My favourite bank card perk is bringing family and friends into lounges at no cost as friends.
I like letting my youngsters go to city on sizzling chocolate and treats throughout lengthy layovers and listening to their determined opinions on the lounges they’ve visited. (Their take: The Capital One Lounge at Dulles Worldwide Airport (IAD) close to Washington, D.C., has the perfect meals, and the Escape Lounge at Rhode Island T. F. Inexperienced Worldwide Airport (PVD) close to Windfall apparently has the nicest loos.)
I really feel beneficiant after I can supply a greater preflight expertise to work colleagues or a free meal to freelancers on a funds. I benefit from the look of surprise on my pals’ faces after they strut right into a lounge like they seem to be a VIP.
I get lounge entry by way of my Capital One Enterprise X Rewards Credit score Card, which affords a twofer: a free Precedence Move membership and entry to Capital One’s unique lounges and dining-focused “Landings.” I stay in Virginia, Capital One’s dwelling state, which suggests on almost each departing flight, I can swing by the Capital One Lounge and a collection of Precedence Move lounges at IAD — although, realistically, after I’m not on the Capital One Lounge, I am nearly all the time on the Turkish Airways Lounge — or the Capital One Touchdown at Ronald Reagan Washington Nationwide Airport (DCA).
My lounge entry privileges have modified since I first acquired the Enterprise X. Initially, I may entry Precedence Move’s community of eating places, the place I may get a $28 eating credit score for myself and a visitor, however that perk rapidly disappeared. I did not miss it an excessive amount of.
However this yr, Enterprise X made an even bigger change. It took away free lounge entry for any licensed customers (in my case, my husband) and eliminated free visitor entry for Capital One Lounges and Landings, a lot to my youngsters’ chagrin.
I used to be so dissatisfied in these adjustments that I missed the main points of the ultimate change: Precedence Move Lounge friends had been additionally now not free.
In mid-February, simply after these adjustments went into impact, I used to be flying out of Italy’s Venice Marco Polo Airport (VCE) and ran right into a pal from my cruise in line for the Marco Polo Membership. He did not have entry however was questioning if he may pay for it.
“Let me see if I can visitor you in,” I stated as a result of I could not keep in mind the brand new coverage or when it began. I requested the lounge agent if I may convey a visitor, and she or he stated sure. I requested how a lot it will value, however she did not ask for a bank card and waved us each by way of.
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I assumed my visitor was free after which uncared for to assessment my bank card assertion. (I do know, I do know. I am a busy working mother, and it slipped my thoughts!)
Two months later, I used to be with a pal in Barranquilla, Colombia, the place its tiny Ernesto Cortissoz Barranquilla Worldwide Airport (BAQ) surprisingly had a Precedence Move lounge. As soon as once more, I requested if I may convey a visitor and if there was a cost, however the lounge agent merely checked out my membership card and our boarding passes earlier than sending us into the lounge.
Possibly the brand new coverage hadn’t gone into impact or was on the discretion of every lounge, I believed, joyful to feed my pals at no cost.
After that latter journey, I checked out my bank card assertion and realized I might made an expensive mistake.
On my checklist of fees had been two $35 charges for my two Precedence Move lounge friends in 2026. I do not thoughts paying for my pals, however we may have purchased airport meals for lower than $35.
My downfall had been in assuming that the lounges would cost me for visitor entry on the time of entry. Once they did not swipe my bank card, I believed my friends to be free. In actuality, the lounges had been sending my data to Precedence Move, which was then charging my Enterprise X account for the friends.
Fortunately, I solely made this error twice earlier than realizing what I might finished and truly studying the effective print of Capital One’s new lounge entry insurance policies. My days of bringing family and friends into lounges at no cost as friends at the moment are sadly over.
The brand new coverage diminishes my lounge profit in two methods, one apparent and one not. I’m clearly shedding the good thing about with the ability to convey free friends to the lounge. However now, at any time when I journey with household or pals who haven’t got their very own Precedence Move account (which is most of them), I should determine whether or not to desert them for snacks and Wi-Fi within the lounge or accompany them to overpriced airport eating places.
In different phrases, I am now much less probably to make use of my lounge entry when touring with others, making that perk much less helpful.
For now, Enterprise X’s $300 annual journey credit score, World Entry/TSA PreCheck assertion credit score and lounge entry for my solo travels is sufficient to maintain me paying the $395 annual payment. However ought to these advantages disappear or the annual payment skyrocket, I should rethink which playing cards I hold in my pockets.
Till then, I will must wrestle with the selection between chasing free airport meals and being an excellent pal — and determine new methods to feed my ravenous teen and tween for much less on household holidays. They are not going to be joyful about giving up free sizzling chocolate and bougie loos. And neither am I.
