Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

New Club Aspire lounge to replace Swissport in Heathrow Terminal 3

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

I wrote two months ago that the dismal Swissport lounge in Heathrow Terminal 3 was scheduled to close at the end of October.

If you want to know how bad the Swissport lounge is, take a look at my review here.

Club Aspire lounge Heathrow Terminal 3

Some Head for Points readers had reported that staff were saying a new Aspire lounge was in the works.  We now have details of what you can expect – and it looks pretty good.

The lounge will certainly be welcome with Delta, Philippine Airlines and Garuda Indonesia currently adding to the existing flights from Terminal 3.   It is expected that some overseas airlines will use Club Aspire as their core lounge for departing premium passengers.

Click on any of the pictures to enlarge:

Club Aspire lounge Heathrow Terminal 3

The lounge is scheduled to open in October by Gate 9 and will include a Bliss Spa and shower facilities.

Seating capacity is 120 which is an improvement on the Terminal 5 facility.  The Aspire lounge in T5, whilst a welcome alternative to the British Airways lounges for non-premium passengers, is simply too small.  A 50-seat expansion is apparently underway although I am not entirely sure how this is being fitted in to the existing facility.

There is talk of a 200-seat Plaza Premium lounge opening in Terminal 5 next year which should provide a real shot in the arm for BA passengers.

Club Aspire lounge Heathrow Terminal 3

Access rules will match that of the current Swissport lounge and include Priority Pass AND Lounge Club.  This is good news for holders of American Express Preferred Rewards Gold cards as they will be able to use their two free annual lounge entries here.

As with the Aspire lounge in Terminal 5, it will be owned and operated as a joint venture between Collinson Group, operators of Lounge Club and Priority Pass, and Swissport.

Our review of the Club Aspire lounge at Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 is here.

Club Aspire lounge Heathrow Terminal 3

Free prosecco will be available for the first three months after which it will presumably become chargeable as in No 1 Lounge facilities.

‘Premium’ food options will also incur a fee although free ‘British-inspired’ food – breakfast rolls, a salad bar and a deli counter – will also be available.

Club Aspire lounge Heathrow Terminal 3

The lounge will be bookable on the Aspire / Servisair site here.  Advance booking is £24.99 per person compared to £29.99 for ‘walk up’ guests.

If there is a press preview day, we can hopefully get down there and take some actual photographs prior to the official opening.  Whatever it is like, it cannot help but be a massive improvement on the Swissport lounge!  It should also take some pressure off the excellent No 1 Lounge in Terminal 3 which I reviewed here.


Getting airport lounge access for free from a credit card

How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (April 2024)

Here are the four options to get FREE airport lounge access via a UK credit card.

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with two free Priority Pass cards, one for you and one for a supplementary cardholder. Each card admits two so a family of four gets in free. You get access to all 1,300 lounges in the Priority Pass network – search it here.

You also get access to Eurostar, Lufthansa and Delta Air Lines lounges.  Our American Express Platinum review is here. You can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

If you have a small business, consider American Express Business Platinum instead.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for the first year. It comes with a Priority Pass card loaded with four free visits to any Priority Pass lounge – see the list here.

Additional lounge visits are charged at £24.  You get four more free visits for every year you keep the card.  

There is no annual fee for Amex Gold in Year 1 and you get a 20,000 points sign-up bonus.  Full details are in our American Express Preferred Rewards Gold review here.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard gets you get a free Priority Pass card, allowing you access to the Priority Pass network.  Guests are charged at £24 although it may be cheaper to pay £60 for a supplementary credit card for your partner.

The card has a fee of £195 and there are strict financial requirements to become a HSBC Premier customer.  Full details are in my HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard review.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard

A huge bonus, but only available to HSBC Premier clients Read our full review

PS. You can find all of HfP’s UK airport lounge reviews – and we’ve been to most of them – indexed here.

Comments (10)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Arielle Albon says:

    Serviceair/Swissport made this change in Zurich earlier this year. They took one pretty awful lounge in the main terminal, and one quite nice lounge in the Internationals terminal and replaced them with uninspiring Aspire lounges.
    The main differences were that the chairs were replaced in the main terminal, but it is still a dingy space, with no real redeeming qualities. However with the international terminal they replaced the good Panorama lounge with another Aspire which is smaller. The comfort of this lounge significantly decreased as the new chairs are significantly less comfortable than the old lounge. The food/drink offering was also reduced, and now when I visit there is seldom any hot food. This seems to only be in the evening, after 6pm, so anyone doing a flight between 5-6:30 is going to miss out. There is also soup, but that is also not always available.
    I think worst of all is that the staff now direct you to the ‘correct’ lounge and get really argumentative if you wish to use the one you have arrived at. They seem to be rude and I have seen the way they handle travelers poorly in both lounges. Considering that Swissport is only based a few KM away, it amazes me that this location isn’t used as a showcase, the service offering at BA Galleries and in most Admiral Clubs is significantly superior to this offering.
    Both of the lounges can get busy, and there aren’t that many additional power sockets / sqm than the gate areas. It feels more like a train station waiting room than an airport lounge.
    I hope that they use their opportunity in Heathrow T3 better than they did in Zurich.

    Arielle

  • harry says:

    Good news – sounds like it will be open in the next few weeks – perfect for my Xmas hols. If it’s by Gate 9, that frees up expansion space for No1 next door, right?

  • Paul says:

    So I guess for my flight from T3 tomorrow I should go to the No1 lounge with my priority pass?

  • Nick says:

    That Servisair lounge was my first lounge experience. And at the time I liked it! Comfy seat, very quiet, a fridge with beer in it and cake! Happy.

    Of course now I know that far, far better is available out there but if push came to shove I would probably still use a facility as….. basic as the Servisair lounge rather than wait in the main terminal.

    • harry says:

      if you remember – I did use it in July! No choice in the matter (expiring pass).

      I easily got my lounge pass worth out of it in booze incl widget Guinness & a few G&Ts, I do like self-serve; it was quiet & peaceful after it emptied for another flight; I wasn’t expecting good food as I had read the HFP reports & I wasn’t disappointed! lol; & I have to say the staff I interacted with were very pleasant indeed in rather drab, run-down surroundings

  • Andy says:

    Looks better in design terms than the BA lounge at T3.

    Swissport operated lounges have improved considerably over the last few years. The Aspire Amsterdam being one such example.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.