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New luxury lounge planned for Newcastle Airport

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It looks like a lot of regional airports in the UK are seeing value in adding high-end lounge offerings.

I was recently in the Lomond Lounge at Glasgow Airport (review here) which has also just opened and offers, to my view, a genuinely premium experience – albeit for £40.

Newcastle Airport is the latest to announce a new premium lounge, and is hoping to have it open and running by Summer 2020. Our experience with lounges, however, is that they are almost always delayed ….

Newcastle new luxury lounge

The new lounge is being designed for 100 guests – so it will not be huge – and will compete with the existing British Airways lounge reviewed here  and the existing pay-to-use Aspire and Aspire Plus lounges (review).

To quote Nick Jones, chief executive at Newcastle International Airport:

“Airport lounges are becoming increasingly popular, and with the introduction of this new premium lounge in summer 2020, this will ensure we are satisfying customer demand.

“We are working closely with the designers to create a high-quality facility that responds to a range of customer requirements.”

It does look very classy (see artists impression above) with a warm brown-grey finish with wood and brass accents, as well as excellent views.  We will be up there to try it out next Summer.

Getting airport lounge access for free from a credit card

How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (April 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 1,300 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

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

If you have a small business, consider American Express Business Platinum instead.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit 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 – 20,000 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 £195 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 huge bonus, but only available to HSBC Premier clients 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.

Category

General

Comments (127)

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

  • xcalx says:
    29 Oct29 October 12:56

    OT Plat business card
    Card arrived today, PP card too. Do I have to sign up for Insurance benefits, I am sure I didn’t see any box to tick on the application page. Same as no box for pin No.

    Thanks.

  • Moktar says:
    29 Oct29 October 13:19

    OT Cathay Pacific Business Redemption
    Looking to redeem AS miles for Cathay Pacific Business from Europe to HKG. Available routes are DUB, BRU, AMS in A350 and FRA in 777.
    If I pick FRA for the CX lounge experience, I miss out on the A350 J experience. Are any of those A350 locations preferred over others or should I just go with FRA ?

    • Yan says:
      29 Oct29 October 14:03

      CX lounge cannot justify the premium departure tax ex-FRA (maybe for CDG)
      Essentially same product on 350 and 77W, but better IFE and cabin pressure/moisture on 350 should swing it
      personally I would choose whichever that is easiest for positioning (DUB/AMS)

      • Neil Donoghue says:
        29 Oct29 October 15:01

        Agreed! Service is fantastic regardless – I usually pick Dublin and position using avios

      • B says:
        29 Oct29 October 15:04

        Don’t think Cathay is flying out of DUB anymore. £70ish fees for a J redemption was great value.

      • BJ says:
        29 Oct29 October 15:53

        +1, would be crazy to fly a 777 when you could fly an a350. Who cares about the lounge, most are overcrowded unpleasant places these days.

  • BS says:
    29 Oct29 October 13:35

    OT: how soon before a BA flight do all seats open up (including paid exit row seats)?

    • roberto says:
      29 Oct29 October 14:39

      Its not that easy..
      If you have no status its 24 hours on short and long haul flights except the exit seats on Long haul are often not available as are the bassinets.
      If you have Bronze its 7 days before but not exit LH or Bassinets
      If you have silver you can nab a seat at booking but not exit LH or bassinets
      If you have gold you can choose your seat at booking in exit and row 1 on SH plus other select seats like 64K ina 747
      If youre in First you can choose your seat from booking.
      If you have a economy seat + bag ( ie not HBO ) very often you can choose your seat at T-48 hours but again not exit on LH or bassinets
      If you are HBO often you cant choose your seat at all and will get stuck in the middle at the back

      Harry’s top tip was always nab a seat ( the best you can get ) – DONT print you boarding pass and then try to change it at the airport if you want to… NB even the day before as the machines at the airport often allow you to take seats that are blocked online and the app.

      • Bs says:
        29 Oct29 October 15:52

        Thanks. Very comprehensive answer.

        I take it, being silver, I won’t ever be able to select LH exit row (for free) until the self-check in machine?

      • riku2 says:
        29 Oct29 October 16:48

        The 24h is not 24h before the flight but 24h before the first flight on your reservation. eg if you fly from HEL-LHR-ATL then you can choose your seat LHR-ATL 24h before the HEL departure, not 24h before the LHR-ATL like passengers starting in london would have.

      • Genghis says:
        29 Oct29 October 20:11

        Business seats (incl 64K) are not restricted to Golds. 1A and 1K in F are, however.

  • jane says:
    29 Oct29 October 14:00

    OT – can someone remind me what time I have to set my alarm for to book reward seats?. is it midnight now it’s winter ?? thanks.

  • Pierre says:
    29 Oct29 October 14:06

    OT: BA email offering 30K Avios for taking out the Amex BAPP. Can this be combined with friend referral so they earn 9K as well?

    • Freddy says:
      29 Oct29 October 14:32

      I looked and don’t think it possible as the friend referral needs you going through a specific link of the friend

      • BJ says:
        29 Oct29 October 15:59

        Depends if Pierre receied a targeted promotion or if it is a new open to all offer. N if the former, yes if the latter.

  • BJ says:
    29 Oct29 October 15:45

    O/T: 35% hotel points to BAEC avios transfer bonus through 2 December. Includes Marriott.

    https://www.britishairways.com/en-us/executive-club/collecting-avios/hotels/convert-your-points

    • Rob says:
      29 Oct29 October 18:29

      Includes Best Western!

      • BJ says:
        29 Oct29 October 19:16

        Significance of that please? Conversion rate is 5:1 and they are US$10/1000 to purchase so nothing good by default. Been through the current promotions and cannot see any opportunities there unless I’m missing something.

        • Rob says:
          29 Oct29 October 21:30

          You’re not missing anything – except that Best Western is never part of these promotions, but for some odd reason they have turned up this time (with Hilton dropped).

    • Genghis says:
      29 Oct29 October 20:12

      Shame the Marriott travel package isn’t as good as it once was.

      • BJ says:
        29 Oct29 October 20:55

        If the £ wasn’t so dismal I would have considered buying Marriott points under the recent promo to do an LH TP. Unfortunately LH closed that avenue themselves earlier this year…never rains but it pours. However, if the £ does go back up it could get to the point buying Alaska miles with bonus could work for ne.

  • Tom Cook says:
    29 Oct29 October 15:52

    OT re BA avios compensation.

    We had issues on a BA flight 4.8.19. Lodged a complaint the next day and after a delay was offered 15k avios on the 1.10.19 where the compensatory avios “had been added to my account”. Yet here we are, 29.10 and they still haven’t arrived. I’ve chased BA but haven’t had anything from them! I recall another reader commenting similar issues when being awarded compensatory avios!

    • xcalx says:
      29 Oct29 October 16:27

      I had the same happen with BA. No meal in CE “5000 Avios HAVE been added to your account” 2 months later still no Avios, needed a call to sort out. More trickery from BA me thinks.

  • Spaghetti Town says:
    29 Oct29 October 16:15

    How long do Qatar avios generally take to post to BA?

    Flown last Wednesday and still not posted

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