It’s time to tackle a contentious question: what exactly counts as lounge pass abuse?
With the AMEX Platinum Charge, Citi Prestige, StanChart Priority Private and UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card all removing or planning to remove unlimited lounge visits, many have been quick to point the finger at so-called “lounge pass abusers”.
But defining the term isn’t exactly straightforward, because an unlimited lounge pass is a bit like an eat-all-you-can buffet. The customer is given wide discretion as to how much they’ll partake, and while there are a few general rules that I’m sure everyone can agree on (e.g. it’s wrong to sneak in without paying), there are also a lot of grey areas up for debate.
So I don’t expect we’ll reach a consensus on this, and I certainly don’t claim to have the final word on it, but here goes…
Unlimited access lounge passes are getting axed
2025 has been a rough year for lounge access benefits, with multiple banks placing caps on formerly unlimited usage.
- In February 2025, the AMEX Platinum Charge capped Priority Pass visits for the first supplementary cardholder at eight per year (was: unlimited + 1 guest)
- In June 2025, StanChart Priority Private customers had their Priority Pass visits reduced to 24 per year (was: unlimited + 1 guest)
- In April 2025, the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card quietly added a cooldown period of at least four hours between DragonPass utilisations. It will also cap DragonPass visits at 12 per year from June 2026 (currently: unlimited + 1 guest)
- In July 2025, the Citi Prestige Card will cap Priority Pass visits at 12 per year (currently: unlimited + 1 guest)
Once the dust has settled, the HSBC Visa Infinite and OCBC VOYAGE Card will be the only two remaining $120K cards offering unlimited lounge visits. But even then, both have limitations:
- The HSBC Visa Infinite offers unlimited LoungeKey visits for the principal cardholder and up to five supplementary cardholders, but has been closed to new applications since September 2024. A relaunch is planned, but I wouldn’t count on it continuing to be this generous
- The OCBC VOYAGE Card offers unlimited DragonPass visits for the principal cardholder, but does not include airport restaurants, so it’s already pre-nerfed in a sense
At the rate things are going, it could only be a matter of time before unlimited lounge visits is a perk found exclusively on cards with four-digit annual fees.
| 💳 Credit Cards with Unlimited Lounge Visits | |||
| Card | Min. Income | Annual Fee | Remarks |
 OCBC VOYAGE CardApply |
S$120K | S$498 | Principal# |
 HSBC Visa InfiniteApply |
S$120K | S$662* | Principal 4x Supp |
 StanChart Beyond CardApply |
S$200K | S$1,635 | Principal 3x Supp |
 AMEX Platinum ChargeApply |
Not stated | S$1,744 | Principal# All Supp^ |
 DBS Insignia Card |
S$500K | S$3,270 | Principal |
 UOB Reserve Card |
S$500K | S$3,924 | Principal All Supp |
 Citi ULTIMA Card |
S$500K | S$4,328 | Principal 2x Supp |
 HSBC Prive Card |
S$500K | S$5,328 | Principal 3x Supp |
 AMEX Centurion |
Not stated | S$7,630 | Principal# All Supp^ |
| *HSBC Premier customers pay S$497 ^Supp. cardholders have unlimited access to Centurion Lounges, Plaza Premium Lounges, Delta Sky Clubs and Lufthansa Lounges. Only the first supp. cardholder has a Priority Pass (with 8x visits) #Does not include airport restaurants |
|||
Now, it’s very possible that Priority Pass and DragonPass have hiked the rates they charge for unlimited access, hence the nerfs. But if you ask anyone in the industry, they’ll tell you a big reason for the hike is the increase in lounge pass abuse over the years.
What counts as lounge pass abuse?
In an ideal world, I imagine that banks and lounge programmes would prefer it if everyone with an unlimited lounge pass stuck to one utilisation per flight.
