Why free airport lounge access is not so free anymore

Credit card companies, in their rush to sell more and more cards use a whole gamut of attractive offers—the most popular one being free access to airport lounges. Thanks to this and the sharp rise in domestic air travellers, airport lounges saw of footfall of over 8 million people in 2022.

What was once an exclusive service became a top-selling feature, even for non-premium cards issued by banks. Lounge access became overused and an expensive bill to foot for credit card issuers.

Now, one after the other, major banks are revising their lounge policy. But retracting the freebie altogether is not a risk banks can afford to take.

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