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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.

  • Degsy says:
    16 Nov16 November 08:21

    Bits. Hi does anyone know if you book an ihg stay with points and cash does this count as a stay for the latest promotion?

    • Genghis says:
      16 Nov16 November 08:27

      No. Points and cash on IHG is effectively a redemption stay with you buying the additional points required to top up with cash.

      • Simon says:
        16 Nov16 November 10:10

        +1 which I found out after a couple of points and cash stays……fortunately have enough other stays to meet my accelerate target. You live and learn!

    • Alan says:
      16 Nov16 November 12:45

      As lobgnot unless you have that as a specific target.

  • Andrew says:
    16 Nov16 November 08:39

    Quote:- “A grade I listed building with stunning exposed brick and industrial steelwork, the space is totally unique.”

    Or ten a penny across the UK. Usually with low beams artfully decorated using cardboard or slices of plumber’s pipe insulation attached with black and yellow tape.

  • Andrew says:
    16 Nov16 November 08:52

    Bits – Loganair.

    Targeted ad on the site today, probably because I’m in Perth. Loganair are promoting a £600ish tax saving when flying Business on Emirates if the journey connects from their service from Dundee.

    Whilst the connections to Stansted are clearly less frequent than Edinburgh, it’s worth considering when the time difference to get to EDI, GLA or Dundee is pretty much negligible for most of the central belt.

  • MDA says:
    16 Nov16 November 10:08

    OT: How long do referral points take to process for amex. My friend has still not got his card despite being accepted and I dont have any points. Thanks

    • Genghis says:
      16 Nov16 November 10:20

      Card can take around 4-5 WDs to arrive after acceptance. Points usually then post on the day of card arrival or soon thereafter. A referral for me in the last two weeks was:
      T Sunday: application and not initially accepted
      T+6 Saturday: card arrived
      T+8 Referral points posted

    • RTS says:
      16 Nov16 November 10:21

      Ours, recently, have been taking up to 2 weeks to post with straight up acceptance.

      Very odd.

    • Benylin says:
      16 Nov16 November 10:23

      Upto 10 days to receive his card. Points usually get posted 1 or 2 days before he receives the card in my experience.

    • MattyS says:
      16 Nov16 November 12:50

      Did one last Saturday from BAPP for an Amex Plat. Acceptance straight away, card not yet received (unless in today’s post), referral points arrived yesterday.

  • RTS says:
    16 Nov16 November 10:12

    So, did we ever get to the bottom as to which underlying card charges or doesn’t charge with Curve to AMEX payments?

    I know Virgin doesn’t charge. But what about Lloyds and IHG ?

    • Doug M says:
      16 Nov16 November 10:20

      Do small transactions and see

      • RTS says:
        16 Nov16 November 10:22

        I’ve just missed the boat on my Lloyds card as my statement gets generated on 18th.

    • Benylin says:
      16 Nov16 November 10:23

      IHG doesn’t but good luck paying with it, it’s very sensitive

      HSBC doesn’t
      Lloyds doesn’t

    • Anna says:
      16 Nov16 November 12:06

      HH visa hasn’t so far…

    • Rich says:
      16 Nov16 November 13:06

      Similar question from me too. Very late to the curve party from what I read here but grateful for some other advice.

      Am I right in assuming that paying an Amex CC bill with eg HSBC premier cc (via curve) means one would get points via both Amex and HSBC? I’m guessing that’s the whole point here!

      Do you need to pay the Amex before the statement is raised and if so does that reduce the number of points generated or are the points based on spend not final bill?

      Does it make a difference if Amex is charge card or credit card?

      • Mark2 says:
        16 Nov16 November 14:31

        You can part-pay an Amex card any time that you like, but you cannot pay more than you owe.
        Points are based on spend less refunds (but not statement credits).

        • Anna says:
          16 Nov16 November 15:38

          They say you can’t pay more than you owe, but I once accidentally paid the wrong Amex card and ended up £3k in credit! It was unbelievably complicated to get the money back, my bank had to formally apply to Amex for the funds and Amex were being really unhelpful because of their money-laundering protocols. Their stance was that I should just wait until I had spent another 3k on that card! Fortunately my bank (First Direct) is brilliant and always willing to go above and beyond in my25 years’ experience of being their customer.

      • Chris says:
        16 Nov16 November 16:16

        You could always ask both Amex and HSBC. Maybe flag up to their senior management that you’ve found a nice loophole but want some extra info to take advantage of it.

        Just sayin’

  • BlueHorizonuk says:
    16 Nov16 November 10:21

    British Airways’ Black Friday sale will run from midday on Thursday November 22 until midnight on ‘Cyber Monday’, November 26.

    No other info

  • Russ says:
    16 Nov16 November 11:00

    As bits, Marriott points for recent competition just started dropping in.

  • Ricardo says:
    16 Nov16 November 11:18

    Bits – trying to use the Hilton offer on my Amex Platinum.
    I would like to stay in one of their hotels in Europe that is on Amex’s list of participating properties and the stay will be over the required spend. The Ts&Cs say you have to pay in GBP but the only option I can find on the Hilton website is to pay in EUR. Does anyone know if it’ll still trigger the offer, or have I missed somewhere the option to change the billing currency to GBP ? Otherwise how can the offer actually be used for the listed non-UK properties? Many thanks

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