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Which British Airways European routes do not offer lounge access?

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On Saturday we ran a review of the ANA lounge at Porto airport.  This is notable because – whilst it is the only lounge at Porto – British Airways refuses to pay for Club Europe or status passengers to use it.

(If you read HfP by email, you didn’t receive this review because I felt it was a bit of a niche topic to drop into 10,000 inboxes.  You can read the article here.)

Courtesy of Flyertalk, I have a list of all British Airways short-haul destinations which do not offer lounge access.  This is a great bit of crowd sourcing work from the FT community. Keep this list in mind next time you book a trip and are considering whether to upgrade to Club Europe or not.

These airports have no lounge at all so you can’t blame BA for not letting you in:

Bergen, Flesland Airport BGO

Biarritz-Anglet-Bayonne BIQ

Corfu / Ioannis Kapodistrias International Airport CFU

Chania International Airport CHQ

Chambery-Savoie CMF

Bergerac-Roumaniere EGC

Friedrichshafen FDH

Fuerteventura FUE

Grenoble-Isere GNB

Frederico Garcia Lorca GRX

Innsbruck INN (EDIT: a Priority Pass lounge opened 12/17)

Skiathos Island National JSI

Santorini JTR

Kos KGS

Kalamata KLX

Limoges LIG

Menorca MAH

San Javier MJV

Nantes Atlantique NTE

Asturias OVD

Pula PUY

Rotterdam RTM

Quimper-Cornouaille UIP

These airports have a lounge but BA refuses to pay for it:

You can use a Priority Pass instead at these airports:

Lanzarote ACE

Cagliari/Elmas CAG

Catania/Fontanarossa CTA

Madeira FNC

Heraklion International Nikos Kazantzakis HER

Humberside HUY

Ibiza IBZ

Mykonos JMK

John Paul II International Krakow-Balice KRK

Montpelier MPL

Olbia/Costa Smeralda OLB

Francisco de Sa Carneiro, Porto OPO

Palermo/Punta Raisi PMO (landside)

Thessaloniki Macedonia International SKG (as of 1st July 2017)

Split SPU

Sevilla SVQ

Rhodes – Diagoras International RHU

Tallinn TLL

These airport lounges only accepts cash and not Priority Pass / Lounge Club:

Brindisi/Casale BDS

Bordeaux-Merignac BOD

Bodrum – Milas Bodrum International BJV

Bari/Palese International BRI

Dalaman International DLM

London City Airport LCY (in the Private Jet Terminal)

Paphos International PFO

Stavanger, Sola SVG

These airports have lounges run by other airlines which BA cannot access:

Keflavik International KEF

Please bear in mind that this is crowd sourced list and 100% accuracy is not guaranteed – but it should be close enough.


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Comments (124)

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

  • Vand says:

    Nevermind .. I just saw the original FT post which explains: “Note: BA Gold and Silver card holders travelling on AY flights are granted access to this lounge (plus 1 guest)” .. that was my situ.

  • David says:

    Excellent work Rob. Just a suggestion – would it be possible to add a 1 to 5 star rating to your lounge reviews. When there is a choice of lounges but I haven’t been diligent enough to read your full reviews in advance this could be really useful as a quick reference.

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:

      Although in some cases it’s clear cut which is the best lounge, in some airports (such as the oneworld lounges in LHR T3) where you’re spoilt for choice you may prefer the lounge someone rates the lowest. For example most seem to prefer the CX lounge, but others have commented on a better alcohol selection in the BA lounge, whereas AA has the best WiFi.

      • Michael Jennings says:

        That’s the trouble with star ratings anywhere, really. They are a one dimensional measure of multidimensional things. What is the best lounge or hotel for one person is not going to be the best for someone else. In the case of lounges, one of the key tests is “How crowded is it?”, though, so a high rating can cause a bit of a negative feedback loop.

        They are not entirely meaningless, though. The main question is really just “Is it any good?”

        (I love it when you find a property on a hotel booking site that has a rating of 6 out of 10 or so, and half the reviews are “There is a really noisy nightclub on the premises, and it’s impossible to get any sleep”, and the other half are “There is a really fun nightclub on the premises. Wheeee!!!!!!”).

  • MissLondon says:

    Also no lounge at Zakinthos airport

  • Dave R says:

    Anyone know what the BA lounge in Madrid is like. Also, my LON-MAD flight is in CE but the return is in ET (same booking) will I have access?

    • Calum says:

      Flying BA you will use the Sala Velazquez in T4S (the long haul terminal). Nice design, good views of the tarmac and decent food and drink, though food a little limited outside traditional Spanish dining hours. You will only have access on the return if you have status l, the CE outbound on the same booking won’t help you.

    • John says:

      Note that the Sala Velazquez is not “the BA lounge”, it is the Iberia lounge.

  • Icebird says:

    I think you’ll struggle finding Kevlanik on any map. It’s Keflavík (KEF).

  • Aussie Pete says:

    ABZ is in the process of being refurbished and the alternate lounge is not accepting OneWorld Ruby / BA Silver. I gathered from other postings on HFP that they were offering a paltry £5 voucher as compensation but did not receive this on Sunday.

    • daftboy says:

      Just to be pedantic, OneWorld Ruby (BA Bronze) isn’t entitled to lounge access

  • Jennifer Rosello says:

    Ibiza has a lounge run by Aena which Iberia passengers can use but not BA. We were travelling Club Europe but was refused entry. We WERE though able to use our Priority Passes; there was a notice too, indicating Diners Card would be accepted.

  • Fraser says:

    Montpellier accepts Priority Pass (I was there last week).

    • Rob says:

      Updated

    • Lyn says:

      Thank you. That’s good to know, since it doesn’t show on the Priority Pass web-site. However the lounge is closed on Saturday evenings, a pity since BA only flies from Montpellier twice a week.

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

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