Bilt Palladium lounge access at Chicago O'Hare: what it opens for couples

A card built for two people#

Bilt spent its first few years as a rent card, the thing you used to earn points on the one bill that never earned anything. In February 2026 it relaunched as a full card lineup, moved its issuing from Wells Fargo to Cardless, and put the Palladium at the top at $495 a year. The pitch was aimed squarely at the Sapphire Reserve and the Venture X, and on lounge access specifically, the pitch is about guests.

The lounge benefit is a Priority Pass membership, activated and managed inside the Bilt app rather than through a separate Priority Pass login. It admits you plus two guests per visit, with additional guests at $35. It is lounges only. Restaurants, spas and Minute Suites are excluded, and if you read in May that they had been added, that was a Priority Pass error: they appeared in Palladium and Citi Strata Elite accounts on May 12, Bilt's Richard Kerr said within hours it was a mistake, and they were gone by the evening. There is no Bilt lounge, no airline lounge partnership, no Centurion-style proprietary network. For lounge purposes you are buying Priority Pass with good guest terms.

Where the Palladium gets interesting is the authorized-user pricing. Each authorized user is $95, up to five, and each one gets their own full Priority Pass membership with the same two-guest allowance. They do not get the card's hotel credits or Bilt Cash, but at the lounge door they are a second primary cardholder.

For comparison, Sapphire Reserve and Amex Platinum authorized users each cost $195; Venture X lounge access needs a $125 add-on. Citi Strata Elite charges $75 with its own guest rules. A Palladium couple pays $590 for two memberships, each with two free guests. That guest capacity is the card's strongest argument.

The honest case against it is what Priority Pass actually opens at O'Hare, and that case is strong.

Three lounges, all in Terminal 5#

O'Hare has seventeen lounges. Priority Pass opens three, and all three are in Terminal 5, the international terminal. If your O'Hare flying is domestic, which for most Chicagoans it is, the Palladium's lounge benefit does not exist at your home airport.

Air France Lounge, near gate M17.

Swissport Lounge, near gate M13, though Chase's own guide puts it between M7 and M8, which tells you how easy it is to miss.

Wingtips Lounge, in the Concourse M rotunda between gates M19 and M20, in the space SAS vacated when it closed its lounge in October 2025. We rate it 3.0, which is honest about the food but undersells how useful it is: when Air France is closed to you at 2pm and Swissport is at capacity at 6pm, Wingtips is the one still letting people in.

Timing makes the third lounge important. Air France can be unavailable to Priority Pass at midday, and the older lounges may restrict entry during the evening departure bank. Wingtips is the fallback, but it is small. I'd keep another plan: there is no Priority Pass dining credit at O'Hare to use instead.

What the Palladium does not open at ORD#

It is worth spelling out, because the fourteen lounges it does not open are the ones most Chicago travelers want.

The three Admirals Clubs in Terminal 3, at G8, L2A and H/K, and the Flagship Lounge at H6, which rates 4.6 with eight showers. These need American status, a qualifying premium ticket or an AAdvantage card. The Admirals Club (H/K) rates 4.7 and is among the best in the system.

The five United Clubs across Terminals 1 and 2 and the Polaris Lounge near C18, 4.6 with ten showers. United membership, a United card or a Polaris ticket. The B18 United Club rates 4.7.

The two Delta Sky Clubs in Terminal 5, including the newer one near M15 that rates 4.8. Delta ticket plus status or a Delta or Amex card.

And the absences: there is no Centurion Lounge at O'Hare, no Capital One Lounge or Landing, no Chase Sapphire Lounge, open or announced.

So who should get it in Chicago#

A couple that flies international out of Terminal 5 a few times a year, brings friends or family along, and wants a card that is not an airline card. The Palladium's guest terms are hard to beat for that trip, and the $95 second membership makes the pair's total cost about what a Sapphire Reserve costs for one person. Add the card's $400 annual hotel credit and the math is reasonable.

A couple whose O'Hare flying is mostly United or American domestic. A United Club Infinite card or an AAdvantage Executive card, both narrow everywhere else, will serve you far better at O'Hare specifically.

Anyone hoping to use the Palladium on a midday or early-evening international departure should know that two of the three lounges may be closed to them at those hours, and that the third is a cold buffet in a rotunda. Not the lounge experience the card's marketing shows.

The O'Hare page lists all seventeen lounges by terminal and the Priority Pass at ORD guide covers the three in more detail. Bilt is eight months into this card and has already adjusted terms once, so check the current guest rules in the Bilt app before you build a trip around them. Our methodology explains how we record each card's grants and score each lounge.