How can I give my friend a free Priority Pass membership?
Editor's Note
The Priority Pass lounge network has become increasingly popular over the last few years, even to the point that sometimes affiliated lounges are filled to capacity. If you want to give a friend, family member or other acquaintance a Priority Pass membership at little to no cost to either party, you might be wondering how to do it.
Here's what to know about gifting someone a Priority Pass membership and what to keep in mind when doing so.
How to gift a Priority Pass membership
You've got a couple of options here. The first and easiest, but not the cheapest, is to purchase a Priority Pass membership for your friend. The company sells memberships at three tiers — Standard, Standard Plus and Prestige. The Standard tier incurs a $35 fee per visit, while Standard Plus receives 10 free visits before the same $35 fee goes into effect.
The Prestige tier grants unlimited free visits for the member, but it costs a significant $469 each year.
So, if you wanted, you could buy one of these memberships and make sure your friend has their own credit card on file with Priority Pass for any applicable visit fees, though perhaps giving someone a gift that comes with additional fees isn't going to make you the most popular friend in the world.
Considering all of that, perhaps a better — and cheaper — option is to add your friend as an authorized user on a premium travel credit card that not only comes with a complimentary Priority Pass membership but also includes a membership for authorized users.
But what about any additional fees? Well, the membership with all those cards comes with no visit fees for the membership holder, but some of them do include fees for guests. Certain cards may have fees for adding authorized users.
If you want to add your friend as an authorized user for Priority Pass membership for no extra fee, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is a good option.
And if you're wondering whether it's dangerous to give your friend an authorized user credit card, seeing as you'll be responsible for any charges incurred on it, the answer is yes, that's definitely dangerous.
But you only need to use it to request an additional Priority Pass card and then hand that membership card to them. That's the card they'll need to access the lounges, and then there's no danger of them charging anything to you.
Bottom line
Before you request an authorized user credit card in someone else's name, ask them if that's OK since it may very well appear on their credit report and could affect their ability to get credit cards down the road. So, if you were hoping to make this gift a surprise, perhaps the authorized user route isn't the best way to go.
But your friend will probably be thrilled enough with a free Priority Pass membership that you don't really need to make it a surprise as well, so ask them if it's all right and if it is, you're off and running.
Related: 10 credit cards that offer Priority Pass airport lounge access