However, it’s stretching the definition to say that anything more than that counts as abuse. I see nothing wrong with redeeming one visit for a meal, and then another to enter a lounge and relax or catch up on work before boarding. Heck, I also think it’s not unreasonable to utilise three visits per flight: one spa treatment, one meal, one lounge. But if three is acceptable, then isn’t it an arbitrary line you’re drawing to say that three is OK but four isn’t; four is OK but five isn’t?
Perhaps. And in any case, I don’t think it’s helpful to define abuse based on number of utilisations alone, because frequent use does not equal abuse. X visits may be reasonable in one person’s case but not another’s (e.g. someone who visits multiple restaurants just to take photos for Instagram and ends up wasting the food).
You might define abuse as “using a lounge pass in ways that were not intended”, but that’s also a bit nebulous. For example, on occasion I’ve popped into lounges for less than five minutes, because I wanted a bottle of water and didn’t fancy paying airport prices, or because the MileCub needed a change and we wanted a clean restroom. Those probably aren’t the types of uses the programme envisioned, but does that cross the threshold into abuse?
While we’re at it, here are a few other scenarios worth mulling over.
Going on a lounge safari
A lounge safari involves hopping between several lounges before a flight, either out of curiosity, or to enjoy a range of different F&B and facilities.
If I’m passing through an airport for the first time, I might visit several lounges in quick succession in order to review them, but otherwise I doubt many people actually go on contract lounge safaris. Why? Because most contract lounges are overcrowded and underwhelming. I’d happily do an airline lounge safari in certain airports (like oneworld at Changi), but I simply can’t be bothered to hop between the SATS Premier Lounge and marhaba.
So maybe some people consider lounge safaris as abuse, but in any case I don’t believe they’re a big contributor to the problem— certainly not as much as restaurants anyway.
Taking away meals from restaurants
While it’s quite clear that taking away food from the lounge is a no-no, what about taking away meals from restaurants?
I think it’s perfectly fine to take away a meal from a restaurant if you’re on a tight connection and intend to eat your meal while waiting to board, or on the plane.
I find it a bit more grey if you’ve arrived at your final destination and take away the meal to eat at home, but I wouldn’t be dogmatic about this since it could be argued that a lounge pass is intended to make your travel more comfortable (and your journey doesn’t technically end until you’re back home).
Selling your guest benefit
You might recall that back in 2022, Singapore Airlines tightened its lounge guest policy to require that guests be travelling on the same flight as the primary passenger. This change was reported driven by a surge in people attempting to sell their guest privileges online.
Well, if anything, it’s even easier to sell the guest slot for a lounge membership, because the only requirement is that the guest holds a same-day boarding pass with any airline. Therefore, some lounge pass holders have attempted to monetise their guest benefits either by selling lounge access, or selling their restaurant dining credits at a steep discount.
To me, this is an obvious case of abuse, since the benefits aren’t intended for resale. That said, for reasons I can’t quite explain, I would be perfectly OK with offering my guest slot for free to someone I happened to spot in the vicinity of the lounge. I’ll freely admit that my logic is somewhat inconsistent, since either way the cost to the programme is the same, but there you have it.
Airport staff or pilots using lounge passes
By right, restaurants are supposed to verify that lounge pass holders have a corresponding boarding pass when redeeming set meals or credits. However, there’s a tremendous financial incentive for them to look the other way, and it’s an open secret that some airport staff and pilots use lounge passes to redeem meals on a regular basis.
Again, I think there can be little doubt that this constitutes abuse, since lounge passes are intended for bona fide travellers.
Using Priority Pass restaurant credits to buy non-consumables
Restaurants don’t just offer food. Some, like Asian Street Kitchen at Changi Terminal 2, run a roaring business selling merchandise like t-shirts, caps and tote bags, which can be purchased using the dining credits issued by Priority Pass. Some people take advantage of this by loading up every time they pass through the airport, and of course, items inevitably find their way onto Carousell.
