to monitor flights.

Once the delay has been confirmed on the DragonPass backend, you will receive your lounge passes on both your registered email address and mobile number. Upon receipt of these vouchers, you can then proceed to the lounge to wait out the delay.

As the program is in partnership with DragonPass, your complimentary lounge access passes should allow you into any of the DragonPass affiliated lounges. DragonPass currently boasts more than 1,000 lounges worldwide and in Singapore, these are the lounges which are a part of the DragonPass network:

Who’s eligible?

You will be eligible to join the program if you hold onto the following types of Visa cards issued in Asia Pacific:

• Visa Infinite
• Visa UHNW
• Visa Infinite Business

There are quite a few publicly available Visa Infinite branded cards which you can apply for. These include:

• Standard Chartered Visa Infinite
• CIMB Visa Infinite
• OCBC VOYAGE
• UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card
• Maybank Visa Infinite

Interestingly enough, you can still register for this benefit with non Visa Infinite cards, but you probably shouldn’t count on getting anything if your flight gets delayed. I was able to register for an account with the UOB PRVI Miles card which is now a Visa Signature branded card, if only it was still a Visa Infinite…

Comparing the Visa program to Mastercard’s

The program offered by Visa is rather restrictive as it only allows you to register for a maximum of two flights throughout the entire promotional period of 1 June 2018 to 30 May 2019. Also, only flights within the Asia Pacific region will qualify for lounge access.

In addition, it is unclear if your travel companions will be allowed into the lounge with you as the terms and conditions only state that the “eligible cardholder” will receive a lounge pass.

Concluding Thoughts

The flight delay lounge program which is run by Visa is definitely not as competitive as that which is offered by MasterCard, although you definitely shouldn’t be hoping for your flight to get delayed by more than 2 hours as that will definitely be a bad experience.

However, if you are holding onto a Visa Infinite card, there’s no harm in signing up for this program if you don’t already hold cards which offer complimentary lounge access.