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Bits: Qatar Airways confirms Dublin launch, Plaza Premium confirms Heathrow T5 lounge

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News in brief:

Qatar Airways confirms Dublin route launch

Qatar Airways has finally committed to a date for the launch of its Dublin route.

Services will start on 12th June.  It will use a Boeing 787 Dreamliner which means that you will get the newest version of Qatar’s impressive business class seat as pictured below.

You can read my review of Qatar’s 787 business class seat here.

The service will run daily as follows:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday 
Dublin to Doha  QR18  departs: 15:25 arrives 00:40+1
Doha to Dublin  QR17  departs: 07:20 arrives: 13:20

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
Dublin to Doha  QR20  departs: 08:50 arrives: 18:05
Doha to Dublin  QR19  departs: 01:25 arrives: 07:25

With no Air Passenger Duty to pay out of Dublin, there are likely to be some excellent opportunities here for good deals for UK residents.

Qatar 787 350 business class

Plaza Premium re-confirms Heathrow Terminal 5 lounge

Back in February I ran an exclusive HfP story about the planned Plaza Premium lounge in Heathrow Terminal 5.  This was an exciting project because:

a) the two existing Plaza Premium departure lounges in Terminal 2 and Terminal 4 are excellent

b) they participate in Priority Pass and Lounge Club

c) the only existing independent lounge in Terminal 5, Aspire, is woefully small

The story then went quiet.  This was not surprising since projects at Heathrow have a habit of slipping massively behind schedule as the Cathay Pacific lounge relaunch showed.

In a recent interview with Business Traveller, the Plaza Premium CEO shone some light on the project.  The Terminal 5 is now due to open in the second half of 2017 with 156 seats, lower than originally planned.  I still have no idea where it is meant to be!

Before that we can expect a Terminal 3 arrivals lounge (January) and a Terminal 4 arrivals lounge (Q1 2017) although I would take these timings with a pinch of salt.

Details of all of the Heathrow Plaza Premium lounges are here.


Getting airport lounge access for free from a credit card

How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (April 2025)

Here are the five 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 1,500 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

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee 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 – 30,000 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 £290 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 good package, but only available to HSBC Premier clients Read our full review

Got a small business?

If you have a small business, consider American Express Business Platinum which has the same lounge benefits as the personal Platinum card:

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

You should also consider the Capital on Tap Pro Visa credit card which has a lower fee and, as well as a Priority Pass for airport lounge access, also comes with Radison Rewards VIP hotel status:

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits 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.

Comments (68)

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

  • Genghis says:

    Great party. It was good to speak to likeminded people. Thanks to HfP, Melia for the subsidised booze and Currys for the headphones that I won in the raffle. Top banana.

  • Cat says:

    Thanks Rob and Anika, last night was fun! It should definitely be an annual event.

    Cat

  • Concerto says:

    And for those of you who have a decent amount of Melia Rewards points but only sporadic stays, don’t leave it too close to expiry before doing something. Buying points is a good way to prolong the life of points, which are only valid for 1 year in the absence of activity. But allow 48 hours for the transaction to go through (took 30 hours in my case). There’s a promotion at the moment: 1,000 points cost €5 instead of €8.

  • Geoggy says:

    Thanks for the party. I never win raffles so it was nice to win Raffles raffle ;0). Now to work out when I can get to Dubai!

  • Nadir says:

    Dammit. I’m always late to the party. Literally, in this case!

    O/T – I’ve not had any emails from Amex confirming £5 shop small credit. I made three purchases on Sunday, via contactless. Then two yesterday, via chip and pin. But not had any emails to confirm, unlike other offers (spent £10 in the Post Office yesterday – got an email as I was putting my Amex back into my wallet).

    Should I be worried? I’ve tweeted @ Amex UK CS and am waiting to hear back but thought I’d seek the wisdom of HfP readers.

    • Brian says:

      Contactless payments tend not to track for promotions, I (and other readers) have found. An email to Customer Services via your online account will sort it out, but it’s a bit of a hassle to have to do this every time. So it’s best to use chip and pin each time for such promotions.

    • Nick M says:

      Chip & Pin is usually more reliable in terms of tracking (I think contactless will depend on when the business “uploads” the transaction information?)

      My emails haven’t been as consistent this year – I’ve had some but not all, and have received credit from some of those that I didn’t get an email about… will tally everything up next week and then get in touch with Amex to claim any missing ones.

    • RussellH says:

      Did my first Shop Small purchase yesterday – shop asked if they could do contactless and I said yes…

      Why do some places only give a till receipt for contactless? And why did I have to fight at a bar in Newcastle to get any receipt at all (on Visa)?

      I have done two Amex contactless purchases of stamps at the Post Office; the £5 refund for the first was credited yesterday, so I was confident about the second (different card, of course) yesterday.

  • Nate says:

    OT I received the Hilton free voucher for the first time with their credit card in February 2015 and subsequently closed my account after using it.

    I understand the rules have changed and now the offer is a once only thing. If I were to apply for the card again now almost 2 years later, would I still be able the get the reward?

    • John says:

      It depends on how good Barclays would be at linking you to your previous account. Leave out your middle name or something, and don’t be disappointed if you don’t get it.

      • RussellH says:

        Is there any way in which you you can legitimately have a different address?

        For almost 20 years the PO address for where I lived was xx The Square, even though the street sign on the side of the building said Gladstone Square.

        Again where I live now, the official PO address is not the same as the name on the building.

        Though I suppose that doing this could well cause problems when Barclaycard try to match your given address to their database.

        On the other hand, some address databases – particulaly insurance companies it seems – are incapable of producing a correct form of my current address.

        Two things that they just cannot get right:
        1) They insist on a house number – none of the houses in all the local villages has a number
        2) The insist on a street name – again, there are none in any of the local villages.

  • Nick M says:

    Glad it went well, will hopefully be able to come to the next one!

  • Ro says:

    Great job Anika & Rob. A really successful evening. Looking forward to more

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

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