I’m sure there’ll be some who voraciously defend such behaviour, and their arguments can sound very persuasive (“what difference does it make to Priority Pass if I have a bowl of noodles or buy a tumbler?”). But I’m not comfortable with it, because leaving aside the fact that the T&Cs state that credits are valid for the purchase of meals and drinks (“but it doesn’t say “only” meals and drinks!”), this rather goes against the spirit of the programme. It’s meant to provide you with a meal on your trip, not to decorate your home.
Why not add cooldown periods?
Instead of nerfing unlimited lounge access, I wish that banks or lounge membership programmes simply enforced cooldown periods instead. While it wouldn’t stop certain behaviours like selling guest allowances or redeeming meals without boarding passes, it would help to throttle the rate at which abuse can happen.
The Priority Pass Conditions of Use grant it the right to limit the number of times a member can redeem visits, but in practice I don’t believe this is actually enforced. The only restrictions I’m aware of is that you can’t visit the same lounge or restaurant more than once per 24 hours.
11. Priority Pass, payment card provider or other organisation may limit the number of times Customer can use their Means of Access to enter a Lounge or Merchant location within a time period and within the same arrival or departure location.
-Priority Pass
On the other hand, DragonPass has a “fair use policy” that stipulates a two-hour wait between lounge visits, and a five-hour wait between set meal redemptions (though banks are free to tighten these further).
Perhaps this explains why the cards with Priority Pass benefits implemented their nerfs relatively quickly, while the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card (with DragonPass) will only do so a year from now (though they still made the decision to nerf, so perhaps they felt cooldown periods alone weren’t enough).
Anyway it’s water under the bridge, but a cooldown period, however unwelcome, would still have been better than the removal of unlimited visits altogether.
Conclusion
Some may argue that unlimited access means unlimited access, and if there were meant to be restrictions, then those should be put in black and white. And I can sympathise with that, because it sometimes feels like lounge programmes are talking out of both sides of their mouth—they advertise unlimited access, then complain when people actually use it.
But going back to the buffet analogy: buffets don’t explicitly tell you how much you can eat, but they do expect you to exercise some degree of restraint. There’s an unwritten understanding that you’ll enjoy yourself without overdoing it, or else the buffet would have to raise prices for everyone or go out of business.
While I don’t pretend to be whiter than white, there’s certain behaviour that’s clearly pushing acceptable limits, and at the end of the day everyone gets penalised when the inevitable nerfs happen.
What would (and wouldn’t) you consider to be lounge pass abuse?
Frankly lounge standards and quality have been dropping, so I increasingly do not see the benefit of accessing a 3rd rate (and typically packed!) cafeteria.
These days, most terminal side FnB are far more attractive to hang out even to pay a couple of bucks than a depressing lounge.
Another consideration is the number of trips. If I take 100 flights per year (reasonable living in Singapore), then is 1 lounge visit per flight considered acceptable?
I am putting a deeper strain on the system than someone who flies 10 times a year and hops around five lounges for each flight.
it’s a good point, and honestly I don’t know!
seems PP isn’t too happy with either type of customer.
https://www.reddit.com/r/PriorityPass/comments/1knzjp0/never_expected_this/#lightbox
Back in the day, most frequent flyers would have status on a primary alliance and use that for lounges with lounge membership filling the gap when you hopped alliance, flew on unaligned or low cost. Nowadays, it is hard to retain status and particularly when the majors have retreated from smaller locations or become uncompetitive. So my priority pass was an emergency now it is my main lounge access
Thank you. The Prestige Telegram group has been rather disgusting in recent months, turning into a contest of how far the boundaries can be pushed. Glad that’s over — though it’s unfortunate for frequent travelers who burned through 12 legitimate lounge visits in just 2 months.
exactly. and we know who are the usual BBFAs flaunting their lounge visits like a trophy. yet they don’t feel any tinge of remorse for contributing blatantly to the nerf.
please cut us some slack. it’s already sad enough when the highlight of my day is to flex in a online group chat because I don’t have actual friends in real life who cares.
