I cannot recall the last time I paid for a meal at the airport. If I’m flying, I and my travel buddies are almost certainly eating for (practically) free.

Free food is doubly important at the airport, where restaurant menu prices are insulting. With an appetizer and a mixed drink, you could be staring at an $80 check after tip. Priority Pass airport lounge membership solves the overpriced food crisis in two ways:

1. Priority Pass gives you access to 1,300+ airport lounges, most of which offer unlimited free alcohol and snacks. Though many offerings are hardly a proper meal, they’re substantial enough to keep you from visiting an airport restaurant
2. Priority Pass gives you free food at 50+ airport restaurants

This second bullet is the one I want to remind you about. It’s quite an unsung hero among travel credit card benefits. I’ll share some tricks you may not have thought of to save potentially $100+ at every participating restaurant!

Easily save hundreds per year with the Priority Pass restaurant benefit

Would you keep a credit card that offered a benefit of free food at airport restaurants? I probably would.

Of course, I’m just rephrasing the fact that Priority Pass gives you up to $56 in food at over 50 airport restaurants worldwide (28 of them within the U.S.). Here’s how it works: The Priority Pass cardholder gets $28 off their meal. They can also bring along a guest and receive $28 more deducted from the bill. You can read the list of participating restaurants here (though note that some are still temporarily closed in wake of coronavirus).

A $56 discount restricted to participating restaurants; that’s far from carte blanche access to any and all airport cuisine your heart desires — you’ll need to be at an airport with a participating restaurant, and you’ll need to be prepared to walk, as the restaurant may be on the other side of the airport.

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If you’re exhausted and just want a quick meal, you may not get as much value from this perk. But if you’re like us and you get a thrill out of free stuff, you’re probably willing to hop aboard the airport Skylink to a different terminal for a complimentary dinner. I’ve gone from Terminal 4 at New York-JFK to Terminal 8 just for a free salmon filet at Bobby Van’s Steakhouse. And it was worth it.

I’ll cross the airport to get to a participating restaurant even if I’m not hungry. I just like getting free stuff.

My wife and I were recently in San Francisco and stopped to eat at the San Francisco Giants Clubhouse in Concourse F. For $58.95, we ordered exactly what we wanted. Our check came to $2.95.

4 pro tips to maximize the Priority Pass restaurant discount

There are four things to know if you want to get the biggest bang from this benefit.

1. Amex cards don’t qualify

Priority Pass accounts acquired via an American Express card, such as The Platinum Card® from American Express or Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express® Card, do not offer this restaurant benefit. You’ll need to get your Priority Pass membership through a card like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® or the U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve Visa Infinite® Card. (Enrollment required to receive complimentary Priority Pass membership on cards.)

The information for the U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve has been collected independently by Million Mile Secrets. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

2. Tip on the original bill, not the final tally

This is the least “free” part of the Priority Pass restaurant credit. You can’t use it to tip. So for the $56 you get in free food, you may pay ~$10 anyway.

If you’re shamelessly unencumbered by social norms like tipping etiquette, I suppose this one doesn’t apply to you.

3. You can visit multiple restaurants in the same airport

Many larger airports house multiple restaurants that participate in the Priority Pass program (again, look at our list here). You can hop from one to the other, gathering multiple free meals in a single trip. When this is the case, you can effectively split your meal in half and get all the expensive stuff. For example:

• Restaurant 1: Mixed drink, appetizer, entree
• Restaurant 2: Mixed drink, dessert

You and a guest could easily save $112 in food this way.

4. Travelers in two-player mode can get double the value

If you and your travel buddy both have a Priority Pass account, you could get double the value at each restaurant, if you’ve got the audacity. I’ve never done this personally, but the Priority Pass system would have no way of catching you out.

Each of you have guest privileges. You could use your membership and guest privilege to get $56 off the meal. Then your travel buddy could start another bill, and save another $56 when claiming you as their guest. This shouldn’t entail more than a quick explanation to the server (hopefully they could split tender on the bill), but you may have to pay for the first check before starting the next.

