This Chase Sapphire Reserve Perk Makes Layovers More Fun

Airport lounge access can be valuable for more than premium food or cocktails. During a stressful travel day, a place to recharge and entertain a child can matter more.

When most people read through the kinds of Priority Pass lounge access they get with their Chase Sapphire Reserve^®, it’s easy to overlook nonlounge airport vendors like Minute Suites and Gameway. After all, these have limited use outside of very specific circumstances.

Over the past few months, Gameway has turned out to be the sleeper Priority Pass benefit that’s come in clutch more than once for my family. Here’s why you shouldn’t count out the Gameway access that comes with your Chase Sapphire Reserve card Priority Pass membership (enrollment required).

Where You Can Find Gameway Lounges

Gameway operates gaming lounges in a handful of major U.S. airports, giving travelers a place to relax and play video games before their flight. Access is available in 30-minute ($17.99) or 60-minute ($27.99) increments, or you can purchase an unlimited day pass for $45.99.

Gameway lounges are also part of the Priority Pass network, but access can be confusing, as not every card with Priority Pass membership includes Gameway access.

For example, the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, which offers Priority Pass Select membership, includes complimentary 1-hour access to Gameway lounges. However, the Platinum Card^® from American Express and the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card do not, as their Priority Pass™ benefits (enrollment required) specifically exclude nonlounge airport experiences (such as Gameway) and are limited to traditional lounges.

Our Experience at the Gameway Lounge JFK

Terminal 8 at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) is the domain of American Airlines. If you’re an AA loyalist, the terminal’s your oyster, with AA lounges ranging from an Admirals Club to the posh Chelsea Lounge. But we don’t have AA elite status, leaving us with the prospect of camping out on the seats by our departure gate.

Terminal 8, however, does have a Minute Suites and a Gameway. The Minute Suites didn’t excite anyone (it turns out 8-year-old boys aren’t into spa treatments or quiet rooms), but the Gameway made a lot of sense. We headed there instead and had a surprisingly relaxing hour before heading to our gate.

How It Works

With my Chase Sapphire Reserve card, I got 1 hour of gaming time and could even pay to extend my stay. However, I’ve found Gameway to be perfect for those awkward periods at the airport that are both too long to go straight to the gate and too short for a sit-down restaurant or a la carte dining at a lounge. An hour at Gameway has filled that gap.

Along with an hour with PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and virtual-reality games, the Priority Pass Gameway perk grants you 1 snack and 1 drink. These are sodas in 20-ounce bottles and full-size bags of chips and candy. On a single visit, my son’s choice of snack supplied us with enough grape-flavored Sour Patch Kids to qualify as a lifetime supply (for me, at least).

This came in handy because it not only gave us something to nosh on during the flight that wasn’t a pair of Biscoff cookies but also negated the need to pay for the overpriced grub at the airport newsstand, saving me a few bucks.

Are Gameway Lounges Worth It?

Only 1 person on your Priority Pass card can play the video games, but the player’s companions always seem welcome to hang out and watch the game or just veg out on their phone in the nearby chairs. Gameway requires gamers to wear headsets when they play, so it’s a surprisingly quiet and relaxing environment for those who aren’t playing.

I enjoy playing video games, but I can’t call myself a gamer — I haven’t even worn a headset in almost a decade. When we’ve gone to a Gameway, there are sometimes 1 or 2 actual gamers playing the usual competitive first-person shooter games and shouting at invisible enemies and allies, but they’ve always been reasonably quiet and don’t cause a ruckus.

Gameway has layouts where different gaming systems tend to branch away from each other, so the serious gamers tend to sit farther away from, say, the lone second-grader trying to figure out how to maneuver Spider-Man out of the Hudson River for the seventh time.

Other nongamers seem to have caught on, too. On our last visit to a Gameway, we saw a somewhat harried-looking older couple (who clearly had never picked up a joystick or controller in their lives) check in, sit down among their luggage, and sip on their complimentary ginger ale while checking emails and escaping the hustle of JFK a few steps outside.

If You Have Kids, Gameway Is a No-Brainer

Parents don’t need to be reminded that children love video games. They love playing them. They love watching their friends playing them. They love just being in a room where video games exist, with complete strangers murdering a Technicolor army of aliens and robots to an epilepsy-inducing silent symphony of flashing lights.

Though we have strict rules about screen time for our son, like many parents, we say all bets are off when we’re spending hours in an airport or on a plane. We know we sometimes need to pull out the bag of tricks to keep everyone happy and content till we get to the hotel.

If you have children, the happiest they will be in an airport is in a Gameway.

Final Thoughts

At first glance, the complimentary Gameway access that comes with Priority Pass on the Chase Sapphire Reserve card seems like a niche offering that only appeals to gamers. But the reality is that I’ve found it to be a flexible stopgap between rushing straight to the gate and spending a long time at a lounge or a restaurant.

It’s something I might indulge in if I were traveling and didn’t have a lounge I could check into, but when I’m with a kid who’s into video games and grape-flavored Sour Patch kids, I breathe a sigh of relief upon seeing a Gameway in the airport terminal.