With a wallet full of credit cards, it's best practice to commonly assess your credit card portfolio to ensure that the benefits you receive from the cards outweigh the annual fees that you pay. If not, it's time to close that card or cards in most cases.

The Priority Pass membership is a standard perk these days for premium credit cards. It grants you access to Priority Pass' network of lounges (and even some restaurants, where you get a free set tab) located all over the world. Not all Priority Pass lounges are created equal, but thanks to sites like Lounge Buddy you can vet a lounge before travel.

Priority Pass memberships (with varying levels of free access) come with all the following credit cards:

Chase Sapphire Reserve®
Citi Prestige
American Express Platinum
American Express Business Platinum
Chase Ritz-Carlton Card
U.S.

Priority Pass recently added the Turkish Airlines Lounge at Washington Dulles (IAD) to its network.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve®, Citi Prestige, and all American Express Platinum cards offer free Priority Pass Select membership, emphasis on "Select."

Last month I got this email from a vexed reader:
So here is my experience with the highly touted Chase SAPPHIRE Reserve card and its Select Priority Pass allegedly good for getting into 500+ airport lounges.

Newark Airport, Oct. 13, 2016, flying United Airlines Newark to Geneva: "Sorry, don't take the Priority Pass card in THIS (United) lounge.

Priority Pass--the free lounge access you get with many premium credit cards--has a rule: no card, no lounge access.

Credit card links have been removed from posts and added to the menu bar at the top of every page of MileValue under the heading Top Travel Credit Cards.

There's a way around that: you can turn your phone into your membership card in just a few steps.

Download the Priority Pass app.

2. Open the menu and click Log In.

3.

In October Japan Airlines and Priority Pass introduced a new partnership. You can now buy a Priority Pass Prestige membership for 40,000 JAL miles, which means you and any travel companions get unlimited access to any of the 900 Priority Pass lounges.
But is that even a good deal?
No.

Japan Airlines miles are not the easiest to come by. It's likely your only access to JAL miles is via SPG point transfers.

We value SPG points at 2.5 cents each.

In May, I visited the Sala VIP Pau Casals at Barcelona Airport. In August, I visited the very similar Sala VIP Miro. Here's what you can expect from these Priority Pass lounges that you can enter for free with a Chase Sapphire Reserve®, Citi Prestige, or American Express Platinum Card.

The Sala VIP Pau Casals is available to passengers flying within the Schengen Area, and the Sala VIP Miro is after passport control for passengers leaving the Schengen Area.

Both offer a comfortable place to sit, free wifi, enough food for a meal, and free alcohol.

Priority Pass is the world's largest independent lounge access program, and now has 900+ member lounges in 400+ cities in 120+ countries.

I fly into and out of some pretty obscure airports worldwide, and I almost always have access to a Priority Pass lounge as I wait for my flight, usually with some good options for free food and drink, comfortable seating, and free wifi.

You can get Priority Pass membership for free and get lounge access for yourself and two guests for free no matter what airline you're flying by getting the Citi Prestige® Card.
How Priority Pass Works

Almost every time I fly, I get free lounge access one of three ways:

International Business and First Class passengers get lounge access throughout the journey, and I fly a lot of international premium cabin awards.
Most airports have one or more lounges affiliated with Priority Pass.