And get this — authorized users on select cards get full Priority Pass membership for free! Here’s what it costs to add authorized users on popular cards:

• Chase Sapphire Reserve – $75 per year
• The Ritz-Carlton Credit Card – $0 (card not available to new applicants but you can upgrade to it from other Chase Marriott personal credit cards)
• Citi Prestige® Card – $75

That means you could potentially double your restaurant savings for zero dollars by adding your travel partner as an authorized user. I really don’t see how this could fail, but comment if you’ve got data points. At the very least, this will work if you both are a primary cardholder of one of the above cards.

The information for the Citi Prestige has been collected independently by Million Mile Secrets. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Bottom line

If you’ve got a Priority Pass membership from a non-Amex card (such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve), you can get up to $28 in food at over 50 airport restaurants. And you can quadruple that figure if your travel buddy has Priority Pass, too (which you can give them for cheap/free)!

Plus, if you’re at an airport with multiple restaurants, you can hop from one to another, saving potentially hundreds of dollars during a single connection — if you’ve got the time.

Let me know if you’ve got any tricks to using Priority Pass! And subscribe to our newsletter for more travel tips and money-saving tricks like this in the future.

Chase Sapphire Reserve®

Annual fee

$550

Welcome offer

Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That’s $900 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®

Why we like it

The Chase Sapphire Reserve is the premium Chase travel credit card. In addition to earning 3x points on all travel and dining purchases, this card comes with a $300 annual travel credit and other travel and dining perks that quickly make it worth the $550 annual fee. One of our favorite benefits is the 50% point value boost that cardholders get when redeeming through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal.

Who is it best for?

The Chase Sapphire Reserve is best for those who travel relatively frequently. With protection against canceled and delayed flights, access to 1,000+ airport lounges and an up to $100 Global Entry credit, those who travel internationally will enjoy this card. This card also increases the value of Chase Ultimate Rewards by 50% when redeeming through the Chase Travel Portal. This applies to rewards earned with any of their other credit cards, making it the ideal card to double up with a second Chase card with complimentary earning categories.

Credit Score Recommended

Credit ranges are a variation of FICO® Score 8, one of many types of credit scores lenders may use when considering your credit card application.

Excellent

780

850

Details

• Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That’s $900 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®
• $300 Annual Travel Credit as reimbursement for travel purchases charged to your card each account anniversary year. Through December 31, 2021, gas station & grocery store purchases will also count towards earning your Travel Credit
• 3X points on travel immediately after earning your $300 travel credit. 3X points on dining at restaurants including eligible delivery services, takeout and dining out & 1 point per $1 spent on all other purchases
• Get 50% more value when you redeem your points for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards®. For example, 60,000 points are worth $900 toward travel
• With Pay Yourself Back℠, your points are worth 50% more during the current offer when you redeem them for statement credits against existing purchases in select, rotating categories
• 1:1 point transfer to leading airline and hotel loyalty programs
• Access to 1,300+ airport lounges worldwide after an easy, one-time enrollment in Priority Pass™ Select and up to $100 application fee credit for Global Entry or TSA Pre✓®
• Count on Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance, Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver, Lost Luggage Insurance and more

Pros

• Travel credit of up to $300 covering a flexible range of travel related purchases
•  Airport lounge access through Priority Pass
• 50% value boost when redeeming points through Chase Travel Portal
• Long list of travel protection benefits
• Flexible and transferrable points

Cons

•  $550 annual fee, and $75 annual fee per authorized user
• Low value welcome offer compared to other high end travel cards

Reward Rate

• 3X points on travel immediately after earning your $300 travel credit.
• 3X points on dining at restaurants including eligible delivery services, takeout and dining out.
• 1 point per $1 spent on all other purchases

APR

16.99%-23.99% Variable

Credit Needed

Excellent

Foreign Transaction Fee

$0

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