Review of the British Airways Galleries lounge at Edinburgh Airport

This is my review of the British Airways Lounge at Edinburgh Airport.

This is part of our series of reviews of airport lounges across the UK. You see all of the reviews here.

A long layover at Edinburgh Airport last week gave me a chance to take a look at three of the lounges – No 1 Lounge, Aspire and the British Airways Galleries.

My review of the No1 Lounge is here and my review of the Aspire lounge is here.

Where is the British Airways lounge at Edinburgh Airport?

The British Airways lounge is located next to the Aspire lounge at the far end of the shopping precinct.  The No1 Lounge is more central, although you shouldn’t pick a lounge on this basis as they are only a minute or so apart.

How can you get into the lounge?

The British Airways lounge at Edinburgh operates under standard BA lounge access rules.  You will need Silver or higher Executive Club status, be travelling in Club Europe or be connecting to a long-haul Club World or First flight at Heathrow to gain access.

You cannot get in by paying or by showing any lounge access card.  You can access the No1 Lounge and Aspire lounges for cash, or with a Priority Pass (free with American Express Platinum or you can buy one) or Lounge Club card (free with the free American Express Gold).

What is the Edinburgh British Airways lounge like inside?

I had mixed feelings about the British Airways Galleries lounge.  The Aspire lounge was, to my mind, the weakest of the three Edinburgh lounges – but still more than satisfactory – whilst the BA and No1 lounges each have their strong points.

What you get with the British Airways lounge is scale.  This is a big lounge, surprisingly big actually.

It is also a busy lounge.  My flight back was operated by a two-aisle Boeing 767.  The Club Europe cabin was virtually full and there would have been lots of Silver and Gold status card holders, or connecting passengers, in Euro Traveller.  There were a lot of people with lounge access rights, and BA has so many flights from Edinburgh that you will often get passengers from two or more flights overlapping.

The lounge sticks very much to the standard British Airways design.  The food and drink layout here:

and here:

….. will be familiar to most of you even if you’ve never been to Edinburgh.

When I said the lounge was big, this is what I meant:

and

and

This was the key selling point for me.  Lots of space and lots of variety.  Whether you wanted a desk to work at, a communal eating table or sofa style seating, you are going to be OK.  The No 1 Lounge also offers all of this, but on a smaller scale.

The newspaper and magazine selection was good.  Drinks are self service, whilst Aspire and No 1 have a staffed bar.

What lets the lounge down, at least mid afternoon, was the lack of hot food – or any decent food at all.  British Airways never seems to make a success of feeding people at its lounges outside London.  If you’re hungry, and you’ve got a Priority Pass, I would make a detour via No 1 or Aspire before heading here.

If you are reading this and will be able to access the BA lounge but do not have access to No1 or Aspire, the question isn’t really ‘which Edinburgh Airport lounge is best?’.  Your question will be ‘is it worth getting to the airport early to enjoy the BA lounge?’.  Food-wise, the answer is ‘No’.  Drinks-wise, I’d say yes.  Space-wise and comfort-wise, I’d say yes.

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How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (September 2021)

As a reminder, here are the three options to get FREE airport lounge access via a credit or charge 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 Plaza Premium, Delta and Eurostar lounges. The card has a sign-up bonus of 60,000 points which is a special offer running to 2nd November 2021.  Our American Express Platinum review is here. You can apply here.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for the first year. It comes with a Priority Pass card loaded with two free visits to any Priority Pass lounge – see the list here. 

Additional lounge visits are charged at £20.  You get two more free visits for every year you keep the card.  

There is no annual fee for Amex Gold in Year 1 and a special 30,000 points sign-up bonus until 9th November 2021.  Full details are in our American Express Preferred Rewards Gold review here.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard gets you get a free LoungeKey card, allowing you access to the LoungeKey network.  Guests are charged at £20 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.