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The Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse San Francisco is located on level 5 of the SFO International A terminal. It’s worth noting that if you’re connecting from another terminal that there are two International terminals.
I made a Monkey-brained mistake and arrived 5 hours before my flight to take advantage of the lounge, and also my positioning flight was rescheduled an hour early. The check-in and the lounge were both closed and did not schedule to open until 1:50 and my flight was 5:50. So I waited an hour and was the first to check in!
I got my invite to the Clubhouse! WOOT WOOT!!!!
The lounge is landside ( pre-security).
A lot of people think this is a drag because you’ll have to clear security after visiting the clubhouse. For me it worked out great. I was ready after waiting so long to check-in to just sit down, have a bellini and order some food. Plus I was thinking about visiting the Centurion Lounge as well and this would mean one less trip in and out of security, however those thoughts
There is a business center immediately to the right after you enter.
Down the hallway are a few bathrooms. The first two have showers with shrink wrapped towels.
The Clubhouse isn’t really that big compared with other international lounges. Later in this trip I was able to visit both the United Business Club as well as the United Global First lounges and say this would compare in size to the Global First…as well as being able to order from a menu.
I was starving!! But also fancied a Bellini.
NUTS!
The menu was great, although slightly different than what was listed online.
I had also asked about the Hell of High Watermelon Wheat Beer from 21st Amendment Brewery. It had just been delivered so they were going to chill it while I enjoyed my drink and had some food.
I chose the Pacific smoked salmon bruschetta, Seared Tilapia, and the Lemon Posset. The Salmon Bruschetta was much larger than I was anticipating but delicious!
The seared Tilapia was restaurant quality and outstanding!
The beer was chilled and soon delivered!
I ended up just craving some fruit for dessert! Bananas!!!!!
I really enjoyed the Virgin Clubhouse San Francisco. The wifi was quick, the staff was very polite and efficient, and the menu offerings were delivered quickly and with style. The food was fantastic, far better than the traditional buffet style business class lounge food. I ultimately left far before the boarding call for my flight, but I know that they do come around and help escort you through fast track security when they start to board. While it’s not as extravagant as some other international lounges and lacks a spa, salon, and other amenities some of the other lounges offer ( even Virgin clubhouse JFK or LHR) it suited the purposes I required.
The only thing I felt could be really improved upon was the fact that I could acquire a boarding pass before check in opened. This meant that conceivably I would/should have access to the lounge ( although without the invite) but I had to linger around the check-in area for an hour. Would have been nice to visit the lounge in that time and then come back to check-in to drop my bag off.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based.
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash , Ink Business Unlimited you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
- 3x on dining
- including eligible delivery services for takeout
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/Chase Travel
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Primary rental car coverage is my favorite
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.