Totally agreed with you on this. And they actually think that it is okay to do it as it is the lounge / restaurant operators fault for not stopping them. And everyone was trying to outbeat each other to showcase who can do much better than the one before. I am disgusted to the max by these people.
Agreed, too bad the group is no longer moderated. Unreadable.
This article over-analyses it. I think the situation is quite simple. First, the bank will be charged each time you enter a lounge. Every time I have entered a lounge I have been asked for my boarding pass – so from my experience they do check that you are travelling that day. So, what does commonsense say “unlimited lounge passes” mean? I think commonsense says that if you are departing on a flight today, then you can enter one lounge today, before that flight. Pretty simple really. Of course if I travel 10 times a month I am going to… Read more »
Oh, and to answer the actual question “what counts as lounge abuse?”, I think the answer is also simple. Commonsense say you can enter 1 lounge before a flight. If you enter more than 1 lounge for 1 flight, then that is counted as abuse.
tell me you work for a bank without telling me you work for a bank.
My common sense tells me that, with the absence of any rules or guidelines indicating the contrary, there is absolutely nothing wrong with utilising two credits in a single flight to enjoy a meal at a restaurant before retreating to a lounge for a drink in a quieter environment.
I guess I don’t possess the same ‘commonsense’ as you, then.
Ask yourself this. If you had to pay, say $50, to enter, would you do this? Or would you weigh up the pros and cons of each lounge and then select the 1 lounge that best met your requirements?
I don’t think this principle makes sense. If I had to pay $50 to utilise a lounge or restaurant, I would simply forego the experience – I could probably get more utility for less in another establishment, especially in SIN. The problem comes about precisely because we are receiving a benefit that is advertised as unlimited. I don’t think your guideline of one visit per flight is even hinted at anywhere. Which is what leads us to this moral grey area, I suppose. I’m personally opposed to flagrant wasteful usage, but clearly also view the one-per-flight guideline to be needlessly… Read more »
Biggest issue is enforcing rules like count down etc. this means PP would need to deploy systems to every proprietor to do checks or upgrade current systems. Not sure exactly what they currently have but it’ll be costly. Next you’ll need to train the folks on the new system plus the rules that comes with it. Sometimes it’s just not worth the hassle and giving ppl too many options and variety becomes a bad thing to manage. It’s the ppl that spoil market and that’s the hardest part to manage. Good intentions get abused. I think this is life and… Read more »
I only go to lounge for a couple glasses of alcohol (and i already encountered quiet a few lounges which only offering coffee and tea – not even food not to mention alcohol), maybe to do some light work and shower during transit especially after an economy flight.
Contract lounges anyway are bad (old, underwhelming and some even bad smell) in most cases.
I personally dont understand why people are still think that go into a lounge is a kind of elevated status.
Flying business class and above and using the airlines own premium lounges is always better choice.
I don’t think I disagree with any of your points but I don’t see how it relates to the question, or attempts to answer the question
Just got my HSBC VI renewal posted on my cc bill today. Wondering if I renew that the unlimited visits status will be revised afterwards…I have 2 supplementary card members on this card. The intent is at least to offer the lounge access to my family members when I renew. Wondering if it’s a good time to do so now, lest the nerf happens and my supplementary card members get impacted, which was the whole point of the renewal exercise with HSBC VI…
it is inevitable given the increasing number of youtubers/social media posts on how to best utilise the unlimited lounge passes
// 2022, Singapore Airlines tightened its lounge guest policy
Apologies if Might sound pedantic here however This is a star alliance wide amendment and not unique to only Singaporeair.
correct. Star Alliance was the first to tighten its lounge guest policy by requiring that guests be on the same flight, rather than any Star alliance flight. However, even after this, SQ continued to allow KF elite gold and PPS members to bring a guest travelling on ANY same day SQ flight. This was later tightened in 2022 to harmonise with the star alliance policy.
