Get airport lounge access and cheap travel insurance via Barclays Premier

A Head for Points comment last week pointed me in the direction of Barclays Premier.  This is the ‘premium’ current account offered by the bank. 

Barclays Premier has a £10 monthly fee and you must earn £75,000 or have £100,000 saved or invested with Barclays.  The fee is waived if you earn £150,000 or have £150,000 saved or invested.

On top of the usual fee, Barclays Premier customers can add the ‘Premier Travel Plus Pack’ for £11.50 per month.  (Click on ‘Personalise My Account’ on the page I linked to above.)  This includes:

Worldwide family travel insurance (age cap of 70)

RAC cover

Airport lounge access via Airport Angel

Airport Angel covers 560 lounges across the world.  You receive 6 free visits (further visits charged at £15) which can be used either by yourself or for others travelling with you.

I have not come across Airport Angel before.  It is linked to CPP (oh dear!) who I assume are working with Priority Pass, as I doubt CPP would have negotiated 560 airport lounge access agreements on their own.

Whilst I have not been able to confirm this, the person who flagged this said that you can add the Premier Travel Plus Pack on a month-by-month basis.  This means that you can join up when you have booked your holiday – to receive the travel insurance and use the airport lounge – and then cancel it when you get home.

If this sounds interesting, you should definitely look into it more closely before committing.  On the face of it, though, it sounds OK.  Note that, as with all of the airport lounge schemes, it is no use when flying British Airways from Heathrow Terminal 5 as there are no third-party lounges in the terminal.

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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.