How To Get Priority Pass Airport Lounges Access & Unlimited Guests With Chase Ritz-Carlton Credit Card

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While there are a few
credit cards
out there that gives you complimentary airport Priority Pass Lounge access,
they have restrictions on how many times you can visit a lounge per year or
how many guests you can take into the lounge with you each time. 

One credit card that actually stands out is the
Chase Ritz-Carlton credit card. Although this credit card has been
discontinued for new applicants, it’s still available for an upgrade but only
if you have an eligible
Chase Marriott Bonvoy personal credit card. The card also has a high annual fee of $450, but don’t let that scare you
yet because if this card is not worth that fee, I wouldn’t personally keep it
in
my wallet
each year. 

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The annual fee of the Ritz-Carlton credit card is $450. However, you receive
the following key travel benefits: 

• $300 Annual Travel Credit. Although according to the term, you can
  only use this credit for qualifying airline purchases such as baggage
  fees, seat upgrades and preferred lounge memberships or passes. But in
  practice, you can use this credit for other airline fees including
  airfare. See what triggers this $300 annual travel credit
  here. If you can use this credit every year, that’ll bring down the annual
  fee to $150.
• You also receive one
  Marriott Free Night
  every year for redemption level up to 50k points category 6 properties.
  There are quite a handful of expensive Marriott hotels and resorts in the
  world in that category. So you can maximize that free night certificate
  easily that’s worth much more than $150. Moreover, when Marriott
  implemented off-peak award pricing, you can use this free night
  certificate for a
  Category 7
  property on an off-peak date, which opens more opportunities for the
  redemption of that free night certificate. 
• In addition, you also receive $100 Global Entry statement
  credit. 
• You get complimentary Unlimited Priority Pass Lounge access as an
  account holder, and you can bring unlimited guests with you into
  the lounge as well. 

The Chase Ritz-Carlton credit card is currently the only credit card
that offers unlimited guests access so you and your travel companions can all
enjoy the lounge at the same time. This is huge for a group of travelers such
as family travelers. But that’s not all, you can add an authorized user to the
Ritz card for free and that AU can also receive his or her own Priority Pass
Membership card with the same unlimited guests policy as you in case s/he is
not traveling with you. 

The Ritz-Carlton credit card allows adding an authorized user without any
additional fees. Other premium cards such as
Amex Platinum
and
Chase Sapphire Reserved
all charge  additional fee to add an authorized user. The best thing
about adding an AU to the Ritz card is that you can request additional
Priority Pass Membership card for the AU, they can use that membership card to
enter the lounge without your presence and best of all, they can bring as many
guests as they want into the lounge with them. The primary member’s access and
unlimited guests policy are pretty much the same as you, the account
holder. 

However, please be mindful about adding an Authorized User to a credit card
because it does count towards
Chase 5/24. An explanation is needed for the Chase credit analyst about this if your AU
is denied for a Chase credit card because of that AU card. 

There are
airport restaurants
that participate in the Priority Pass program. So instead of entering a lounge
for free, you receive instant credits that can be applied to the bills at an
airport restaurant at the time of payment. However, not
all credit cards
that offer Priority Pass Membership allow restaurants access. Any Priority
Pass that is issued by American Express cannot be used at participating
airport restaurants. The Chase Ritz-Carlton’s Priority Pass, on the other
hand, can access every airport restaurants that are part of the Priority Pass
program.

Having access to global airport Priority Pass Lounge and restaurants is a
great perk to elevate your airport layover experiences. it is more fun when
you can take all your traveling parties with you into the lounge to enjoy the
lounge’s amenities, food and drinks together. 

With the card having such a high annual fee of $450, if you are not going to
travel often to take advantage of all the travel benefits that this card
offers to justify that annual fee every year, then this credit card is not
something you should upgrade to. Everyone’s priorities are different when it
comes to traveling. I enjoy
lounge access
to relax and get some food and drinks. I also love inviting my friends and
travel companions to enter the lounge with me. Every year I also travel a few
times to use up the
$300 travel credit and can use the Marriott free night certificate at a nice resort such as the
ones in Hawaii, so overall I can maximize the Ritz-Carlton credit card’s benefits enough
that it’s worthwhile for me to keep holding on to this credit card. I sure
hated to pick and choose who I want to take into an airport lounge with me
when my Priority Pass had limited guests policy, but with the Ritz-Carlton
credit card’s Priority Pass Membership I do not have to worry about
that. 

First of all, you must have an eligible personal
Marriott Bonvoy credit card
in order to upgrade to the Ritz-Carlton credit card because this credit card
is no longer available for new applications. You have to call Chase using the
phone number on the back of your current Marriott’s credit card and request
the upgrade. It’s worth mentioning that it is also possible to downgrade back
to your previous low annual fee Marriott card should you decide that the
Ritz-Carlton credit card is not the right card for you down the road. 

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