166. Airport Lounge Access for Families in 2026
Points Talk®: Your Travel Dreams, Made Possible by Points
Alex, Pam and Jess
4.8 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 3 February 2026
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How are you navigating the new rules for airport lounge access? With major changes impacting families in 2026, this episode breaks down what you need to know about the evolving lounge access landscape. The removal of free guest access and the introduction of fees for authorized users could significantly affect your travel experience.
While the loss of free guest access is a tough pill to swallow, there are still options to make the most of your lounge access. In this episode, we explore which cards are still family-friendly, the impact of these changes on your travel plans, and practical strategies for managing lounge visits with kids in tow. Whether you're weighing whether to add an authorized user or debating if paying per visit makes sense, we cover all the angles.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | One of our favorite parts of travel days is visiting airport lounges. Sadly, there have been lounge access |
| 0:06.2 | changes that impact families. Listen in as we share how to best access airport lounges for families in |
| 0:12.4 | 26. Welcome to Points Talk. We are three moms who've discovered how to leverage credit card |
| 0:18.8 | welcome offers to get hundreds of thousands of dollars |
| 0:21.6 | of travel expenses for nearly free. We've used credit card points of miles to take vacations to places |
| 0:27.1 | like Hawaii, Paris, Greece, Maldives, Japan, and so much more. And the best part, we each still have |
| 0:33.9 | 800 plus credit scores. Imagine being able to take the vacation of your dreams for nearly free. |
| 0:39.7 | It's totally possible and we're here to show you how. Hey, I'm Alex. And I'm Pam, Alex's mom. And I'm Jess. |
| 0:50.0 | Let's Talk Points. Sadly, lounge access is changing for families in 2026. Today we are talking about what exactly is changing, everything you need to know, and how you can still save on those food and drink costs when you're traveling with your family through an airport. |
| 1:07.7 | So the first one we're going to talk about is the biggest blow that happened in |
| 1:13.3 | 2025 that takes effect February 1st, 26. And that is the changes to Capital One Venture X |
| 1:20.8 | personal and business card lounge access. This the Venture X used to be our go-to number one recommendation for lounge access. This the venture X used to be our go-to number one recommendation for lounge |
| 1:31.1 | access for families. Unfortunately, that's probably going to change going forward because they really |
| 1:37.2 | truly axed this program and axed the lounge access. So there is a lot of information here. I'm not going to cover every |
| 1:47.0 | single thing because there's a lot of nuances, but basically it used to be that the primary card |
| 1:52.8 | holder could get into a Capital One lounge access or into a priority pass lounge access and bring |
| 1:58.4 | two free guests. Not only that, they could add authorized users for |
| 2:03.1 | free. And then those people could also bring two guests into a Capitol and lounge or a |
| 2:09.5 | priority pass lounge. Now you get none of that. Zero. Zero. For free at least. So now- Let's take it all away in one swoop yeah so now it is basically |
| 2:21.8 | the only people that get in free are the primary card holder so i have a venture x my husband |
| 2:28.2 | has a venture x we could both get into the capital one lounge we could not bring anyone else in |
| 2:33.6 | free unless we had a child |
... |
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