Capital One has announced significant changes to the lounge access benefits for its Venture X and Venture X Business credit cards, effective February 1, 2026. These adjustments will impact authorized users and guest access policies for both Capital One and Priority Pass lounges.
Capital One Announces Lounge Access Changes For Venture X Cardholders
Let’s address the changes first, then I’ll offer my thoughts below.
Authorized User Lounge Access
Currently, Venture X cardholders can add up to four authorized users at no additional cost, with each user enjoying full lounge access benefits (including the ability to bring in two guests). Starting February 1, 2026, authorized users will no longer receive complimentary lounge access.
Instead, primary cardholders can opt to pay a $125 annual fee per authorized user to grant them access to Capital One Lounges, Capital One Landings, and Priority Pass lounges. This change applies to both personal and business versions of the card.
Guest Access Policy Changes
For Capital One Lounges and Landings, the current policy allows primary cardholders to bring up to two guests (one for Landings) at no charge. Under the new policy, complimentary guest access will be eliminated unless the cardholder meets a $75,000 annual spending threshold.
Upon reaching this threshold, cardholders will regain the ability to bring two guests into Capital One Lounges and one guest into Capital One Landings for the remainder of that calendar year and the entire following year.
Without meeting this spending requirement, guest access will cost $45 per adult and $25 per child aged 2 to 17; children under 2 will continue to be admitted for free.
Priority Pass Guest Access Adjustments
Currently, Venture X cardholders enjoy complimentary guest access to Priority Pass lounges. As of February 1, 2026, this benefit will be discontinued for personal cardholders, who will need to pay $35 per guest per visit.
However, Venture X Business cardholders will retain the ability to bring up to two guests into Priority Pass lounges at no additional cost (any additional guests will incur a $35 fee per person).
My Thoughts
In one sense, this is hardly surprising…the Venture X card offered outsized value with the ability to add up to four authorized users, each of whom had lounge access for themselves and two guests.
My initial thought was that this negatively impacts families and a “war on families” post was brewing in my mind. I’m not sure that is fair…the $25/child access strikes me as close to a Goldilocks figure as possible. My kids won’t eat $25/each worth of food…but paying $25 each to spend a couple of hours in a tranquil place strikes me as a price I’m willing to pay…and I suspect a lot of thought went into arriving at the figure.
The Venture X card still offers a $300 travel credit and 10,000 anniversary miles, which more than offsets the annual fee. I’m not happy about these changes, but in light of the horrendous overcrowding, they strike me as reasonable…
I do hate to see the Priority Pass guest access dismantled because I cannot think of any case where a $35 fee is justified. Sadly, it would not surprise me to see American Express and Chase copy this.
But unlike airline co-branded cards, my first thought is not to cut up the card. That’s a victory for Capital One.
CONCLUSION
Capital One is tightening up lounge access for Venture X cardholders starting next February. The news is negative for those who travel with guests or take full advantage of the authorized user benefit, but not so unreasonable as to warrant cancelling the card. This isn’t just about overcrowding: it’s about revenue generation too. But the overcrowding is such a big issue now that addressing it in this way does not strike me as unacceptable.
What do you think about these negative changes?
I’m unclear how this impact families any more than anybody else. I guess if you were entering with a spouse and three children, you’ll have to pay $120 to enter now, but they’re not specifically targeting families. One could argue that men from Saudi Arabia with three wives are truly being treated the worst. For someone who spends $75K and has a family, wouldn’t they now be getting more value out of the card than I am?
My big question is whether they’ll maintain their high standards, or use this as an opportunity the cut the quality of the lounge.
Or you could just each have your own card and just pay for the kids when family travel is required. My wife and I both have our own. Honestly if you can’t easily spend $300 travel credit and the 10k anniversary miles a year maybe you shouldn’t have a travel credit card. You’re paying the bank upfront to claw back value. The only ones complaining are the ones that got a taste of premium travel perks that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to and are now complaining that it is being taken away. Those that have had the AMEX Platinum card are used to not having guest privileges. I spent $75k one year to see what my life was like and to be honest not much different as I would be the one traveling most of the time.
