Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Save 30% on No1 Lounges airport lounge gift vouchers

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No1 Lounges has launched a Christmas offer, with up to 30% discount on lounge passes.  You can buy here.

There are two options:

you can buy a pass for a specific lounge, if you know where you will flying from, for up to 30% discount, or

you can buy a £20 or £50 gift voucher at up to 30% discount which can be redeemed against any lounge booking

Vouchers can be used until 31st December 2020 so you shouldn’t have any trouble using them.  Note that the £20 and £50 vouchers must be used in one transaction, so you should only buy these if you are likely to be travelling with other people.

Whilst this offer is presented as a gifting offer, you are free to buy vouchers for yourself and save up to 30% on your No1 Lounge, My Lounge and Clubrooms visits next year.

The offer runs until 26th December and you can buy here.  If it asks for a code, use GIFT2019.

Here are links to our reviews of No1 Lounges:


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.

Comments (193)

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

  • TripRep says:

    Was suitably impressed with the Edinburgh No1 lounge on Friday. Skipped the bacon roll, had porridge at 9:30am, coffees & then at 11am the chicken & chorizo stew. Really nice staff and a calm space

  • Harry T says:

    OT:
    Has anyone successfully booked a trip from Europe to Hong Kong on Cathay J or F with Alaska Miles? Looks like a massive hassle with no online option to book – have to ring Alaska Miles in the States.

    Would appreciate any advice on finding availability and booking etc. Is there a way to find flights online before calling Alaska Miles? What’s the cheapest way to call Alaska Miles?

    • BJ says:

      Skype, try LGW.

    • mark2 says:

      If you use BT for your landline you can opt for cheap or included overseas calls.

    • the_real_a says:

      Dont forget you get a free stopover even on one way with Alaska… You can engineer it so HKG would be your stopover with an extra regional flight tagged on within 12 months just for taxes.

      • BJ says:

        Not certain but I think that I read someplace that the rules on that have changed?

        • Lyn says:

          I think they still allow one stop-over on a one-way award, and two on a round-trip. The stop-over locations have to make sense of course. The multi-city search is useful for this, as long as it is an airline that can be booked online.

          Harry T – in addition to the “nuisance” of having to book Cathay awards by phone when using Alaska miles, there is also the real problem that Alaska apparently simply don’t have access to the same availability on Cathay and some other OW airlines as BA do.

          I have seen this personally helping my sister use Alaska miles to book award seats on Qantas for premium economy or above. This doesn’t require a phone call, so it is easy to check on their web-site, They do have access to award seats. but not as many as BA do. I have only read about the availability problems using Alaska miles to book Cathay.

          • BJ says:

            Thanks Lyn, yes indeed it’s fine. I just had a quick look and I see on OMAAT that it was on intra-Asia flights that the stopover was dropped back in October.

          • Harry T says:

            Thanks, Lyn – that’s very helpful. Looks like it’s a shot in the dark getting seats on Cathay with AS then – have to find a seat on another OneWorld site and call up and hope for the best. Makes Avios look far more straightforward!

      • Harry T says:

        Thanks, that’s very interesting.

  • BJ says:

    O/T: A whole bunch of new amex offers this morning including the usual hotel suspects like Amba and hard Rock, and niche retailers like Mr Porter and La Redoute.

  • Owain says:

    OT:
    Does anybody know if there is ever an extra Avios offer for adding a supplementary card to BAPP? Could do with an extra card for a family member, but there’s no rush, so if there is ever an offer it might be worth waiting.

  • Mark says:

    OT Hi I keep looking at avios and virgin redemptions and can never find much that really stands out.
    I have plenty of points but really don’t like paying the crazy fees that the airlines are putting onto (business/first class) bookings into places like the USA.
    Just wondering if any of you have any ideas or hidden sweet spots etc with Ba Virgin or any partner airlines?
    HKG/LHR stands out so far as the taxes and fees are minimal
    Other than that i struggle to see any real value without paying huge taxes.

    Thank you

    • Harry T says:

      You can fly out of Inverness to avoid APD.

      Taxes and charges may look high but be may be reasonable to pay in the context of high cash fares. I agree that certain redemption bookings don’t offer good value because of high taxes and charges and low cash fares, especially if you are flexible with travel dates.

      Reward Flight Saver redemptions usually offer good value on BA metal, especially during holiday times.

