Which British Airways European routes do not offer lounge access?

On Saturday we ran a review of the ANA lounge at Porto airport.  This is notable because – whilst it is the only lounge at Porto – British Airways refuses to pay for Club Europe or status passengers to use it.

(If you read HfP by email, you didn’t receive this review because I felt it was a bit of a niche topic to drop into 10,000 inboxes.  You can read the article here.)

Courtesy of Flyertalk, I have a list of all British Airways short-haul destinations which do not offer lounge access.  This is a great bit of crowd sourcing work from the FT community. Keep this list in mind next time you book a trip and are considering whether to upgrade to Club Europe or not.

These airports have no lounge at all so you can’t blame BA for not letting you in:

Bergen, Flesland Airport BGO

Biarritz-Anglet-Bayonne BIQ

Corfu / Ioannis Kapodistrias International Airport CFU

Chania International Airport CHQ

Chambery-Savoie CMF

Bergerac-Roumaniere EGC

Friedrichshafen FDH

Fuerteventura FUE

Grenoble-Isere GNB

Frederico Garcia Lorca GRX

Innsbruck INN (EDIT: a Priority Pass lounge opened 12/17)

Skiathos Island National JSI

Santorini JTR

Kos KGS

Kalamata KLX

Limoges LIG

Menorca MAH

San Javier MJV

Nantes Atlantique NTE

Asturias OVD

Pula PUY

Rotterdam RTM

Quimper-Cornouaille UIP

These airports have a lounge but BA refuses to pay for it:

You can use a Priority Pass instead at these airports:

Lanzarote ACE

Cagliari/Elmas CAG

Catania/Fontanarossa CTA

Madeira FNC

Heraklion International Nikos Kazantzakis HER

Humberside HUY

Ibiza IBZ

Mykonos JMK

John Paul II International Krakow-Balice KRK

Montpelier MPL

Olbia/Costa Smeralda OLB

Francisco de Sa Carneiro, Porto OPO

Palermo/Punta Raisi PMO (landside)

Thessaloniki Macedonia International SKG (as of 1st July 2017)

Split SPU

Sevilla SVQ

Rhodes – Diagoras International RHU

Tallinn TLL

These airport lounges only accepts cash and not Priority Pass / Lounge Club:

Brindisi/Casale BDS

Bordeaux-Merignac BOD

Bodrum – Milas Bodrum International BJV

Bari/Palese International BRI

Dalaman International DLM

London City Airport LCY (in the Private Jet Terminal)

Paphos International PFO

Stavanger, Sola SVG

These airports have lounges run by other airlines which BA cannot access:

Keflavik International KEF

Please bear in mind that this is crowd sourced list and 100% accuracy is not guaranteed – but it should be close enough.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.