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Eurostar St Pancras lounge update – how is the new cocktail bar?

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I was in the Eurostar lounge at St Pancras yesterday for the first time since the new cocktail bar opened.  Whilst it wasn’t open at 8am (!) it does look very smart as you can see below.

I have a love/hate relationship with this lounge.  It is always ludicrously overcrowded on the ground floor but deserted upstairs – whether this is the fault of the passengers for not noticing the stairs or Eurostar for not painting them luminous pink to make them more obvious isn’t clear.

Eurostar lounge bar London St Pancras

The breakfast food selection is weak (two cereal options, pain au chocolat, croissants, ham, cheese) and, even worse, the quality of the pastries is dire.  Given that Pret is now open on the concourse there is no excuse for serving what they do.

On the positive side, the selection of newspapers and magazines is outstanding.  No other lounge I know comes close.  My taste in reading may not match yours, but there were at least 10 magazines I would happily have walked off with.

There are also wireless phone charging pads by every seat upstairs, which is a simple but very convenient benefit.  All seats have a power socket too.

Remember that Eurostar lounge access is a benefit of American Express Platinum (see our new review here) – just show your card at the door.  No guests are allowed but obviously your partner could come in if they were your free Platinum supplementary cardholder.  In my experience children are allowed in ‘by negotiation’ at quiet periods, with more chance in Paris where the lounge is larger.

How to get Club Eurostar points and lounge access from UK credit cards

How to get Club Eurostar points and lounge access from UK credit cards (April 2024)

Club Eurostar does not have a UK credit card.  However, you can earn Club Eurostar points by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards. 

Cards earning Membership Rewards points include:

Membership Rewards points convert at 15:1 into Club Eurostar points.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, so you will get the equivalent of 1 Club Eurostar point for every £15 you spend.

American Express Platinum comes with a great Eurostar benefit – Eurostar lounge access!  

You can enter any Eurostar lounge, irrespective of your ticket type, simply by showing The Platinum Card at the desk.  No guests are allowed but you can get entry for your partner by issuing them with a free supplementary Amex Platinum card on your account.

Category

American Express Platinum card, Club Eurostar

Comments (101)

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

  • chris says:
    16 Nov16 November 05:06

    Was emailed an invite/ form to fill in to join the curve amex closed beta last night …

  • Coume says:
    16 Nov16 November 06:11

    Re Curve beta. My guess is simply to debug their system. I did not select the beta as i get enough connectivity and payment issues as it is.
    I will wait the official release…

    • kevbar says:
      16 Nov16 November 09:04

      Same here, too many unresolved problems over a month old where the only response is ‘we are looking into this’.

  • Cueball says:
    16 Nov16 November 06:44

    It looks like you have to load money from amex to a virtual wallet to use it with curve. I couldnt be bothered right the beta.

    • tartan says:
      16 Nov16 November 07:31

      I can live with the virtual wallet approach if it means that I can pay my HMRC bill from my Amex and meet my signup bonus in pretty much one transaction!

    • MDA says:
      16 Nov16 November 10:01

      Alarm bells!! Loading a top up account and you will likely lose section 75 protection from a credit card company

      There goes ideas such as buying a fridge using amex and losing years of consumer rights. Curve might not even be trading in 5 years

      • Genghis says:
        16 Nov16 November 10:13

        Nothing different to the curve model currently though.

        • BlueHorizonuk says:
          16 Nov16 November 10:21

          Although I am not sure how loading a virtual card gets around Amex’s issue with Curve in that they wanted more transactional information hence why it stopped in the first place.

      • Paul says:
        16 Nov16 November 11:46

        Theres no section 75 protection using curve anyway, it breaks the debtor-creditor-supplier chain which is needed for section 75. Also if using a chargecard theres no sections 75 protection, amex would raise a chargeback.

      • Alan says:
        16 Nov16 November 12:43

        No S75 for Amex charge card anyway, although they do of course have their own scheme.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        16 Nov16 November 18:24

        No S75 full stop with curve or others like PayPal. Just use it for things you don’t need S75 for

  • Londonbus says:
    16 Nov16 November 07:14

    Used CZ earlier in the year in WhY for MNL-CAN-XIY and XIY-CAN, NNG-CAN. They are very good.

    It would be great if they joined Oneworld.

