Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Excellent Groupon deal – a cheap way to use Plaza Premium lounge in Terminal 5

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

A very interesting Groupon deal has come up which will get you into the new Plaza Premium lounge in BA’s Heathrow Terminal 5 for just £19, and just £16 for further visits.

Let’s take a step back first for some background …..

If you do not have airline status or are not travelling in Business or First Class, the only way to get airport lounge access (without paying steep walk-up prices) is via membership of a lounge club.

The three major lounge access cards are:

Priority Pass (buy outright here via a generous Black Friday discount or free with Amex Platinum)

Lounge Club (two free visits per year for Amex Preferred Rewards Gold cardholders) and

LoungeKey (for MasterCard World Elite cardholders, eg HSBC Premier World Elite)

These are all owned by the same company, Collinson Latitude.  Whilst there are some differences between the lounges available across the three Collinson Latitude products, the similarities are far greater.

DragonPass is the only independent group offering airport lounge access cards.  It is not connected with Collinson.  This has allowed it to cut some interesting deals which are not available with the three Collinson products.

Here are some interesting London examples which are NOT available with Priority Pass or Lounge Club:

Exclusive DragonPass offers at Heathrow:

In Terminal 5 and Terminal 2, you can use the Regus Express business centre lounge in Arrivals

In Terminal 5, you can use the new Plaza Premium departures lounge 

In Terminal 3, you can use the No 1 Lounge in departures (this is in Priority Pass but not Lounge Club)

You get dining discounts – but no freebies – at The Prince of Wales (T4), Giraffe (T3, T5), Comptoir Libonais (T4), The Curator (T3), Apostrophe (T4), Wonder Tree (T2), Market Gardener (T3)

Exclusive DragonPass offers at Gatwick:

In South Terminal, you can use the Regus Express business centre lounge in Arrivals

You can get dining discounts – but no freebies – at Nicholas Culpepper (North), Giraffe (South), Garfunkels (North), Wonder Tree (South), Apostrophe (South), Eat (North), Armadillo (North), Shake-a-Hula (North), Comptoir Libonais (North), Joe’s Coffee House (South)

Obviously DragonPass will also get you into most of the ‘usual suspect’ lounges which Priority Pass can also access such as Aspire and No 1 Lounges sites.

You can search the DragonPass lounge directory here.

What does a DragonPass card cost?

The standard prices for a DragonPass card are listed here (toggle to £ in the menu bar):

£68 gets you one lounge visit, with future visits and guests charged at £16

£128 gets you eight lounge visits, with future visits and guests charged at £16

£268 gets you unlimited lounge visits, with guests charged at £16

However, at the moment there is a very attractive deal available via Groupon.

The Groupon deal – save 57%

Click here for the offer.

Via Groupon, you can buy a 1-year DragonPass card for just £29 instead of £68.

If you do not have a Groupon account already, code NEW50 should take a further £10 off if this is your first order, taking your cost down to just £19.

This includes your first lounge visit for free.  Future visits plus guests, as per the above, will be charged at £16.

This is an excellent way of accessing the very impressive new Plaza Premium lounge in Heathrow Terminal 5 (see our coverage here and here and here.)   This lounge charges £40 on the door and the only other way in at present is by showing an American Express Platinum charge card.  It does NOT take Priority Pass, Lounge Club or LoungeKey.

Even if you only planned to make one visit to Plaza Premium in Terminal 5, this is £11 cheaper (£21 cheaper if you use the NEW50 code) than paying £40 on the door.  Future visits will save you £24 each time.  Given the cost of food and drink in the terminal, you won’t struggle to get £16 of value from a visit to Plaza Premium Terminal 5.

It is worth nothing that the lounge is incredibly quiet.  I have never seen a report which said it had more than 10 guests.  Unless it starts to accept Priority Pass, or until American Express starts to promote it to Platinum cardholders, I expect it to remain a haven of solitude!

