Hawaii travelers lost one airport perk that still felt useful when Priority Pass access ended at Honolulu’s Plumeria Lounge last year. Now Alaska has reopened Priority Pass access at its San Francisco lounge, but only with a $15 co-pay, a requirement to be flying Alaska, Hawaiian, or a partner airline, and a four-hour limit.
Priority Pass access to Plumeria ended on April 1, 2025, during the Hawaiian-Alaska integration into Atmos Rewards. BOH covered that change when Priority Pass cardholders lost access to Honolulu’s Plumeria Lounge. Travelers using cards like AmEx Platinum and Chase Sapphire Reserve lost access to the better Honolulu lounge tied to those memberships, and when Priority Pass later returned at HNL, it was through a different lounge.
Hawaii travelers lost the best lounge.
When Plumeria dropped out of Priority Pass, cardholders lost a lounge with some real value at Honolulu. It offered a quieter place to sit upstairs, a better break from the terminal, and a more useful airport benefit than many card-linked options in Hawaii. Once that access ended, the lounge became less crowded for the smaller group still allowed in because other travelers had been shut out.
Our own Plumeria lounge review after the change showed exactly that. The room felt calmer and less packed, not because the lounge improved, but because fewer travelers were allowed through the door after Priority Pass access ended.
San Francisco is important to Hawaii travelers because it is one of the main gateways for Hawaii flights and a common connection point. Many Hawaii itineraries already run through SFO, which makes a $15 co-pay there directly relevant to Hawaii travel.
Alaska reopened Priority Pass at SFO, but now there’s a fee.
Travelers with a qualifying card and Priority Pass membership can still use Alaska’s SFO lounge, but now they must also pay $15, fly Alaska, Hawaiian, or a partner airline, and enter the lounge within four hours of departure. The lounge still participates in Priority Pass, but the value of that participation changes once travelers pay extra at the door.
The card issuer can still advertise lounge access, and the airline can still say the lounge is in the network, but the traveler who already pays a high annual fee now has to decide whether the benefit is worth paying for again.
This is showing up elsewhere, too.
The SFO move is not standing alone in such changes. The Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse at LAX returned to Priority Pass with a $35 co-pay. The airports and lounges are different, but the result is still familiar. The benefit remains in the network, but travelers pay extra to use it.
People keep cards like the AmEx Platinum and the Chase Sapphire Reserve in part because lounge access helps justify their high annual fees. When that access weakens or is only partially paid on arrival, the value declines while the annual fee remains unchanged.
Honolulu got Priority Pass back, but only at the Premier Club.
Priority Pass did return to Honolulu, but not through Plumeria. It came back through the Premier Club in Terminal 1. So Hawaii did get lounge access back in a technical sense, but travelers did not have the old benefit restored; instead, they got a lower-tier substitute in a different room.
BOH already covered the massive Hawaiian-Alaska lounge upgrade planned for Honolulu, including the new Mauka Concourse lounge expected by late 2027. That future space is supposed to serve both airlines and be about five times larger than Plumeria, which makes the current HNL setup look transitional. But for travelers flying now, they are still dealing with the downgraded version instead of the larger shared lounge being promised for later.
Hawaii travelers have a reason to ask where this is headed.
SFO may be a one-off situation, and Honolulu may keep its current setup for now. But Hawaii travelers have already watched this benefit get reduced once. First, Plumeria disappeared from Priority Pass. Then, Premier Club became the replacement. Now, Alaska has shown at SFO that access can return with a fee attached. So this is a work in process.
Lead Photo of Plumeria Lounge at HNL. All photos © Beat of Hawaii.
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