This Is How Many Lounge Visits It Takes to Pay Your Card's Annual Fee

Complimentary airport lounge access is one of the most popular travel credit card features. And with good reason; airport lounges can be a haven out of the bustle of a busy airport (and the free food and drinks don't hurt!).

But the same credit cards that offer that lounge access also happen to be some of the most expensive when it comes to annual fees. Which raises the question: How often do you need to visit a lounge to make up for a $500 (or higher) annual fee? We crunched the numbers.

Average cost of a lounge visit: $59

There's no standardized price for all airport lounges; each network sets its own prices. You can even have variations in prices from airport to airport within the same lounge network. Here's a look at some of the most popular lounges and their prices:

Some lounges don't allow day passes, so we used the price they charge for guest passes. When you average the prices, you get an average cost of $59 per visit.

Visits per card to make up annual fee

Airport lounge access is typically a feature of two types of cards: luxury travel rewards cards and top-tier airline cobranded cards. We'll tackle the two card types separately.

Travel rewards cards

All five cards on this list come with some form of Priority Pass membership. Some cards also grant access to additional lounges, such as Centurion lounges or Capital One Venture lounges. To get a general idea of value, we'll use the average price per visit from the previous section.

Making up your card's annual fee in visits alone is way easier if you travel in a pair (or group) and take advantage of guest access. Keep in mind that not every lounge allows guests in for free, so it's best to look up the policies ahead of your flight to avoid unexpected expenses.

Airline credit cards

It's a bit more straightforward to calculate things for airline credit cards, as most only offer access to their own branded lounges. Here's a look at the three major airlines and their top-tier, lounge-access-granting credit cards:

All three cards have similar annual fees, so the big difference is in what they charge for day passes. An Admirals Club visit will run you $20 more than a United Club visit, so even though the American Airlines card has the higher annual fee, you need fewer visits to make up that value. (Whether you value a trip to an Admirals Club lounge more than a United Club lounge is another matter entirely.)

The value of access when walk-ins aren't welcome

There's another part of the lounge story that needs to be told: access. Several of the most popular lounge networks don't even allow walk-ins and/or day passes. For instance, you can't go to a Centurion lounge and buy a day pass unless you're the guest of a member.

So, what value do we place on the access your card gives you in the first place? I think it probably depends on your home airport. If you're lucky enough to be near a major airport with endless options, then access to a specific network of lounges may be less important. If you're in an airline's home hub, where your options are much more limited, then you may think that access is nigh on priceless.

And all of this is, of course, moot if you don't travel very much. In that case, you really need to make sure your high-fee credit cards offer enough other perks that the fee is worth paying regardless of your lounge visits.