The Trick to Get a (Good) Free Meal Whenever You Fly

The cost of airport food and drinks is a pet hate of many flyers. Want a coffee? That’ll be $8. Hot chips? $14.95. A fresh sandwich? $21. Why? Because you’re at an airport, of course!

If you’re lucky enough to have airport lounge access, you can forgo the terminal food court and get a free bite to eat in the lounge. The lounge is also usually a nice place to relax while you wait for your flight. But if you’re flying a lot, the food in the Virgin lounge or Qantas Club could get a bit repetitive.

This is where a trick that gets you a free meal at a proper airport restaurant, whenever you fly, can come in really handy!

The benefits of Priority Pass

If you have a Priority Pass Prestige membership, you can enjoy unlimited access to airport lounges whenever you fly. You just need to show your Priority Pass card, along with a same-day boarding pass. This gets you into more than a thousand airport lounges around the world, regardless, of which airline you’re flying, including 12 in Australia.

A less well-known benefit of Priority Pass membership is that it also gives you credit to use at participating airport restaurants, bars and cafés. This works out to be a $36 food & beverage credit at 30 participating airport restaurants across 8 Australian airports.

Full list of Priority Pass participating airport restaurants in Australia

Here’s a full list of the Australian airport restaurants where Priority Pass Prestige members can access $36 worth of food & drinks per person:

You can also enjoy credits at many other airport restaurants around the world, including in the USA, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, French Polynesia, Peru and Brazil.

How to use this benefit unlimited times

Priority Pass sells annual Prestige membership for USD469 (~AU$735), which gets you unlimited Priority Pass lounge visits throughout the year. But this membership does not include a guest allowance, and besides, there’s a much better value way to do it!

Although you and one additional cardholder can get unlimited Priority Pass airport lounge visits with an American Express Platinum card, this doesn’t extend to food & beverage credits at airport restaurants. Unfortunately, this particular benefit is not available to Priority Pass members who joined through American Express.

However, you do get unlimited Priority Pass airport lounge visits – and airport restaurant credits – with a Citi Prestige credit card.

Not only can you use this benefit for yourself, but you can also invite a guest who’s flying with you each time at no cost. This means that if you’re travelling with a relative, friend or colleague, they can also get $36 worth of free food and drink at a participating airport eatery. That’s a total of $72 credit between both of you. (If there’s an airport lounge available, your guest can join you in there for free as well.)

When showing your Priority Pass card, you can spend up to $36 at no cost. There’s no refund if you don’t use the full amount, so the restaurant staff may even encourage you to get more things! If you spend more than $36 per person, you’ll just need to pay the difference.

You can use the food & beverage credit before or after your flight. There’s no reason why you technically couldn’t do both. If you’ve had a long day of work or flying, why not pick up some food on your way out of the airport to take home or to your hotel?

Do this just once a month, and you’ve already well and truly paid off the $700 annual fee on the Citi Prestige card – and that’s before even considering all of the other benefits of the card!

What $36 can get you at an airport restaurant

I gave this a try when flying out of Terminal 3 at Sydney Airport last week. I sat down at Luke’s Bistro & Bar, just across from Gate 2, and ordered the following delicious food which would have cost $34 in total:

Feeling like something else? At Luke’s Bistro & Bar, your $36 food & beverage credit could also get you and/or your travelling companion:

• A burger with fries and juice
• A salmon bagel tower for two
• Tuna sashimi tacos with a glass of wine
• Half a dozen oysters

You certainly won’t find free oysters in the Qantas Club!

In the same Qantas domestic terminal, you could alternatively get $36 worth of food & drink at Wok on Air.

If you’re flying every week, this could also be a great way to add some variety to the airport lounge food. You could grab something tasty, nutritious – and most importantly, different – or even just indulge in a cocktail or a good glass of wine on your way to the lounge. (Whether or not you should take the food with you into an airline lounge, or eat it beforehand, is a matter for debate!)

Other benefits of the Citi Prestige card

Unlimited Priority Pass access is not the only benefit of the Citi Prestige card. Other popular features include:

• Get the fourth hotel night free on Luxury Escapes bookings
• $10 monthly cashback with a BINGE subscription
• Complimentary domestic and international travel insurance
• Earn bonus points when spending with major airlines, hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, petrol stations, national retailers, and when shopping online or overseas

Plus, if you apply by 20 January 2025, you can earn up to 200,000 bonus Velocity Points! This is an AFF exclusive offer, so you’d need to sign up through AFF to take advantage of it.

You’ll receive 150,000 bonus Velocity Points when you spend $12,000 on eligible purchases within 3 months of approval. You’ll then earn another 50,000 Velocity Points if you opt-in to Velocity Points Autosweep and keep your card open for more than 12 months.

Disclosure: As Citibank is an affiliate partner, Australian Frequent Flyer may receive a commission if you sign up through links on this page. Thank you for your support.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.