Bits: cheap Dragonpass lounges, 750 Avios with No1 Lounges, airberlin new short-haul business

News in brief:

Daily Telegraph / Dragonpass offer returns – or earn 750 Avios with No1 Lounges

The Daily Telegraph has brought back its occasional airport lounge access promotion with lounge network Dragonpass.

Via this link (ignore the April date), you can buy passes to any lounge used by Dragonpass for £16.50.  This is a discount on the usual price and the Dragonpass £50 membership fee is waived.

For most UK lounges this will be the cheapest way of buying access this Summer.

However ….. remember that No1 Lounges has an excellent Avios-based deal for its lounges at Heathrow Terminal 3, Gatwick, Birmingham and Edinburgh.

For £20 per person, you receive lounge access AND 750 Avios points.  This is a better deal than the Dragonpass offer.

The Avios will only be credited to an avios.com account but you can move them to BA later via ‘Combine My Avios’ online.

As long as you avoid the overcrowded Gatwick North lounge, struggling under the weight of BA passengers who are currently lounge-less, the No1 Lounges portfolio is very impressive.  At £20 per visit, less the value you place on 750 Avios, this offer (click here) is a good deal.

airberlin launches short-haul business class

With what feels like the influence of 49% shareholder Etihad behind it, airberlin is launching a pseudo business class product on its short-haul network.

As a member of oneworld, you can redeem Avios points on the airberlin network.  I am flying them next week as it happens.  There are currently no airberlin flights to or from the UK however.

There are two reasons for this change.  One is that, at the same time, airberlin is moving to 100% buy-on-board catering in economy.  It currently offers a free drink and snack with the option of paying for more.

Secondly, and this is only a guess, Etihad believes it can attract more premium transfer passengers connecting to / from Etihad if they can book business class all the way to their final destination.  It will also help airberlin attract transfer passengers to its expanding long-haul network.

This is what is happening:

business class will be only the front row of seats so a maximum of four passengers

the middle seat will be left free

the seat pitch will be adjusted in rows 2+ so that row 1 gets 32 inches of legroom

benefits include a welcome drink, a pillow, free food from the buy on board menu, priority boarding, priority check-in, fast-track security, lounge or airberlin waiting area access, extra baggage allowance

all business class tickets will be fully flexible and seat reservations will be free