Yep. The 2021 amendment started the ball rolling. SQ (and a few others iirc) had their airline specific/ffp exceptions as well.
My friends joke that restaurants lose money in a buffet when i eat LOL…
Lounge are the ones making it difficult from what I see, back then even with unlimited they refuse my entry just because they self made policy that only departure gets to enjoy the entry, the lounges are to be blamed, and like what most people are saying quality has dropped TREMENDOUSLY, I see hair not picked up in floor traps, food not top up sufficiently, disgruntled staff. SATS facilities are failing and food options crappy at best, even with unlimited, how much food one can eat before he leaves or does he not have a flight to eventually board
This article can be summarised as ‘it’s not abuse if I do it’.
You’re right in the sense that I doubt anyone considers themselves an abuser. But like I said, I don’t claim to have the last word on this, so if there’s something I’ve mentioned that you find particularly objectionable, do share what it is and why!
Yup, I personally would think using the lounge for the purpose of diaper change and grabbing a free bottle of water is a form of abuse. You wouldn’t have done it if you have to pay for it.
it’s a very strange argument to say something is abuse because “you wouldn’t have done it if you have to pay for it”. Not many people would visit asian street kitchen if they have to pay for it (the food is overpriced and poor quality), nor would they visit sats/marhaba etc if they have to pay for it as the lounges are so overcrowded and the F&B is poor.
What a fucking stupid take that pilots and airline crew are not bona fide travelers.
if you have a boarding pass, then by all means, go ahead and use your priority pass. that’s the requirement of the programme, anyway.
And this, with the attitude, is why it’s going down the drain. And Aaron is right, bona fide travelers in the airport have a boarding pass, else they can’t ‘travel’ on the plane. Do pilots and aircrew get a regular boarding pass too?
Must exclude aircrew on duty who don’t have a valid passenger boarding pass. Bank giving free meals/alcohol/merch to me at my workplace, every day, more than once a day. Wow. I think the concept of a lounge is to provide comfort/convenience while waiting for a flight. One usage every 4-6 hours would limit everyone to one ‘convenience’ visit per flight. I don’t think many people would pay (is it $50?) for an extra lounge entry to get water or to change a diaper (I’m a parent too). Frequent work trip travelers > 10X/mth will definitely benefit more. But one usage/flight… Read more »
No harm anyways in Singapore, contract lounges are just like glorified food courts. I might argue that food courts have better food
Other lounges might be better
Anyways, the average traveller is probably not going to feel the nerf
PP is the abuse. PP doesnt financially reward the lounge and yet the PP members are trough feeders looking for maximum use and benefits. Lounges are generally a airline loyalty perk. PP members have no loyalty. They consume space and capacity for true FFs. In Australia you will struggle to find a lounge that accepts PP for this reason. The airlines dont want the small amount they could be paid when that consumer os seeking maximum consumption. Its a loss maker.
Rex lounges in Australia accept PP.
I just need one lounge. Why abuse the bank?
These unlimited lounge passes are only useful for individuals who fly economy and trying to squeeze out every drop they can. So clearly there are individuals who abuse it and ignore the fair use policy. Imagine a budget flyer buying super cheap discounted tickets and fly in and out every other day to partake in free meals. Personally, I have these unlimited passes and I have not yet to use it once. Firstly, lounge access is already included in the ticket and I never want to be at the airport more than 1.5 – 2 hrs in advance. Lounges are… Read more »
Even if it’s just to get a bottle of water, the lounge will pass the full cost to the bank so bank need to make sense of it. For me, I would prefer if the bank say keep it unlimited for anyway who had used the lounge passes less than 12 times a year in the past, because that’s unlikely going to change their behaviour and sends a strong signal to people who “abuses” it. I had seen way to many instances of people lounge hop just because they can, and in the end it’s all about the P&L.