Swissport lounge in Heathrow Terminal 3 closing and a LoungeMiles update

If you remember my ‘five lounges in three hours’ tour of Heathrow last year, you will remember my review of the Swissport Terminal 3 lounge.

It was my most depressing UK lounge visit since the bad old days of the Servisair lounge in Heathrow Terminal 1.

Whilst I doubt my review had any impact on the decision (!), the Swissport lounge will be closing on 1st September due to ‘terminal development’.  It is possible that No 1 Traveller will use the extra space for further expansion.

One reader was told by a staff member that an Aspire lounge is in the works.  I can’t find any reference to this so I doubt it is opening in the short term.  I’ll let you know as soon as I hear anything.

The only losers from the closure of the Swissport lounge are Lounge Club holders.  Whilst the No 1 Traveller lounge is a member of Priority Pass, it does not accept Lounge Club.  Anyone with an American Express Gold will now have nowhere in Terminal 3 to redeem their free Lounge Club visits.

That said, only in desperate circumstances – ie they were about to expire – would I have recommended you use them in Terminal 3 anyway.

Changes to the LoungeMiles programme …..

Apart from Terminal 3, Swissport operates a number of independent airport lounges across the UK under the Servisair and Aspire brands.

There is a loyalty scheme for these lounges called LoungeMiles.  To join, you simply need to pick up a card next time you visit a Servisair or Aspire lounge and get it stamped.  You get one stamp per visit.

Importantly, you earn a stamp even if you get into the lounge for free using a Priority Pass or similar card.

These are the UK airports where you can collect LoungeMiles stamps as far as I know:

Aberdeen – Servisair Lounge

Belfast City – Aspire lounge 

Birmingham (Terminal 1) – Aspire Lounge

Bristol – Aspire Lounge

Durham Tees Valley – Servisair Roseberry Lounge

Edinburgh – Aspire Lounge

Humberside – Servisair Lounge

Inverness – Servisair Highland Lounge

Liverpool John Lennon – Aspire Lounge

London Gatwick (North Terminal) – Aspire Lounge

London Heathrow (Terminal 3) – Servisair Lounge (closes 31st August)

London Luton – Aspire Lounge

Manchester (Terminal 1) – Aspire Lounge

Manchester (Terminal 2) – The Styal Lounge

Newcastle – Aspire Lounge

Heathrow Terminal 5 is excluded as are lounges outside the UK.  Note that you can no longer collect stamps at Servisair or Aspire lounges outside the UK.  You also cannot earn stamps at the Cardiff and Glasgow lounges because they are not directly owned by Swissport.

There were historically two ways of redeeming LoungeMiles:

post in a card with seven stamps and receive a £5 High Street shopping voucher

redeem a card with five stamps for free entry to a participating Servisair or Aspire lounge

Unfortunately, in late June, the company supplying the £5 High Street vouchers went into receivership.   For the time being, the only redemption option is a free lounge visit.

There is some upside.  If you had a card with seven stamps ready to post off, LoungeMiles has a deal for you.  Redeem a seven stamp card for a free lounge visit and you will receive a free glass of prosecco on top.  This is a very good deal.

More details can be found on the LoungeMiles site here.