I don’t pay for Revolut Ultra because of the platinum card or the better interest rates on savings accounts.

I have two main reasons – one is that I can collect RevPoints more quickly, and the other is the airport lounges. I use them on average 3–5 times a month, so it’s not a benefit I’ll only use once a year and then forget about.

At first glance, it’s all quite simple. Ultra offers unlimited lounge access, whilst the lower-tier plans do not.

However, the word ‘free’ is a bit misleading. I’m still paying 599 eur a year for the plan.

What matters is how often I actually use the lounges and how much I’d really pay for them otherwise.

I’ve personally visited about 100 airport lounges, so I’ve got plenty to compare them with. Alongside some brilliant lounges, I’ve also experienced overcrowded rooms and absolute emergency options that I’d never pay for separately.

The most important points in a nutshell

• Revolut Ultra costs 55 eur per month or 599 eur when paid annually.
• Only Ultra cardholders get unlimited entry included in the price. Guests are charged separately (with a small discount)
• Premium and Metal do not include free admissions. They only offer discounted tickets – usually for 27 eur
• If you visit 24 times a year, the Ultra membership alone works out at 25 eur per visit. If you visit 48 times 12 eur.
• In the model where entry costs 27 eur Ultra starts to work out cheaper than the annual Metal pass from 17 visits a year.
• A ticket does not guarantee a seat. If the lounge is full, you may not be able to get in.

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How it works: Revolut does not operate any lounges itself

Revolut does not have its own network of airport lounges. It simply arranges access through an external partner.

In effect, with Ultra I get something similar to an unlimited lounge programme. In the Revolut app, I search for a supported lounge, view my entry details and show the QR code at reception. I don’t pay anything extra for my own entry.

Once the QR code has been scanned, I have to wait 30 minutes before I can gain access again.

However, this doesn’t mean I can get into just any airport lounge. The list I see directly in the Revolut app is always the deciding factor.

Until recently, access was provided by DragonPass, which is why it’s mentioned in older articles. The current partner is LoungeKey.

Metal vs Ultra vs Plus

The difference between the plans is crucial when it comes to lounges. The network includes more than 1,600 lounges. However, access depends on the plan.

Plan	Cardholder access	Companion access
Standard and Plus	usually 36 eur	mostly 36 eur
Premium and Metal	mostly 27 eur	mostly 27 eur
Ultra	Unlimited, included in the plan price	mostly 27 eur

This is where the most common misunderstanding arises. Metal does not mean unlimited entry.

Only the Ultra plan offers that, and only for plan holders. If I’m travelling with someone else, I have to buy an additional entry for them.

How much does Ultra actually cost?

The official price of the Ultra plan is 55 eur per month or 599 eur per year.

However, various discounts and offers are relatively common, so it’s worth checking your Revolut notifications.

Payment method	Actual cost over 12 months
Monthly	654 eur
Once a year	599 eur
Difference	55 eur

The annual payment is therefore 55 eur cheaper. However, it is also less flexible. If I stop using the plan, Revolut will not refund the proportionate part of the annual payment.

Monthly payments are also part of the 12-month plan, and early termination may incur additional costs. I’ll come back to that later.

In the following calculations, I’m using the annual price 599 eur. At the same time, I’m assuming that I don’t benefit from any other features of the Ultra plan. I’m therefore attributing the entire fee solely to the lounges.

If, in reality, I also use the insurance, eSIM, subscriptions or RevPoints, the actual return on investment will be even better for me.

Ultra vs Priority Pass: which is cheaper

You cannot normally purchase a standalone, unlimited LoungeKey membership. The closest publicly available alternative is Priority Pass Prestige, which, like LoungeKey, grants access to various airport lounges around the world.

Option	Annual price	Personal entries	Accompanying guests
Revolut Ultra	599 eur	unlimited	mostly 27 eur
Priority Pass Prestige	459 eur	unlimited	30 eur

Priority Pass Prestige therefore costs roughly 136 eur s less than Ultra.

If I only wanted unlimited access for myself, Priority Pass works out cheaper.

For Ultra to make more sense, the remaining 136 eur must be recouped through RevPoints, insurance, eSIM, other subscriptions or other benefits.

For me, that’s a significant difference. RevPoints are the second main reason why I use Ultra. So the lounges don’t necessarily have to justify the entire annual fee on their own.

Furthermore, the two programmes do not have exactly the same list of lounges. Before making a decision, I would therefore not just compare the price, but mainly the airports and terminals I actually fly through.

