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Bits: new BA Corsica route bookable, photos and access rules for Plaza Premium T5 lounge

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News in brief:

New BA route to Figari, Corsica now bookable

I mentioned yesterday that Alex Cruz, BA CEO, announced a new route to Figari in Corsica (picture below) in his speech at World Travel Market on Monday.

This flight is now bookable on ba.com, either for cash or Avios.

Flights will operate once per week, on Sundays, from 25th March to 21st October.

Flights depart Heathrow at 12.05, arriving at 15.30.  The return flight leaves Figari at 16.15, arriving in Heathrow at 17.40.

Plaza Premium Lounge Heathrow Terminal 5

Access information for new Plaza Premium Terminal 5 lounge

Yesterday I wrote about the opening of the new Plaza Premium lounge in Heathrow Terminal 5 which promises to massively improve the British Airways travelling experience for anyone travelling in Economy who has no BA status.

I wasn’t sure yesterday if the lounge was accepting Priority Pass or Lounge Club.  Historically there has been a lag of a few weeks between the opening of a Plaza Premium lounge and its acceptance of these cards.

Reader feedback yesterday is that neither Priority Pass or Lounge Club are accepted at the moment.

American Express Platinum IS accepted, due to the exclusive Plaza Premium deal with Amex.  This includes a guest.

DragonPass is accepted – see their website here.  You are only likely to have one of these if you are a Barclays current account holder opted into the travel pack add-on.

Lounge Key (issued with World Elite Mastercards) does not yet list it on their website.  As Lounge Key is owned by Priority Pass, I am guessing it will not yet get you in.

And, of course, you can use good old money on the door.

Here are some publicity photographs for the lounge.  There is an official press event at the end of the month and we will do a full review at that point.

Plaza Premium Lounge Heathrow Terminal 5

and

Plaza Premium Lounge Heathrow Terminal 5

and

Plaza Premium Lounge Heathrow Terminal 5

You can find out more, and book access, on the Plaza Premium website 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.

Category

American Express Platinum card, British Airways and Avios

Comments (66)

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

  • Polly says:
    8 Nov8 November 05:32

    OT but related. Really strange anomaly at LGW (flew easy jet to BOD) and BA home. Our lounge key was not accepted at no 1 traveller, but our Priority pass was. Despite PP owning lounge key. This is something l must take up with LK actually. As we don’t have our PP now and will rely on LK or BA card for access.

  • Wivus says:
    8 Nov8 November 06:02

    OT. Took advantage of a Swiss sale I read about on HFP and am now sitting next to a beach in Goa. All great and many thanks. Still, on my return I will have approx 10k Miles and More points and very rarely use Swiss, Lufthansa et al. Looking at redemption rates on flights and hotels they are not very tempting to use there either.
    Are there any other options? They have ”Partner” hotels mentioned but I cannot see if you can use M&M for a hotel points swap at all. Reductions in cost are there but these appear weak and for high end hotels a basic amount far higher than the 10k.

    • Andrew says:
      8 Nov8 November 08:59

      I see you have trouble switching off too…

      • Wivus says:
        8 Nov8 November 11:21

        Indeed Andrew, but I find 30-45 minutes each day, even when on holiday, cuts down on an awful lot of catching up and a lot less work problems on my return. Not all work though, since I posted this I have been to the beach, had lunch, organised a Goan cookery lesson with the hotel chef and am preparing for cocktails. Hardly a martyr 🙂

  • Paul says:
    8 Nov8 November 06:28

    Hmm go to Edinburgh tomorrow. Just got my gold card so which lounge? First or Plaza premium? Might try both as I should be able to decent breakfast BA First.

    I have noticed some improvement in BA lounges since the opening of these competitors.

    • Chris Bird says:
      8 Nov8 November 06:35

      Hi Paul, worth bearing in mind that it is not your gold card that grants you access. Around two weeks after receipt of the gold card, you should receive your lounge club card, this has two free lounge access passes.

      • Crowtravel says:
        8 Nov8 November 07:30

        It reads like he’s just got his BA Gold card, as no Amex card gets you in the BA First lounge where Paul is planning to enjoy breakfast.

