Airport lounge access membership has become synonymous with many premium and ultra premium credit cards Worldwide. Whether it is the annual membership fee covered or by covering the fee plus annual free visits, many cards have this benefit to make your travels a little better. But did you know even with those free or paid visits from your credit card you can be earning points at Plaza Premium Lounges towards future free visits, lounge benefits, merchandise and more? That’s the topic for this Loyalty Lesson.
Plaza Premium Lounges
Plaza Premium is an airport lounge operator with over 250 lounges around the globe. These lounges are open to all who want to access them – that is you don’t have to be flying business or first class, although some airlines around the world do utilize Plaza Premium lounges for their premium customers in locations where they or their partner airlines don’t have a lounge.
You can access the lounges by paying the walk up fee, pre-booking a single lounge visit or by using Plaza Premium multi-visit passes. The most popular option however comes from credit card lounge access memberships including American Express Global Lounge Collection, Mastercard TravelPass by DragonPass, and Visa Airport Companion powered by DragonPass.
The Plaza Premium Smart Traveller program
What many travellers are unaware of is that Plaza Premium has their own loyalty program called Smart Traveller. And the beauty in this free program is members can earn Arrture points for each lounge visit even if you access it for free from your credit card! No matter which method you use to access a lounge, paying a fee, credit card pass, flying business class with an airline that uses the lounges and and so on, you’ll be able to earn Arrture points. You might be wondering where did the name Arrture come from? That was the name of the program up until a few years ago after which it was renamed Smart Traveller a few years ago.
Joining the program
All you have to do is sign up for the program (it is free to join) and then download the Smart Traveller app onto your mobile device, log in, and then start collecting your points!
Earning Arrture Points
Earning Arrture Points with the Smart Traveller is easy. The points are earned when you visit a participating Plaza Premium Lounge and show your Smart Traveller card when checking in to the lounge. They do state it can take up to 6 weeks for the points to post to your account.
Points are awarded as follows for lounge visits:
Plaza Premium Lounge
100 Arrture Points for any Complimentary Entry (via credit cards, airline invitation, travel passes, corporate, etc.).
150 Arrture Points for Paid Entry (via Online Booking or Walk-in).
Except for Walk-in Paid Entry using Smart Traveller member’s discount, points earning are not valid and points will not be issued with any other promotion, discount, and/or entries using gift cards or vouchers.
Plaza Premium First
150 Arrture Points for any Complimentary Entry (via credit cards, airline invitation, travel passes, corporate, etc.).
300 Arrture Points for Paid Entry (via Online Booking or Walk-in).
Except for Walk-in Paid Entry using Smart Traveller member’s discount, points earning are not valid and points will not be issued with any other promotion, discount, and/or entries using gift cards or vouchers.
The bolding and italicizing of “via credit cards” is mine
You’ll notice the key point to earning points is that you can earn 100 to 150 point per complimentary entry when using the lounge access from your credit card which is the focus here since it the primary method many travellers use to access these lounges. So if you are accessing the lounge with your Platinum Card from American Express where you don’t ever pay a fee to enter with most versions of the card globally, you’ll still earn these points!
It is also good to note how you can earn points on all the other entry methods as well.
They also have a Birthday Bonus feature. If you have your date of birth in your Smart Traveller profile you will earn double points on all eligible lounge and dining transactions during your birthday month.
Earning additional points
The program doesn’t stop at awarding points for lounge visits. You can also earn points when dining at Plaza Premium’s airport dining partners. Currently there are only a handful of locations worldwide that are part of the dining option with Winnipeg being the lone North American location. As well you can earn points when buying Plaza Premium multi visit lounge passes, staying at Plaza Premium’s in airport Aerotel Hotels and more.
Click here to see all the Smart Traveller partners where you can earn Arrture points.
Redeeming Points
So what can you get with the points you earn from visiting the lounges and other earning options? Lot’s of things! You can redeem your points for lounge visits, lounge shower packages, premium drinks, gift cards, merchandise, and more.
Free lounge visits around the world range from 1,800 to 4,200 points. That’s a lot of lounge visits you need to make to be able to earn one free lounge visit but there are other options that don’t require as many points.
One option is to redeem 1,500 points for a lounge shower package to use at Plaza Premium Lounges globally that have shower options.
You can even redeem for Sauna & Shower packages or Premium Drinks:
There are also e-gift cards available for Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the UK and the U.S.:
Click here to see all the Smart Traveller Redemption options
Wrapping it up
The rewards may take quite a few lounge visits to achieve (unless you are earning with their other partners) but no matter what if you are visiting these lounges you might as well be getting something back for doing so! There is no cost to join Smart Traveller and with Plaza Premium having 250+ locations in many major cities around the world they really isn’t reason to not join the program
Click here to learn more about and to join the Smart Traveller program
FFB’s recommended cards for free lounge visits:
- Platinum Card from American Express – Unlimited free visits for most cardholders around the world
- Capital One Venture X Card (US)– Unlimited complimentary access for the cardholder and 2 guests per visit to Plaza Premium Lounges around the world
- Chase Sapphire Reserve Card® (US) – Unlimited access for the cardholder and 2 guests to select Plaza Premium lounges that participate in the Priority Pass program
- Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite Card (Canada) – 6 free visits annually
Title image via Dee/Rewards Canada
