Lounge access can be confusing. But we’ve done the homework—so you don’t have to.

In our post on the Best Miles Credit Cards 2025, we focused mainly on the miles earning rates. But this time, we’re diving into lounge access. We’ve also written a guide on lounges in KLIA, so be sure to check that out too.

We know how important it is to enter the lounge together with your loved ones. After all, it’s part of the holiday experience.

In this post, we’re listing miles cards from our Best Miles Credit Cards 2025 guide—plus a few others that are worth having just for lounge access. It’s not a full list of every card out there, so keep that in mind.

Key Features covered

Annual Fee – Free is always nice. But the best lounge cards usually come with an annual fee.

Number of Visits – Lounge passes range from just 2 to a solid 16 visits a year. Some cards give unlimited access—but unless you travel very frequently, that might be overkill.

Supplementary Card Access – One of the most asked questions in our BolehMiles Telegram. Some cards allow supp cardholders into the lounge, others don’t. Crucial if you’re travelling with your partner.

Free Guest Access –  This is much better than supp cards in our opinion. No extra card needed—just bring along your kid, friend, or just anyone.

Lounge Type – Most cards offer access to Plaza Premium Lounges (PPL) and the fancier Plaza Premium First (PPF). Some are Malaysia-only, some cover Asia-Pacific, and a handful go worldwide. A few even include access to Malaysia Airlines Golden Lounge and Travel Club lounges.

The Lounge Strategy

Miles First, Lounge Second

Unless you’re not into the miles game or still in the entry-level card segment, your credit cards should always be geared towards earning miles first. We’ve listed our recommended picks in Best Miles Credit Cards 2025—and most of them do come with solid lounge access benefits.

Rightsize Your Access

How often do you fly each year? Do you travel with your partner or kids? This helps you decide how many lounge visits you need and whether to look for supplementary card access or guest access. If your main miles cards fall short, consider getting a “just for lounge” card, even if the miles earning isn’t great.

Aim for Enrich Gold or Business Class Flights

Most lounge access from the cards in this post covers Plaza Premium First, Plaza Premium Lounge and a few other contract lounges mainly when you’re flying Economy.

But here at BolehMiles, we’re all about helping you travel in luxury at least once in a while. If you’re flying Business Class or hold Enrich Gold (see our article on Fast Track to Enrich Gold), you’ll already enjoy unlimited OneWorld lounge access. In those cases, credit card lounge perks matter less.

Best Entry Level Cards For Lounges

¹ 1X lounge access per quarter with minimum quarterly spend of RM3,000

The CIMB Travel Platinum isn’t great for earning miles (only 0.33 MPR for Overseas, Airline, and Duty-Free spend), but it can still get you into lounges if you don’t have better cards. You’ll need to spend RM3,000 in a quarter to unlock 1x lounge access, but the upside? You get access to Plaza Premium First, plus a Grab ride worth RM65 (up to 2x a year) to or from the airport.

The AmBank Enrich Visa Platinum (read review) is a great deal too. With no annual fee and 4x access to MAS Golden Lounges when flying Malaysia Airlines, this is as good as it gets at this tier.

Best Midrange Cards (RM30,000 to RM100,000)

² Spend RM1,000 within 3 months before/after access

The SCB Journey offers unlimited lounge access to Plaza Premium Lounges, but only at KLIA1 and KLIA2. It doesn’t include access for supplementary cardholders or guests, so it’s best suited for solo travellers who fly frequently through KLIA.

If you travel with your partner and need supplementary card access, the UOB World (read review) and HSBC TravelOne are decent options. While we’ve never recommended HSBC TravelOne on our site due to its low miles earning rate, it does have a use case for lounge access benefit, especially for couples.

The Maybank KrisFlyer Amex is one of our top picks for earning miles in this income segment (see Best Miles Credit Cards 2025), and the fact that it comes with 5x worldwide lounge visits is just the icing on the cake.

Best Higher Income Cards (RM100k to RM190k)

The AmBank Enrich Visa Infinite (read review) is one of the top overseas spend cards in our Best Miles Card for Malaysia 2025 post —and it gets even better with unlimited access to MAS Golden Lounge, plus one guest. That’s a sweet deal.

We haven’t recommended the Maybank World Elite Mastercard before, mainly because of its low miles earning rate (0.2 MPR). But it could still be useful if you’re looking for up to 16 lounge visits per year, and the ability to bring a guest.

Now, let’s break down the difference between the UOB Privilege Miles Elite (PME) and the UOB Visa Infinite. While both earn 0.83 MPR, their lounge and travel perks differ:

• The UOB Visa Infinite offers 12x access via DragonPass—the only card in our list with this feature. It gives you access not just to lounges, but also select airport restaurants. The downside? No supplementary card access. It also includes rides TO the airport (and not FROM the airport)
• The UOB PME supports supplementary card access, but offers only 8x visits per year, limited to Plaza Premium Lounges. You’ll also get rides FROM the airport. (and not TO the airport)
  

Best Premium Cards (RM190,000 and above, or Preferred)

³ Unlimited access to Centurion Lounge, unlimited access using Priority Pass, and 12x access to PPF, PPL, and Travel Club Lounge

If you’re okay with an annual fee of RM3,250, the king of lounge access is hands down the Maybank Platinum Charge Card. You get unlimited access to Centurion Lounges and other lounges via Priority Pass, plus 12x access to Plaza Premium First, Plaza Premium Lounge, and Travel Club Lounge. Even better, you can bring 2 guests to Centurion Lounges and 1 guest via Priority Pass—perfect for family travellers.

We recently downgraded the CIMB Travel World Elite (read review) to a “Macam Boleh” rating as the annual fee is getting harder to justify. Still, it’s one of the best ways to access Plaza Premium First with a supplementary cardholder, and it maintains a decent miles earning rate. If you’re looking for a more cost-efficient option, consider the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite—though it requires RM250,000 Asset Under Management.

Another highlight is the UOB Zenith Card. While it’s not the strongest card for miles earning, it’s great for benefits like Complimentary Night, points pooling, and of course, 12x lounge access.

Access Lounges Digitally with the Smart Traveller App

The Smart Traveller App now lets you register your card to access lounges globally. You can check how many visits you have left, browse the list of eligible lounges, and keep track of your visit history.

Note that the physical card is still required for the first visit, but after that, you can enter with the ‘virtual card’.

Useful if you’d rather not dig through your wallet each time.

If you are new to Smart Traveller App, feel free to register using our code referral code 7KEC28.

Conclusion

There you go, our recommendation of best miles cards with lounge access in 2025.

Of course, this isn’t an exhaustive list. There are other cards out there, including cashback cards and invite-only premium cards, which we will cover in another post. Lounge access terms can change, and we’ll do our best to keep this guide updated.

Don’t forget to join us on the BolehMiles Telegram to stay in the loop on the latest deals and updates.

See you in the next one!