No1 announces three new UK airport lounges – and save 20% on the £5 Priority Pass booking fee

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• Jovanna says:

  20 Oct20 October 05:42

  I was in the No.1 Lounge at the North Terminal last week. The breakfast was really terrible. When I last visited in May, the lounge had moved over to a buffet breakfast and it wasn’t bad. Things had changed this time.

  The sausages were such poor quality that I couldn’t eat them. The hot plate was just a scrum of people and many of the items, such as the baked beans, hash browns were taking and age to be replenished. It was 25 minutes before the milk next to the cereals was filled.

  I left after about half an hour. It was just too busy and too noisy.

  • Lady London says:

    20 Oct20 October 15:07

    That’s disappointing to hear @Jovanna. I quite liked the buffet breakfast they were doing. the best lounge option at LGW does seem to be the British Airways one. Unfortunately I don’t fly OneWorld airlines out of LGW!

• Andrew says:

  20 Oct20 October 06:15

  Odd that the BHX lounge is only open until 2:30pm daily.

• Paul says:

  20 Oct20 October 07:43

  The pre booking scam and additional payments by stealth will kill priority pass. I don’t need it as I usually fly in a premium cabin or use BA lounges. When I have used it I have a 50% success rate and would never pay for a card that is refused as much as it is accepted. Priority pass and by default amex need to concerned by this refusal rate.

  • Simon says:

    20 Oct20 October 08:23

    +1

  • Anna says:

    20 Oct20 October 11:45

    +1. I’ve tried to use it 3 times at MAN T3 and been turned away on two of those! They are all smiles and welcome until you get the cards out, then suddenly there’s no room because they are “expecting pre-booked parties” to arrive.

    • Rob says:

      20 Oct20 October 11:48

      They are.

      Lounges are a pure marginal revenue business (like HFP). No-one will turn down revenue if they have a choice.

• Metty says:

  20 Oct20 October 08:21

  Nearly tried The House last Friday as we were flying Etihad Business Class, but on asking if our kids – on an economy class redemption – could come in, they said yes, for £45pp, at which stage we said thank you and went upstairs to the Skyteam lounge where we could all get in on PP.

• John says:

  20 Oct20 October 08:41

  Well, I used my Amex Gold lounge passes at the Grain Store last week. It was good but £30 of credit (plus £2 extra payment) wasn’t enough to fill us up.

  However if you were prepared to spend £30 to £45 you’d get more than enough food and drinks even at airport prices, and the more expensive restaurants usually have a better ambience and are less crowded than lounges… I guess The House is basically a nice restaurant in a club though

• Richard Miles says:

  20 Oct20 October 10:33

  I think Amex Plat card and its included PP Card will have a problem with lounges very soon. More and more turn you away(too busy) unless you reserve in advance for a fee. The latest “Clubhouse” type don’t even accept PP.
  This is a once valuable Amex Plat benefit that is becoming worthless.

  • Rob says:

    20 Oct20 October 11:51

    Whilst Clubrooms is not in PP, it will attract some airlines to move from the main lounge which frees up space.

• Lady London says:

  20 Oct20 October 12:45

  Should the credit on a lounge pass be enough to “fill you up”?

  Quality of food in lounges is very important to me. Hence I view the quality of food British Airways provides in Gold/Silver Lounge at Heathrow, to be insulting. My hope in a lounge is to be able to eat something on the snack level only, not really a full meal. If I was that hungry I’d do what you mention @John and try to find one of the nicer restaurants to pay and eat in. then possibly move to a lounge for some peace and quiet and a coffee/drink or two and to do some work.

  I would be interested to see what, if any, action Priority Pass and Amex will take about the vastly increasing number of Priority Pass customers that are being turned away. Trouble is, what means do they have of tracking members who do get turned away?

  • DWB1873 says:

    20 Oct20 October 15:04

    It is possible that it’s the Amex/PP type deal that’s causing the problem.

    In a classic example of “only me should have it”, I’d argue it’s too easy get a Plat card or equivalent which comes with it. That takes them from being somewhat niche to everyone’s got one.

    If it is, then they will do nothing as effectively they win either way.

    I’m sure there was a good reason but I do scratch my head at the removal of the minimum earning levels. You have to prove income with mortgages, why did they do away with it for unsecured credit cards?

    As a side note it would be interesting to see how the relative value of the Amex plat has eroded over the last few years. From loss of partners to effectively not being able to use benefits, it makes that chunky renewal fee look increasingly questionable.

    • Lady London says:

      20 Oct20 October 15:11

      The trouble is Amex Plat costs even more in some other countries. i believe it’s something ridiculous like $1500 in Australia?

      Amex must be doing some hard thinking about what they can continue to offer for the future now that their charges to retailers are capped at much lower levels than they were able to previously obtain.

    • Rob says:

      20 Oct20 October 16:00

      Some US cards have unlimited guests. We got a big group into the Palma lounge on Wed with one of these.

      We only stayed 10 minutes. Chase gets a bill for $200+. Not sure who wins here.

• Mike says:

  20 Oct20 October 22:31

  Does the opening of the new My Lounge mean there will now be somewhere for us dirty smokers to puff away airside in LGW south?

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