How two to four visits a month affect the price

The simplest calculation is this:

• 👉 average cost per visit = annual Ultra fee ÷ number of visits

Based on my usual usage, it works out as follows:

My own visits	Monthly average	Effective cost per visit
24 per year	2	25 eur
36 per year	3	17 eur
48 per year	4	12 eur

That’s the most convincing figure for me in the whole article. It doesn’t say how much I could theoretically save. It tells me how much I actually pay per visit, if I judge the whole scheme solely on the basis of lounge access.

I’m counting individual visits here, not holidays. A single journey might include a lounge on departure, another during a connecting flight, and sometimes yet another on the return journey.

So, for two to four visits a month, there’s no need to fly every week.

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From how many visits is Ultra cheaper than Metal?

I need to make one important disclosure here. Revolut doesn’t list a single fixed price for discounted lounge access across all lounges and plans on its public website. The actual amount is only shown in the app and is subject to change.

To make things clearer, I’ll use 27 eur. This is the amount that appeared specifically on my account when I was using Metal. It is not a promise that every entry with Metal will always cost exactly that much.

Metal costs 161 eur per year. The difference compared to Ultra is therefore:

• 14,500 − 3,900 = 438 eur

Ultra must save exactly this amount – 438 eur – on its own free entries:

• 10,600 ÷ 660 = 16.06

As you cannot buy a sixteenth of a visit, the break-even point is reached at 17 visits per year.

• With 16 visits, Metal, including the additional tickets purchased, would cost 597 eur. It would be a further 2 eur cheaper.
• With 17 visits, the same model would cost 625 eur. Ultra would already be 26 eur cheaper.

How much will the Ultra save me based on my usage?

If I stick with the model price of 27 eur per entry, the comparison works out as follows:

Own visits	Metal + paid admissions	Ultra	Difference in Ultra’s favour
24 per year	816 eur	599 eur	216 eur
36 per year	1143 eur	599 eur	544 eur
48 per year	1470 eur	599 eur	871 eur

Given that I visit two to four times a month, Ultra only pays for itself compared to this plan at beauty salons.

The other benefits of the plan are just a bonus for me.

But that doesn’t mean I’ve actually saved 21,000. Such a statement would only be true if, without Ultra, I’d actually bought 48 tickets at 27 eur .

If, instead, I spent most of my time sitting at the departure gate for free, my actual saving would be lower.

But even that isn’t a fair comparison, because I rarely sit ‘for free at the departure gate’ at the airport. I usually buy at least some food and drink, which is, however, included in the price of all the lounges.

The list price is not the same as the actual saving

Airport lounges bought separately aren’t cheap. For example, the ERSTE Premier Lounge in Prague costs 43 eur for two hours.

The SKY Lounge in Vienna costs 49 eur and the VIENNA Lounge 59 eur, in both cases for a maximum of three hours.

Besides that, my guest pass seems to be 27 eur very good value.

However, I cannot automatically count the entire listed price of the lounge as a saving. The correct calculation is:

• 👉 actual saving = the amount I would actually spend without Ultra − the price of Ultra

Anyone who would never buy lounge access without a subscription won’t save a thousand crowns on every visit. They’re primarily buying comfort: a more relaxed wait, food, drinks, a place to work and, sometimes, a shower. They must determine the value of these things for themselves.

My situation is different. I use lounges frequently and would buy paid access even without Ultra, at least for longer layovers.

In Doha, for example, we had a long layover and the chance to have a shower before a night-time flight was of real value to me. That’s why I don’t just look at the advertised price of the benefit, but also consider whether I’d actually pay for the same service.

10 lounges from my own experience: price vs. real value

In total, I’ve personally visited around 100 airport lounges. I’ve selected ten diverse examples for the table. These range from very good lounges to places I only use as a last-resort waiting area.

I’ve listed the published price for a single entry. If the operator doesn’t display the price at reception, I’ve used their standard online rate. Stay limits when entering via LoungeKey may vary.

Airport and lounge	Stand-alone entry	My experience	Via Ultra
Prague T2 – ERSTE Premier Lounge	43 eur / 2 hours	Average lounge	Worth it
Doha – Al Maha Lounge	328 qar / up to 6 hours	Good, especially for longer layovers	Definitely worth it
Istanbul SAW – Plaza Premium Marmara	from 75 eur / 3 hours	Extremely crowded, just like the rest of the airport	It’s actually better value for money to visit
Mauritius – Amédée Maingard Lounge	55 eur	An average lounge	Well worth it
Muscat – Primeclass Lounge	25 omr / 3 hours	One of the better lounges in the table	Well worth it
Milan Malpensa T2 – Alda Merini	49 eur, online 40 eur	More of a low-cost lounge	It’s generally better value
Rome Fiumicino – Prima Vista	40 eur / 3 hours	An average lounge	Well worth it
Düsseldorf – DUS Sky Lounge	from 49 eur / 3 hours	Great view of the apron	Well worth it
Ostrava – Business Lounge	27 eur	Very basic facilities	Large emergency exit
Cape Town – Bidvest Premier Lounge Domestic	334 zar / 2 hours	Great for domestic flights	Cheap standalone entry

Crown conversions are approximate and rounded. The price in the original currency is always decisive.