I say it’s great. Was in an Admirals Club this weekend and was more families and kids than adults. Granted it was a weekend so less business travelers but it seemed like every one had 3-5 kids. Hardly a peaceful experience.
I am beginning to think that the AAdmirals Club is the better way to go. At least there are no waiting lists, and when something goes awry with an AA flight, the club agents have always been fantastic with rebooking and issuing hotel vouchers.
100%, they are great. Actually better than gate and counter agents when issues arise.
You being an AA flyer explains a lot
As a Venture X cardholder, this sucks, but at the same time, the C1 Lounge benefit has become essentially unusable at DFW due to overcrowding. It is frequently a 45-minute+ wait, so unless you think to add yourself to the waitlist as you’re entering the airport, there’s no practical way to get in. So it felt like something needed to be done. That being said, this feels like an overreaction in the other direction a bit. A better solution, it seems to me, would be to issue a fixed number of guest passes per year (maybe 4-6?), and then unlock additional unlimited guests with $75k in spending.
The C1 lounges are just too crowded, but did they also have to kill off the Priority Pass guest benefit. Good grief!
horrible access anyways. always had to deal with rude front desk staff and wait 1+ hr to enter
If CapOne hadn’t just chopped access less than 6 months ago, I’d be less annoyed. I think that some limits are reasonable, but they’re cutting benefits and the Priority Pass cut doesn’t make any sense. The CapOne Lounge footprint isn’t large enough yet to cut that (even though lots of folks have PP through other cards, too).
Reminds me of Soviet times (I didn’t live through them, but I was there just after it was over). Tovarisch, solution to problem of demand? Just give out less and make line longer!
Did it ever occur to anyone to actually build more to meet demand? Can they close down some of the magazine stands that they try to push people into by shutting off the moving walkways? “Wow! Nothing I love more than walking a mile to my gate so I guess I’ll pay $12 for a copy of Field and Stream!”
Like, seriously, $75K spending requirement to save $25 on each kid in the lounge. Listen, I’m a cheapskate, proud of it, but even I have my limits. I don’t care at some point about the nickel and dimes since I became middle class. I don’t care about the free samples at Costco and prefer to get out of there in less than an hour. But I suppose some people have strange psychologies where they’ll wait in line for a half hour in their BMW to save $2 on Costco gasoline.
What do you mean ‘get out in less than an hour’? My last visit to the local Aldi took me exactly one hour – 20 minutes walking there (I’m in England and the suburbs are spread out), 20 minutes in the shop, 20 minutes walking back. Having to spend an hour in a shop would drive me mad.
Costco hell: about a half dozen people each line with a full cart of groceries but to get to the line, you have to navigate around dozens of people parked in the aisle waiting for the free sample. I park my cart on the outside aisles (with a longer walk) and ferry my stuff to the cart. If I want something at the food court, I put in an order and THEN go to the checkout line because by the time I get checked out, the order is ready.
That said, despite Costco’s line-hell and aisle-blockers, it has a lot of great stuff at good prices and a killer hot-dog/chicken deal.
Aldi used to be hell to get out of before they put in the self-checkouts.
I laughed at the $12. Field & Stream!
There are some Priority Pass lounges which are worth $35 any day of the week. I can think of AENA’s ones at BCN, *A at EZE, Espaço Safra at GRU, Plaza Premium at CGK, Premium at CAN, and I am sure there’s more/better ones that I haven’t visited or just can’t recall.
I’m missing the part where these are only mostly negative. Cutting off free guest access for authorized users seems like a reasonable move; destroying free guest access for everyone who doesn’t pony up $75K a year is draconian. I’m also with @MeanMeosh about allowing a limited number of free guest passes being a great option.
I say mostly negative instead of 100% negative only to acknowledge that the crowding is very bad now and it would be good if something was done such that cardmembers don’t have 30-minute waitlists to get into the lounge.