If you want to buy, the Groupon link for a cheap DragonPass is here


Getting airport lounge access for free from a credit card

How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (November 2024)

Here are the four 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

Huge 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 also comes with Radison Rewards VIP status:

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

30,000 points (TO 9TH DECEMBER) 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 (82)

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

  • patrick says:

    One way to get the Dragonpass membership for free is through Regus (go to my account, tools, lounges)…I believe this is available even with the basic PAYG Regus membership, although you still have to pay for lounge visits at 16gbp each

    • Tungro says:

      £16 is still less than the Groupon deal. So thank you for this – just signed up via my existing Regus account.

      Anyone doing the same, please note – when you use the app, you log on with the membership number and password from the email. Don’t select the “activate digital membership” option as that won’t work.

  • Fenny says:

    With all the reports of lounges being full and travellers being turned away, what’s the chance of actually getting into these lounges having forked out on a Priority/Dragon/Lounge Pass? Not that I’m likely to be flying much next year, due to other commitments, but it seems that everyone and his dog seem to think that the lounge is the best place to be these days.

    • Graham Walsh says:

      There is no guarantee of getting in unles you pay extra to pre book (defeats the purpose). You will find that the lounges are reserved for airlines such as Norwegian etc who don’t have heir own lounges when flying in their premium product. I’ve been turned away a few times. But then if you say you are only going to be 45mins, they might let you in.

      I ended up the the Turkish Airlines lounge as the first PP lounge was full. Think that was IAD.

    • Rob says:

      No 1 is the only place you ever have trouble due to their airline contracts.

      • Yuff says:

        I was in the Gatwick no1 lounge on Friday and they wouldn’t let me in as it was full unless I paid £15, which I did using a lounge key card, but they said the same for lounge club.
        The lounge was empty, they said I could have pre booked, for £5 and, also got fast track for security. Which would have been a good deal.
        The people in front of me had priority passes and were told to come back in an hour, I suspect if they had time to come back they still would have not got in.
        The lounge was great because it was very quiet and the menu excellent, champagne ( I saw someone ordering) was charged for.

        • Fenny says:

          So basically, they lied!

          When I had PP, I never had a problem getting into lounges abroad, but only used one lounge at LHR on a weekday, which was fine. I’d be more than a little miffed if they told me I’d have to pay extra, as there were about 8 people in there and only 2 others with me in the bar area.

  • Neil Bulloch says:

    Just purchased DragonPass via Groupon “first order” deal for £19.
    I was going to use it next September at Heathrow for a trip from Newcastle to Nashville with BA.
    However,unless I am misinterpreting the fine print the pass expires on 31 March 2018!
    It seems not my finest hour,but just wanted to give a “heads up” to others who may have had a similar plan.

    • Ariel says:

      Neil, after I redeeming it, you can see on the app that the membership is until Nov 2017. The March date is maybe the Groupon voucher expiration, as to until when you can redeem the voucher with DragonPass.

  • Neil Bulloch says:

    Thanks for that,Ariel.
    I interpreted the fine print as the DragonPass expiring on 31 March 2018 – not the Groupon voucher to obtain the pass.
    It looks like I may be confused – no change there!

  • Neil Bulloch says:

    Thanks for that,Ariel.
    I have spoken to Groupon and it was a bit confusing.
    My understanding now is that you get a years membership of DragonPass as expected.
    However.the first free lounge visit must be taken by 31 March 2018.
    I am not 100% certain that is correct,but that is how I understand it after their clarification.
    This information seems to be exactly as you (correctly) outlined it above!
    Thank you.

    • the real harry1 says:

      I doubt it – you’d be better off speaking to DP than Groupon

      I gave DP a ring here in the UK earlier and they knew all the T&Cs connected with the Groupon deal

      31/3/18 much more likely to be either when the deal expires @ Groupon or (as you say) the latest you can redeem your Groupon voucher

      ie nothing to do with using the lounge pass

      but phone them & ask?

  • Neil Bulloch says:

    The real harry 1
    Thank you for your advice. I will ring DP and get everything clarified

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

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.