    • Sam says:
      16 Nov16 November 07:42

      I wouldn’t say they were really good but they do fly direct to where my family are so would avoid the faff of transiting

      Keeping fingers crossed

  • Roger says:
    16 Nov16 November 07:27

    OT_Amex Travel

    How long did it take for £200 credit to appear after transaction became processed?
    My Amex Travel transaction took 1 week exactly to go from Pending to Processed and only got processed yesterday (on the last day of offer), even when it was spent on 7th and 8th of November.

    Did get the emails about offer redemption, just trying to see it is indeed going to pay out as I would like to cancel my card before it is hit with fees.

    • Crafty says:
      16 Nov16 November 08:25

      If these extremely slow to process payments do not result in statement credits they will have a LOT of unhappy customers to contend with. I suggest wait.

      • Simon says:
        16 Nov16 November 09:03

        It will be fine. Worked for me, after many days pending, and getting the offer redemption email. When it finally processed the date on it was the original date I did the spend.

        • Geoff says:
          16 Nov16 November 09:07

          I sure hope so! I had no idea it would take so long to go through. Mine is a bit more than 24 hours before deadline. Booking is refundable so if they stiff me on the statement credit, the deal isn’t worth it (Amex travel was over £100 more than booking direct) so I’ll just drop it and change plans

    • Russ says:
      16 Nov16 November 12:29

      I thought pending was when the money had been allocated but the other side hadn’t called for it yet i.e. pending waiting for collection?

    • Alan says:
      16 Nov16 November 12:44

      About a week IIRC. I’ve found all recent Amex offers very slow to post. Didn’t receive emails for majority either but did all eventually post.

  • Roger says:
    16 Nov16 November 07:38

    Has anyone been able to use Amex for SKY and NowTV?
    Website only accepts VISA / MC

    • Shoestring says:
      16 Nov16 November 08:39

      No way round it for Sky, unless with Curve (in future) or using Amex to buy a prepaid Mastercard somewhere – comes with fees but you might have a money off coupon to mitigate the extra cost. Recently got £15 off £100 MOC + 2x £10 off £100 MOCs @Tesco so that would have been more than enough to offset the fees on 2x £50 prepaid MCs.

      The site that cannot be named allows you to convert c/b into a prepaid Mastercard these days (with 8% bonus) – so you could think of a way to use Amex to generate the c/b & go down this circuitous route.

      But simpler to just pay Sky with your best non-Amex card.

    • Axel says:
      16 Nov16 November 11:14

      You get about 30% discount on Now if you buy their cards at PCWorld who take Amex

  • Alex W says:
    16 Nov16 November 07:39

    OT. Not sure if this is widely known but incidental spend at Kimpton does not accrue IHG Rewards Club points. Yet another headache trying to hit my 15000 base points. With that and the pointless resort fees, I won’t be staying at Kimpton again!

    • TGLoyalty says:
      16 Nov16 November 18:28

      It is actually clearly stated in the T&C’s and publicised online.

      Seems silly though not to reward customers for spending in the hotel. Just let them walk away and spend in other restaurants. Maybe the Marriott/SPG nearby which gives you points even if you aren’t staying (don’t know if they still offer the 20% off for members)

      • Alex W says:
        17 Nov17 November 01:00

        I haven’t seen it publicised and yes it’s buried in the T&C’s if you’re specifically looking and can find it… an unecessary exclusion that is just annoying for IHG members.

  • Marcw says:
    16 Nov16 November 07:42

    I don’t think China Southern will join oneworld. There’s really no point in this relationship – recent history has shown what really matters: joint ventures.
    Anyway, spending Miles on China Southern is kinda pointless, heaves fees are charged.

    • Richard says:
      16 Nov16 November 11:25

      An alliance is not just about the redemptions! It would be a huge advantage to have an Avios/TP earning option, which also recognises OW status for priority check-in and lounge access, for flights within domestic China.

      • Sol says:
        16 Nov16 November 12:14

        However Cathy have right of refusal for that region, so will be unlikely they join.

        • Russ says:
          16 Nov16 November 12:30

          China Southern has another hub at Beijing.

        • marcw says:
          16 Nov16 November 22:12

          *IF* they join, it is likely that Cathay leaves oneworld.
          The “problem” is that China Southern is SOO big in their home market that they don´t benefit from being in an alliance: they only need to sign joint ventures and codeshare agreements on specific markets.

        • Shoestring says:
          16 Nov16 November 22:23

          They’re leaving SkyWorld – an alliance, so they opted into an alliance on business reasons in the past.

          Now they’re simply looking for a better airline alliance as far as they are concerned.

          I’d say new alliance 90%, no alliance needed 10%.

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