The lounge in Cape Town illustrates one important point. A separate entrance is 334 zar is cheaper than the standard 27 eur via Revolut.

In Ostrava, too, the direct price is 27 eur is practically the same. The flat rate of 27 eur is therefore suitable for calculating the break-even point, but not necessarily the cheapest way to gain entry to every lounge.

Since I’ve already paid for Ultra, I don’t pay anything extra for my own visit. However, that doesn’t mean I can assign a value of 27 eur or the full list price to every such entry when calculating savings.

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Accompanying guests can change the whole calculation

Ultra doesn’t mean free access to lounges for a couple or a family. Unlimited access applies only to the plan holder. Guests must pay extra.

When I travel with one other person, my own entry is included in the price, but I add the cost of their entry to the total.

Usually, this is  27 eur. So when travelling together, it makes no sense to claim that the lounge cost us nothing.

When comparing Ultra with Metal, however, something else is key: a guest would be charged under both plans. If the app offers the same guest price, the return on investment is mainly determined by the number of entries the Ultra holder makes.

How I use the Revolut access

I always follow the same procedure before a trip:

1. In the app, I open RevPoints → Lounges.
2. I search for a specific airport and check the terminal, the area before or after passport control, the opening hours and the maximum length of stay.
3. If I’m travelling with a companion, I add their entry and assign them the correct name.
4. At reception, I show my QR code, ID and boarding pass.

You don’t need to buy your flight ticket through Revolut.

Furthermore, the purchased access isn’t tied to a single lounge; it’s valid for one person and one visit and must be used within 12 months. Unused guest access can be transferred to someone else via the app.

7 risks I wouldn’t overlook before buying Ultra

1. Entry isn’t guaranteed

If the lounge is at full capacity, they may refuse entry. In fact, this has happened to me quite a lot. Regularly, for example, at both terminals in Prague.

A paid subscription therefore does not guarantee a seat in the lounge.

2. Not every lounge is in the network

Over 1,600 lounges sounds great, but it all depends on my specific route.

At some airports, there may not be a single supported lounge. Elsewhere, it may be in a different terminal or part of the airport that I cannot access with my boarding pass.

For example, in the Americas (particularly the US and Canada), the network of lounges included in LoungeKey – which Revolut uses – is very small.

However, you can check this in advance in the Revolut app.

3. Unlimited access does not mean an unlimited stay

The usual limit for a lounge stay is 2 to 3 hours. So, if you have a long layover, the lounge may not cover the entire waiting time.

4. Guests are not included in the price

This is the biggest financial catch for couples and families. The more often I travel with someone else, the more I have to add to the Ultra price for paid entry.

5. I can sometimes get free entry even without Revolut

Lounge access may be included as part of a business class ticket, a loyalty programme or another payment card.

I cannot count such a visit as a saving thanks to Ultra.

6. The plan has a commitment period and cancellation rules

The terms and conditions for paid plans state that if you cancel Ultra after the first 14 days but within the first six months, you’ll be charged for an additional month as a cancellation fee if you’re on a monthly payment plan.

With annual payment, the unused portion of the year is non-refundable. After six months, there is no longer a separate fee for the monthly option, but even then, the paid year is not refunded on a pro rata basis.

7. Prices and benefits are subject to change

Revolut may adjust the price of the plan, the network of lounges and the entry rules.

It promises to give at least two months’ notice of any significant changes to the terms and conditions. It is therefore worth checking the calculation from time to time based on the current prices in the app.

Who stands to benefit from the Ultra plan because of the lounges

I wouldn’t opt for Ultra just for the sake of a few visits a year. In that case, it’s usually better to buy individual entries, use Metal, or pay for the lounge directly at the airport.

However, once you’re approaching 1–2 visits a month, the maths starts to look interesting.

In my model, with a pass costing 27 eur beats the annual Metal subscription at 17 visits.

With my 24 to 48 visits a year, the conclusion is clearer. The effective price drops to 25 eur to 12 eur per visit, and that’s even before factoring in the scheme’s other benefits.

The Ultra plan therefore makes sense to me. If I flew several times a year, travelled mainly with my whole family, or had lounge access secured through my ticket and status, the same plan would work out quite differently for me.

So the most important piece of advice is simple: don’t count how many visits you could theoretically make use of. Count the ones you’ll actually use.