No1 Lounges opens its new Birmingham Airport Clubrooms lounge

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• Nick says:

  28 Nov28 November 05:23

  Rob, you say “The Heathrow Services cannot move to join Virgin in T3 because the Terminal is not designed to segregate arriving domestic passengers”. This is correct at the moment but maybe is something that could be changed to accommodate Virgin. The current Flybe flights are Dash 8 Q400 series operated albeit the concern still has some Embraers in the fleet. These would require busgate arrival as the aircraft are not airbridge compliant. It may be possible to create a domestic arrival busgate and carousel at T3 at reasonable cost.

• GOONFACE says:

  28 Nov28 November 05:39

  If you have a Priority Pass, you can upgrade to the club rooms for an extra £15. According to the assistant at the current No1 Lounge, there’s table service, it’s quieter and the menu is much more extensive.

  If you do have a Priority Pass, go to the usual/old No1 Lounge to check-in as per normal but ask about upgrading. They will take your £15 and direct you to the new No1 Club rooms situated through the Gates 40-59 area

  • Tom says:

    28 Nov28 November 07:49

    Nice tip, thanks!

  • Tom says:

    28 Nov28 November 07:50

    PS I always find the no 1 lounge at BHX a miserable little place..

    • ankomonkey says:

      28 Nov28 November 09:48

      +1. It doesn’t feel much like a treat at all.

      But the Emirates BHX lounge was fantastic on the single occasion I used it. I don’t believe any No1 product could compare.

      • Rob says:

        28 Nov28 November 10:00

        There is a photo on the Emirates website of the Birmingham lounge and it looks like a bad office canteen – although it could be a shot of the London lounge before it was refurbished. Square wooden tables and dull wooden chairs.

  • Lady London says:

    28 Nov28 November 13:03

    No. 1 at Gatwick invited me to use the Clubrooms without any extra cost once last year, when they said the main lounge was very crowded. I was going in on PP.

    TBH I didn’t really find it gave me much more than I wanted from the main lounge – which I like – but it was definitely quieter and more solidly furnished.

  • Lady London says:

    28 Nov28 November 19:09

    Is this just for BHX? does not sound too bad a value if you think you might have to pay a fiver to reserve anyway.

    • Lady London says:

      28 Nov28 November 19:10

      *above was a reply to @GOONFACE’s tip. Not sure why Wordpress put it here.

• Nick says:

  28 Nov28 November 05:51

  Both IAG and Flybe have incentive to drive the price up for Virgin.

• Will says:

  28 Nov28 November 06:12

  Rob I’m not so sure about the Embraer point. The 195s are going to leave BE in the next year. Granted IAG could retain them if they were to be successful and BE has the 175s which BA also do.

  One point you don’t raise regarding the VS interest is BEs position at Amsterdam. BE is the fourth largest operator at AMS. Given the forthcoming purchase of VS shares by AF/KL I wouldn’t be surprised if the DL/AF/KL guys are influencing the bid here as part of a longer term strategy play. VS would get additional feed at MAN- which suits them given their focus on MAN- and KL would get additional slots at AMS and get rid of part of the competition from the UK regions. In addition HOP would greatly increase operations from UK regions into France.

  It would also make Skyteam stronger across Northern Europe. Viewing the VS bid as a VS/AF/KL joint bid suddenly the Virgin bid doesn’t seem so mad after all.

  • JK says:

    28 Nov28 November 06:34

    Agree with this, see it more as a Skyteam play. VS supposedly doesn’t make a lot of big decisions these days without approval from their masters.

    • Callum says:

      28 Nov28 November 10:44

      That isn’t a shock to hear, but according to who?

      • Rob says:

        28 Nov28 November 11:07

        That’s really not in doubt, trust me. Virgin’s new website is just a white label version of the Delta site etc.

      • Lady London says:

        28 Nov28 November 13:06

        I noticed 2-3 years ago, when Virgin Flying Club numbers were reissued, that they were exactly looking like Delta membership numbers.

        I think it would be great competition for BA if KLM & AF could use a Virgin buy of flybe to strengthen and widen their service between UK regional airports and Europe. British Airways doesn’t want to do it and lots of people in the North are finding KLM a better connection to Europe than BA via LHR. So would be great if KLM/AF think they can make money if they get flybe.

• Rob MC says:

  28 Nov28 November 07:02

  Ot, Is there any news on the Hilton CC coming back…??

  • Andy says:

    28 Nov28 November 07:24

    And also where is the Marriott CC too!

• Andrew says:

  28 Nov28 November 07:20

  I hope Qatar start using Clubrooms – the current No1 lounge is far from a premium experience.

  • Nigel the pensioner says:

    28 Nov28 November 10:24

    I think there may be a good chance – at least im hoping so, as we have flights booked early next year!

• Lumma says:

  28 Nov28 November 07:53

  Is it still no surcharges on redemptions 1 way back from Brazil? I’m think Norwegian premium then avios back could be a decent deal, providing Norwegian stays in business that is…

  • Yorkieflyer says:

    28 Nov28 November 08:35

    A dummy booking on BAEC and comment on FT suggests not and representations get you nowhere unless a Brazil resident

  • Alex W says:

    28 Nov28 November 09:55

    At £227.50 fees one way in CW it’s still half the price of, say, LAX at £453.50.

  • Lev441 says:

    28 Nov28 November 10:10

    There is but only if booking through Avios.com – did this last month.

    BA seems to add fuel surcharges whereas Avios haven’t added this.

  • Adam says:

    28 Nov28 November 10:42

    Flew back from Brazil (Sao Paulo) in CW in August and it was only around £30 TFCs

• Rob MC says:

  28 Nov28 November 07:56

  Will be a massive surprise when they refuse to let you in as they are “fully booked”

  • Shoestring says:

    28 Nov28 November 08:02

    With the gift vouchers, maybe. But not with the specific date lounge passes as you’re buying a reservation.

    • Shoestring says:

      28 Nov28 November 08:07

      And that makes the £19.20 better value as you could mentally subtract £5 from the £19.20, £5 being the normal reservation fee. You could be in the position of otherwise paying £20 (with no guaranteed place) for passes (eg your 2 free Lounge Club passes used up/ bring in guests on LC/ more than 1 guest on Priority Pass).

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