Standard Chartered Priority Private customers currently enjoy a suite of travel benefits, including eight complimentary airport limo transfers per year, reimbursement of the application fee for an APEC Business Travel Card, and unlimited Priority Pass visits together with one guest.
Unfortunately, the lounge perk is set to be nerfed from early June 2025, when the number of free visits will be capped at 24 per year.
This follows similar moves by the AMEX Platinum Charge and Citi Prestige to cut back on Priority Pass privileges this year, and is a concerning trend to say the least.
StanChart Priority Private nerfs lounge benefit
Standard Chartered Priority Private clients who maintain a minimum AUM of at least S$1.5M currently receive unlimited Priority Pass lounge visits, together with one guest.Â
This benefit is offered through the somewhat confusingly-named Priority Banking Visa Infinite Card (Priority Banking is a lower tier of status, but Standard Chartered doesn’t offer a separate card for Priority Private customers).
However, from 2 June 2025, the entitlement will be cut to 24 complimentary visits per membership year. A maximum of two visits can be utilised at a time, so it will not be possible to bring more than one guest per entry.
This is a significant downgrade, especially considering the fact that until 31 July 2023, 24 visits was the entitlement granted to Priority Banking customers with an AUM of “just” S$200,000!
If it’s any consolation, Priority Private clients whose Priority Pass membership was issued or renewed on or before 1 June 2025 will continue to enjoy unlimited Priority Pass visits, until their next renewal cycle.
In other words, if you’re a newly-minted Priority Private client who hasn’t gotten around to applying for their Priority Pass yet, you’d better get it done ASAP!
The revised T&Cs for the airport lounge benefit can be found here.
No impact to Priority Banking
For the avoidance of doubt, there is no change to the entitlement for Priority Banking clients, who will continue to receive 12 visits per membership year.
| 💳 StanChart Priority Visa Infinite Lounge Visits |
||
| Â | Till 1 Jun 25 | From 2 Jun 25 |
| AUM ≥S$200,000 | 12 | |
| AUM< S$200,000 | 2 | |
| Priority Private or Private Banking | Unlimited + 1 guest | 24 |
| Lounge visits are awarded to principal cardholders only | ||
What’s odd is that there does not appear to be any restriction on the number of visits that Priority Banking clients can utilise at one time. In other words, they could bring 11 guests at one time if they so pleased, which is an odd incongruence.
A push to Beyond?
The conspiracy theorist in me can’t help but wonder whether this nerf is an attempt to nudge Priority Private clients towards the newly-launched StanChart Beyond Card, which offers unlimited lounge visits for the principal cardholder and up to four supplementary cardholders.
 StanChart Beyond Card |
|||
| Â | Regular | Priority Banking | Priority Private |
| Annual Fee | S$1,635 | ||
| Welcome Offer | 100,000 miles |
||
| Local Earn | 1.5 mpd | 2 mpd | 2 mpd |
| FCY Earn | 3 mpd | 3.5 mpd | 4 mpd |
| FCY Dining | 8 mpd | ||
| Birthday Meal | 1x | ||
| Business Class Upgrades | 2x | ||
| Airport Lounge | ∞ + 6 guests (Principal & Supp.) |
||
| Airport Limo | – | 2x | 10x^ |
| Accor Plus | – | – | Yes (Explorer Plus) |
| Mastercard Tier | World Elite Mastercard |
||
| ^Includes the 8x complimentary limo rides that Priority Private customers already enjoy without the Beyond Card | |||
And yet it’s not a perfect replacement for the Priority Private lounge benefit, because the StanChart Beyond Card offers a maximum of six guest visits per year (an allowance that is shared across the principal and all supplementary cards).
While a principal cardholder could give supplementary cards to their spouse and parents, they wouldn’t be able to do the same for children, who cannot hold a supplementary card until they turn 18 (or 16, if they have an acceptance letter from an overseas educational institution).
To learn more about the StanChart Beyond card, refer to my article below.
Conclusion
Standard Chartered Priority Private clients will see their Priority Pass entitlement cut from unlimited visits with one guest to 24 visits per membership year. This is a significant downgrade, given that two years ago, 24 visits was the entitlement granted to Priority Banking customers.
The silver lining is that the change only impacts new applications or renewals from 2 June 2025, so if your Priority Pass was issued prior to this, you can continue enjoying unlimited visits until the next renewal.Â
This is the third nerf of an unlimited Priority Pass benefit in 2025 so far, and I do worry it’s not the last. Perhaps Priority Pass has changed its pricing behind the scenes, or banks are finally starting to crack down on overzealous utilisation?
If one is banking at this tier, you would not usually travel in the lower classes anyway or have airline status so this reduction is for the rare edge cases during the year where one has to slum it.
100% agree. Only use PP when with >1 friend not in J. So it’s better to have 12 PP and can use as many as I want at one go. Citi Prestige change is good. Most years I don’t use any PP at all, despite having 5 PP. However SpeedPass is useful in some airports when some airlines don’t provide expedited immigration. I would prefer if cards remove the PP benefit and instead give us more annual miles or free hotel nights or restaurant credit or even SpeedPass or something everyone would definitely use. The PP and limo benefits which… Read more »