Airport lounges: How does the DragonPass airport lounge program work?

To the point Here's how the DragonPass program works, allowing access to airport lounges with your credit card .

How does the DragonPass program work? DragonPass membership levels

The membership offered to DragonPass by credit card DragonPass and Mastercard Credit Cards

DragonPass and Visa Credit Cards Visa Infinite Privilege Credit Cards Scotiabank Passport™ Visa Infinite* Card CIBC Aventura Cards

Summary Mobile application Access to airport restaurants with DragonPass Bottom Line

DragonPass is a program that provides access to lounge at partner airports around the world. Here’s how it works and how you can get in to take advantage of it, using your credit card.

How does the DragonPass program work?

DragonPass is one of the largest airport lounge networks in the around the world with over 1,300 accessible lounge.

In Canada, DragonPass lounge are present at the airport of :

Montreal YUL
Quebec YQB
Toronto YYZ
Vancouver YVR
Winnipeg YWG
Edmonton YEG
Calgary YYC

For example, at Montreal-Trudeau International Airport, two airport lounge are linked to the DragonPass program:

DragonPass membership levels

There are 3 official levels of the DragonPass program:

Classic $99 USD: the first visit is free and then you have to pay for each of your visits and those of your guests
Standard Plus $219 USD: 8 visits are offered each year of membership, but you will have to pay for your guests’ access as well as for the 9th visit.
Prestige $399 USD: you have unlimited access to all lounge, but you will have to pay for your guests’ access.

Access to airport lounges is useful for frequent travelers who may not have status with their airline, but want to be able to relax before their flight in the lounge.

It is therefore possible to subscribe directly to DragonPass.

However, we advise less frequent travelers to check out the free offers available with some credit card !

The membership offered to DragonPass by credit card

Beyond the “official” DragonPass subscription levels, there are actually “unofficial” levels offered by credit card .

Please note: You will still need to register your eligible credit card with one of the sites below in order to get a membership number and activate your account.

Afterwards, all you have to do is present your credit card at the entrance of the lounge.

Mastercard enrollment site with Priceless Travel
Visa Card Enrollment Site with Visa Airport Companion

Please note that some DragonPass lounges may not be accessible with Priceless Travel and Visa Airport Companion.

Some credit cards feature DragonPass as a benefit, but not all offers are equal. They may offer thefree DragonPass subscription , but after that, each visit will cost $32 USD.

However, some credit cards offer membership AND some complimentary visits. Here they are below.

DragonPass and Mastercard Credit Cards

Mastercard offers free DragonPass subscription to holders of World and World Elite credit cards such as the National Bank’s World Elite Mastercard^® or the HSBC World Elite^MD Mastercard^MD. However, you have to pay for each entry.

The only Mastercard credit card in Canada to offer both a DragonPass subscription AND 4 free accesses per membership year is the BMO Ascend World Elite Mastercard^®*.

DragonPass and Visa Credit Cards

Eligible Visa credit cards must be enrolled through the DragonPass / Visa Airport Companion site.

Then, free visits are granted per year of membership.

For example, if you register your card on September 15, 2022, you will have until September 14, 2023 to use your free visits to zero. All additional visits cost $32 USD. Then, from September 15, 2023, you will again find your free visits. Please note that visits do not carry over from year to year, if you have any left.

One free visit = one person (adult or child over 2, depending of the lounge) who enters free of charge.

If the number of free visits on the credit card exceeds the number of people, you have to pay. So if the credit card gives 4 free visits and you’re a family of 5, the fifth person will cost $32 USD .

Visa Infinite Privilege Credit Cards

With Visa Infinite Privilege Credit Cards, such as the TD^MD Visa Infinite Privilege* Card Aéroplan^MD or the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege* Card, you get free DragonPass membership as well as 6 free visits per membership year.

BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege* Card
^{TD^® Aeroplan^® Visa Infinite} ^{Privilege* Card}
CIBC Aeroplan^® Visa Infinite Privilege* Card
CIBC Aventura^® Visa Infinite Privilege* Card
Desjardins Odyssey^® Visa Infinite Privilege* Card
RBC^® Avion^® Visa Infinite Privilege* Card
RBC^® Avion^® Visa Infinite Privilege* for Private Banking
Vancity enviro™ Visa Infinite Privilege* card

Scotiabank Passport™ Visa Infinite* Card

With the Scotiabank Passport™ Visa Infinite* Card, you get a free subscription to DragonPass and 6 free airport lounges per year.

This is a credit card that we recommend you to have if you travel internationally: with this card, you will not pay any conversion fees for foreign currency transactions.

CIBC Aventura Cards

With the CIBC Aventura^MD Visa Infinite* Card and CIBC Aventura^MD Gold Visa* Card, you get DragonPass membership plus 4 free annual lounge accesses!

Summary

Here is a summary of the credit cards discussed in this article for access to DragonPass lounges:

	Number of annual visits	Annual fee	Comments
Scotiabank Passport™ Visa Infinite* Card	6	$139	The annual fee may be free for the first year, during a promotion
CIBC Aventura^® Visa Infinite* Card CIBC Aventura^® Gold Visa* Card	4	$139 $139	The annual fee may be free for the first year, during a promotion
TD^® Aeroplan^® Visa Infinite Privilege* Credit Card	6	$599	Also offers unlimited access to select Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounges
BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege* Card	6	$499	Add an authorized user ($99) and they will also get six free visits

Mobile application

Finally, don’t forget to download the DragonPass mobile app for iOS or DragonPass for Android. This will give you access to your DragonPass digital membership card with a QR code, which is very handy when traveling!

For DragonPass memberships obtained through Mastercard card , please use the Mastercard Travel Experiences app with iOS or with Google Play.

Then, for DragonPass subscriptions obtained through Visa card , the Visa Airport Companion app is available with iOS or with Google Play.

Access to airport restaurants with DragonPass

In addition, airport lounge access can be redeemed for a restaurant credit associated with DragonPass, as in the Priority Pass program. However, the list of restaurants linked to DragonPass is much less extensive than Priority Pass.

Most of them are located in Beijing, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo (Haneda), Boston, San Francisco and New York (JFK).

In the meantime, you can take advantage of discounts of up to 20% or offers at many airport restaurants.

Bottom Line

It is always nice to spend time in a lounge rather than in the hectic atmosphere of the airport. We regularly use this advantage during our travels and you can find these experiences in some of our articles: