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I’m not entirely sure what’s going on with the Priority Pass restaurant program but clearly all is not well.
Earlier this year all American Express cards that offer Priority Pass Select membership stopped allowing cardholders to use their membership at participating restaurants around the world and I’m getting the sense that we’re seeing more restaurants leaving the program than joining it.
LAX has seen its fair share of Priority Pass restaurant dramas in the past year with Campanile (T4) joining and then leaving the program in the space of two weeks and Barney’s Beanery (T2) deciding that enough was enough last November. Now there are strong rumors that another LAX restaurant is about to jump off the Priority Pass ship.
The Flight Brothers Blog has reported that P.F Chang’s at the Tom Bradley International Terminal will be leaving the Priority Pass restaurant program from 26 October 2019.
No official statment appears to have been made by the restaurant or Priority Pass (PF Changs still appears on the Priority Pass website and there’s no note to say that it’s leaving the program) but apparently staff at the restaurant are telling guests that 25 October 2019 will be the last day that PF Changs LAX accepts Priority Pass memberships.
If this rumor turns out to be true (and there’s no reason to disbelieve it) this will leave LAX with just 2 Priority Pass restaurants (Rock & Brews in T1 and Point The Way Cafe in T6) across all its terminals.
Priority Pass members passing through the Tom Bradley International Terminal will still have access to the Korean Air Lounge which is found on the same level as PF Chang’s, but no matter what you think of the food at PF Chang’s it’s still better than what the Korean Air lounge offers.
Bottom Line
I have no inside information as to why there seem to be so many issues with Priority Pass restaurants but the general consensus appears to say that a combination of slow reimbursement from Priority Pass and the lack of tips from visitors are the key reasons that we’re seeing restaurants leave the program.
Personally speaking, I’m not really going to miss PF Chang’s as I usually have access to the Qantas First Class Lounge or the Oneworld Business Class lounge when I’m traveling through the Tom Bradley International Terminal, but with only the Korean Air lounge remaining as a Priority Pass option in the terminal this isn’t going to be welcome news for a lot of travelers.
[HT: Rene’s Points]
Korean lounge is useless if your flight is outside the 1 to 6pm priority schedule time frame you can use it specially if you are flying at night.
It is now 5pm. Just flew out to Hong Kong and was denied because cut off is now 5pm