Use your airline or hotel status to get a free Regus Businessworld Gold card

The company Regus may or may not be familiar to you.   It is the worlds leading provider of ‘serviced office space’.  This is, fundamentally, treating office space like a hotel.

You want an office for a day / a week / a month / a year for 1 / 2 / 5 / 20 people?  It can provide it.  You don’t need to worry about furniture, IT, cleaning, receptionists etc – Regus provides it all.  It is an effective route for start-ups or for business which are growing quickly.

However, it is the other side of the Regus operation that is the point of this post.

Almost all Regus centres feature a ‘business lounge’.  I am writing this post in one, as it happens!  They vary in size, but most feature open-plan seating areas, 1-4 Apple Mac computers available for free use and 1-10 ‘pods’, available on a first come, first served basis (for free) which provide a semi-private work area.

Free Wi-Fi and free tea and coffee are provided in all lounges.   Here is a picture of 1 Poultry in the City of London, which is next to Bank tube station (the pods are the blue and white things at the back):

If your job takes you ‘out and about’ a lot, or you work for yourself but simply don’t like sitting in Starbucks or your house all day, then working out of Regus lounges is a very viable alternative.  Regus also has a global network, so you can pop into centres pretty much wherever you are in the world.

Frankly, even if you buy an annual pass for £299, it is a bargain if you use it a lot.  I use a Regus lounge 2-3 times a week, so £299 would be a steal.  However, you don’t even have to pay that.  You can get a Regus Businessworld Gold card for free.

I get my card for free via Business Traveller magazine who used to (but no longer) give one away with a subscription.  However, Regus has plenty of deals with airlines who give out a Regus Gold card to their elite members – or even, in some case, basic level members.

Priority Club, the Holiday Inn / Crowne Plaza / InterContinental loyalty scheme, also gives out a card to Platinum members.  Last month I ordered a new Gold card via the Priority Club link and it arrived within a week.

Virgin Atlantic also offers a free Regus Businessworld Gold card to holders of its Black credit card (£140 fee).  They also throw in two free vouchers for a one-day private office.

Loyalty Lobby did an excellent article recently which summarises the airlines who offer a free Regus Gold card.  The Virgin Black credit card deal link is not in that article but can be found here.

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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.

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

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.

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.

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