    • BJ says:

      Due to the fees you refer to the sweet spots are best perceived in terms of time and flexibility as opposed to routes/destinations. For example you are getting a fully flexible ticket for £35. If you are organised you can use your miles and avios at times like Christmas and half term when they are hugely attractive compared to cash fares despite the fees you mention. They are also sweet if you only need a one way flight or a return without staying a Saturday night, and if you can find award availability last minute redemptions are very sweet too. As for the routes any pair of flights ex INV with a 241 and the long haul sectors in F is very sweet indeed 🙂

    • ChrisBCN says:

      I use my avios exclusively for European hops when the prices are high (summer, Christmas, specific dates I need to fly) and for long haul upgrades (buy WTP, use avios to upgrade to Club).

      This is mostly where the value is found, but of course there are plentiful exceptions. Flexibility with dates always helps you too.

  • Josh says:

    OT but bits

    Are self referrals still working on amex applications?

    • MD says:

      Most definitely.

    • Harry T says:

      Yes, have managed a couple this year.

    • Rob says:

      Amex US has just closed, no appeals allowed, accounts which self referred. You should assume it is coming here very soon.

      • Harry T says:

        Looks like now is a good time to take advantage of that Bonvoy transfer bonus 😉

      • BJ says:

        Being applied retrospectively to applications months/years ago?

        • Rob says:

          Up to 2 years.

          “This shutdown is part of a series of upcoming shutdowns. This week’s was a beta test for a new machine learning model specifically designed to target churning activity through unsupervised learning. Amex data scientists are improving an evolving neural network model that identifies churning behavior as it happens, and then assigns risk scores that factor in to anti bust-out or fraud scores. They’re treated the same, those all have different scores but their values affect your overall risk/reward score for Amex. If that overall score reaches a certain threshold (which they’re still experimenting with what exactly it will be), you will get shut down. What they’re doing is based on the same ML models that are used at Amex for AML and fraud prevention. The shutdowns will happen in small waves because one giant hit would be a massive drain on resources and disruption to their overall business, including drawing negative public attention outside of the churning community. That would scare people who are profitable but think they’re winning. They are also incrementing shutdown waves because of the resource usage it takes to identify accounts and assign a score based on the new indicated risk factors. When shutdowns are triggered, they begin combing through the new dataset. Right now, the model only looks back two years.

          The clawbacks on self-referrals were a pilot program to this week’s events, not an entirety separate event. The same model that identified self-referrers was used for these shutdowns.”

          • BJ says:

            Oh wow, probably one of your most significant comments of the year on HFP and not a single reply! Raises all sorts of questions but I think I’ll just be on my best behaviour going forward abd hope for the best 🙂

          • MD says:

            Yikes! Thanks Rob. Interesting info in that link you posted and on Reddit. There will be a lot of annoyed people on here, myself included, if they roll this out in the UK. Bizarre that they don’t just improve their IT systems to stop self referrals rather than treating customers like this.

          • Genghis says:

            Amex can be ruthless when it comes to account closure. Been there, done that.

          • BJ says:

            But you wrre resurrected Genghis 🙂

          • Genghis says:

            Indeed. Just like Curve banned me and then I came back… It’s all a bit of a game. Got £100 from E.on last week too as I was fed up with their spiel about Smartmeters and I proved them wrong on multiple points. Was a profitable week last week.

          • BJ says:

            @Genghjs, hopefully the baby will calm you down! Thanjs for the tip on E.on, they are hassling my parents with smart meters too. I got £50 off them a few months back because they messed up a couple of bills in succession. I subsequently moved to Bulb but I’m now having difficulty getting my £60 exit penalty credited to my account by them; two messages to CS have gone unanswered.

          • Charlieface says:

            EON is an interesting one, the T&Cs say you agree to be contacted about, not that you have to sign up for a smart meter.
            @Genghis, was that the argument, I’ve got that going at the mo?

          • Genghis says:

            @Charlieface
            Yes – I was fed up with their lies on their official comms and was then lied to by customer services. “But you agreed to have a smart meter on signing up etc”. They backed down very quickly. Offered £15 then £30 and after I filled out my Ombudsman form offered £100. I could have taken it further out of principle but £100 was too good to turn down.

            Good luck with your complaint.

