*The immediate disclaimer: nothing is free in this world, but I didn’t have to pay anything to the lounges for the visits 🙂

With that out of the way, my recent vacation in October of 2019 was going to be a bit of a doozy. My parents and I were flying from Toronto into Taipei via Eva Air (great Airline! Review to be posted later), then into Hong Kong, then into Singapore via Singapore Air, back to Hong Kong, then to Tokyo via ANA…

Then my parents were splitting up and I would be flying back to Hong Kong, then to Taipei, and finally back home. In summary:

YYZ->TPE->HKG->SIN->HKG->HND->HKG->TPE

I wanted a way to make my parents lives (and by extension, mine) easier, and realized that one way to do that would be to take them to the plethora of airport lounges located around the world to help them unwind and relax before each flight.

Let’s do a quick breakdown. I visited the following lounges, and here is their price per individual:

Plaza Premium Lounge in YYZ ($51.96 USD for 3 hours), TPE ($43 USD for 2 hours), HKG ($112.98 USD for 3 hours)

SATS Premier Lounge in SIN ($29.50 USD visit fee)

Marhaba Lounge in SIN ($40.55 USD for three hours)

The Centurion Lounge in HKG (You can only get in if you’re an AMEX member, but let’s assume it’s a low ballpark $50USD for 3 hours based on what you’re getting in comparison to the other lounges mentioned)

One of the perks of the Amex Personal Platinum credit card is that it comes with unlimited complimentary lounge visits for you and one guest. I took either my mom or dad into the lounges at will in Toronto, Taipei, and Singapore (went to both lounges mentioned in Singapore because one of them had complimentary massage chairs):

$51.96 x 2 + $43 x 2 + $29.50 x 2 + $40.55 x 2 = $330.02

At any Amex Centurion Lounge, you’re allowed to bring up to two guests so I could bring both my parents. I transited HKG with my parents twice:

$50 x 6 = $300

After I split up from my parents, I had to go to Hong Kong in transit and ended up visiting their Plaza Lounge and Centurion Lounge again. In Taipei, I hit up both the lounges again because hey, why not?

$112.98 + $50 + $43 x 2 = $248.98

$330.02 + $300 + $248.98 = $879 USD –> $1286.62 CAD as of Nov 1, 2019

Some of my friends have asked me in the past how I justify getting an AMEX Platinum card when the annual fee ($699 CAD) seems exorbitant at first glance. But even without delving into any of the other perks of the card (ie. a travel credit of $200 CAD that bumps down the annual fee to $500), just this trip (which I understand is unique because of the amount of layovers) alone has paid back almost double my annual fee!

It’s not just a monetary thing either: many of the lounges have unlimited booze, all of them have free food (can you imagine how food & drink normally costs at an airport?), and most importantly they were all a great way to unwind. My mother was a little under the weather at the tail end of our Singapore trip, and I was able to whip up something at the lounge so that she could take a nap on one of the recliners for an hour.

If you plan on flying around to a lot of places in a year to big international airports around the world (for things like around the world fares, or just multi-destination vacations, etc), the AMEX Platinum card is totally worth it in my opinion.

Shameless, zero obligation plug: if any of this intrigued you, here is my referral link to sign up for the card. By signing up through referral, you get bonus membership points after accomplishing a minimum spend of $5000CAD in 3 months (so time getting your card to when you expect to make a lot of big purchases, ie. hotels and flights for vacation) and I get bonus points for referring you.