    • WhiteManVan says:
      8 Nov8 November 09:52

      The breakfast in the gold lounge is a step down from the bacon rolls in the silver lounge

      • Alan says:
        8 Nov8 November 11:22

        How so, full cooked breakkie on offer and you could make your own roll up?

  • Kevin says:
    8 Nov8 November 06:31

    Those individual both seats look very narrow. They’ve even had the case moved to the side partially blocking the other booth.

    But at least it is something else to try at LHR.

    • Lady London says:
      8 Nov8 November 10:58

      Rob’s words The Plaza Premium lounge at T5….. “promises to massively improve the British Airways travelling experience for anyone travelling in Economy who has no BA status.”

      I have BA status, but as soon as Priority Pass or LoungeKey is accepted, I’ll be massively improving my British Airways travelling experience by dumping the BA Lounge and effectively paying for Plaza Premium instead.

      • Cas says:
        8 Nov8 November 11:28

        Or, the best way is, get rid of BA – even though that’s quite hard to achieve when you’re flying from Heathrow.

    • Karen robertson says:
      8 Nov8 November 11:41

      Went and sat in them all – more comfortable than they look! There are also some much bigger work cubicles which are very comfy and secluded – really like them

  • Stu N says:
    8 Nov8 November 07:40

    OT – anyone else seeing delays in BA Amex Avios appearing in their BAEC account? My month’s spend left Amex on 2/11 and they haven’t appeared in BAEC yet. Usually happens overnight.

    • Neil says:
      8 Nov8 November 08:45

      Glad I’m not the only person having this problem! I was going to call Amex today – I will report back later.

      • Liz says:
        8 Nov8 November 08:50

        Yes me too – mine was 2/11 too and I haven’t received them yet!

      • ee says:
        9 Nov9 November 06:56

        I had the same problem and called Amex earlier in the week. They claimed it was a BA problems as they had sent the Avios on the due day (2nd). Apparently they have a backlog to process. Any how, checked my BAEC this morning and the miles have come overnight.

    • Lawro says:
      8 Nov8 November 10:07

      Interesting, having this problem on my SPG card.

      • Liz says:
        8 Nov8 November 10:10

        We have the SPG Card too with the same statement date as the BAPP – the SPG pts transferred over ok.

    • Anna says:
      8 Nov8 November 12:04

      Me too, last month they posted the next day, this time still waiting after 3 days. I thought they had just realised I will be cancelling my card this month and were using delaying tactics!

      • RussellH says:
        8 Nov8 November 17:00

        Almost exactly the same scenario with my SPG too. But Amex were cannier with me – they left 48 points behind when they cleared out my spend points and my sign-up bonus points. The 48 were showing in my points balance too before the transfer. I had expected to have cancelled my card by now, but instead I have decided to keep spending on it until around 25 Nov.

  • Gary E says:
    8 Nov8 November 08:03

    Can anyone confirm that access to the lounge is free with the Amex Platinum card

    • Rob says:
      8 Nov8 November 08:43

      Yes it is, reader just sent me some real pics and got in that way. 4 customers at the time!

    • N says:
      8 Nov8 November 08:50

      This seems to be the case.

      Can anyone confirm if an *expired* Amex Plat works?

      • Karen robertson says:
        8 Nov8 November 11:23

        They checked mine quite carefully . . . but maybe they’re reading this website!

        • Genghis says:
          8 Nov8 November 11:29

          Hi Karen. When they take the card off you on entry, what did they do? Swipe the card or just look at it?

        • Karen robertson says:
          8 Nov8 November 11:38

          Just looked at it and wrote some stuff on a logbook type thing. Didn’t seem to be any computerised stuff yet

        • RussellH says:
          8 Nov8 November 17:03

          What did work for me a few months ago was a long-expired AA card in a Moto/Costa services. previously they have just glanced at the card and given the 20% discount. This time they swiped the card through the till – still worked, even though it was a card I got about 18 months ago and never paid for.

  • Mike says:
    8 Nov8 November 08:09

    OT – does anyone have a link to the BAEC Map based reward flight finder, frustratingly I can’t locate it. I found it useful as it shows geographically the airports to which BA fly

  • Rich says:
    8 Nov8 November 08:13

    At least Jeremy Corbyn is starting to dress a little smarter.

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