          • EwanG says:

            @Genghis, Charlieface. I think E.On make it up as they go along. Having changed to them recently and there being nothing (obvious at least) about requiring a smart meter a recent email has said I agreed to one when I moved. Errm, no. I’ll ignore it for a bit longer.
            ScottishPower are no better. Yes this was part of the T&Cs when I recently moved supplier for my Dad, but when clicking a link to make a booking there is no availability and the form does not work for them to advise when further options are added. Screenshot taken, and I’ll sit back and wait for them to chase!

          • BJ says:

            Thanks @Genghis and others. Exactly the issue my parents have. They are over 80 and get nuisance calls about this. I shall help them put in a complaint.

          • Genghis says:

            @BJ it’s worth pursuing for your parents. They also opted me out of all comms on smartmeters so don’t even need to agree to that term now

          • Harry T says:

            This is either a warning to behave ourselves or an incentive to make hay whilst the sun shines.

            If even referring your other half is enough to get banned, we are probably all on the hit list!

      • Spaghetti Town says:

        Really Rob? i’ve self referred for 1 card in my 3 year amex history

      • Anna says:

        The referrer’s account, the referred account or both?

        • Rob says:

          By account I mean ALL cards closed, the entire Amex account, not just the referred card.

          • Anna says:

            Ah – I meant if you had a separate account for a card you referred yourself for, would that also be closed? I would have thought people would be savvy enough to use different emails and phone numbers when doing this!

          • Rob says:

            Pretty sure this machine learning stuff is smart enough to link accounts in the same name at the same registered address!

          • Anna says:

            The frequent flyer article also says that people who have referred spouses for several cards have also been shut down – I can’t see how this can breach Amex’s Ts & Cs though?

          • Rob says:

            Doesn’t matter – Amex has the legal right to close your account for any reason at any time. Unless you could claim some sort of racial / sexual / age discrimation was at play you can’t do much about it.

          • BJ says:

            You’re a little ray of sunshine today Rob 🙁

        • Spaghetti Town says:

          I’ll be my 45k Membership rewards over to Marriot soon then…

          • Spaghetti Town says:

            I also upgraded to Plat for about 3 weeks from green to steal the hotel statuses and get 20kr MR for a £1,000 spend. I’m probably a prime target!

          • Lee says:

            A lot of us here are prime targets 🙂

          • BJ says:

            I’m seeing a big rush on M&M Diners Club applications soon 🙂

          • BJ says:

            Thinking about it, isn’t Monese the solution to the problem? The more we push through Monese the bigger the reward to amex?

  • ee says:

    OT – has anyone flown Finnair J LHR to Helsinki on the mid morning (10:20) departure? Am interested in whether we should expect breakfast or lunch on this flight?

    • Stu_N says:

      They serve lunch; Helsinki is +2 so makes a lot more sense than breakfast. It’s a fun way to travel especially if you get the A350.

    • BJ says:

      And if you’re lucky you will get reindeer for lunch…lovely 🙂

      • ee says:

        Sounds good, thanks! Yes it’s the A350… booked on BA flights when dirt cheap and then moved to Finnair when the BA schedules changed! Fingers crossed for reindeer! What’s the drink service like? Presumably on demand in J?

        • Stu_N says:

          I had a gin and a glass or two of wine I think – no problems there. The new lounges at Helsinki are great as well, we have BA Gold cards so could use the Premier lounge which I’d say is nearly at the level of CX/JAL lounges in Asia. If revamped business lounge is open, it’s well worth a visit as well.

  • SG says:

    Morning all
    Has anyone received the 7500 (2500 first stay+second stay 5000) Hilton points after 2 reward stays?

    • BJ says:

      Yes, many got them. However @LadyLondon commented that there was a sneaky term that the offer had to be redeemed within 60 days of registration despite the long promotion closing date so if you are having issues you may have fallen foul of that.

      • Lady London says:

        Yes that sneaky term was added after signup – was not in original offer terms. Original offer was targeted and apparently something went wrong so extra people could sign up for it.

        And no my stay just outside the 60 days has not been credited for the promo. I’d be interested to know did anyone else get credited for the promo if staying outside the 60 days?

        • BJ says:

          My stays coming up in a few weeks. They are outside the 60 days so I’ll let you know.

    • Relaxo says:

      I have received the first stay bonus. Havent had chance for 2nd stay yet.

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