Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Visit the Lomond Lounge at Glasgow Airport for just £30

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We recently reviewed the new super-premium Lomond Lounge at Glasgow Airport – take a look here.

Rhys was very impressed by what he found, with high quality food and furnishings and only a small number of fellow guests.  It is the ideal place to get your holiday or special break off to a good start.

Lomond Lounge Glasgow Airport discount code

The standard price for the Lomond Lounge is £40.  However, the daily deals site itison.com is currently selling access for £30.

The offer is good for visits until 31st March 2020.  It also comes with fast track security at Glasgow, so you can spend more time in the lounge!

You can find out more about the Lomond Lounge on its website here, but book via itison for the cheaper rate.

PS.  Lomond Lounge is unofficially allowing Priority Pass holders to enter at the moment on payment of a £15 supplement.  I say ‘unofficially’ because it is not listed on the Priority Pass website.  I believe that you need to go to the UpperDeck lounge to have your Priority Pass swiped and then take the receipt over to Lomond Lounge.  This is possibly just a launch promotion which will be dropped later.

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 (76)

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

  • BJ says:
    16 Nov16 November 05:36

    First time Lomond Lounge appeared on itison it was £24, I doubt we will see that again if they move this offer.

    Tgere is also an amex offer for £50 back on £200 at Hard Rock Hotels.

  • Jon says:
    16 Nov16 November 06:43

    Saw some comments yesterday on risk on self-referral. Has there been some news from Amex that they are going to shut down/ block people who have done this in the past?

    • BJ says:
      16 Nov16 November 07:09

      It has started in the USA already so we are mostly assuming it will come here sooner or later too. Rob said the screening software they use looks back two years, and that no appeals have been allowed in USA where accounts have been closed.

      • Jon says:
        16 Nov16 November 07:16

        Thanks, must have missed thIs. Assume referring spouse is allowed and just no self referrals? What are the rules they have implemented in US?

        • Shoestring says:
          16 Nov16 November 07:23

          Patterns of card abuse picked up by the algorithm and referred to the gaming team for verification – they’re not going to chuck you out for referring your wife, bro & a couple of friends, more likely give you a medal

          • BJ says:
            16 Nov16 November 08:04

            The logical primary target must be self-referring 6-month serial churners cancelling for a pro rata refund. Secondary targets could be any combination of those elements. Interesting if they are targeting 6 month serial churners who neither self-referred or cancelled for a refund. If so, I think that would be unfair because this was playing strictly by the rules and was as much the fault of amex as the churner.

          • Doug M says:
            16 Nov16 November 13:24

            So long as you keep your account pretty much empty what can they do other than dump you as a customer? Genuine question, what can they do?
            From a purely selfish point I can’t see the issue with self-referral over spouses referring back and forth, but I would say that as a self-referrer. How is a family continually referring in the same small group any better for them? I’m sure they’re capable of better T&Cs if they really want to stop what they may perceive as abuse of the system, but obviously whilst people spend on the cards they need to balance incentive to customer and cost of reward to Amex.

        • BJ says:
          16 Nov16 November 07:31

          It was discussed in comments at length 2-3 days ago. If they closed down accounts with spouse/partner referrals they would have few customers left so I guess only self-referrals affected. I have no idea about rules. I am sure if you google amex self referral account closure you will probably find loads. Personally I’m not bothered, I will not self-refer again, beyond that what is, is. Just have to hope for the best 🙂

          • Anna says:
            16 Nov16 November 08:21

            From comments on US blogs my guess is that they wouldn’t be too happy if you were making several spouse referrals each year and your spouse wasn’t using the cards or cancelling after triggering the sign up bonus every time. Obviously this is going to be slowing down anyway now with the new 2 year rule.

          • Mr(s) Entitled says:
            16 Nov16 November 09:33

            They may not be happy about a spouse referral under those conditions but they had the opportunity to write the terms and conditions. It bugs me when company’s see the T&C’s as a one way street that only exists to limit their liability.

            Really, it is their own fault and akin to a petulant child taking their ball home with them.

          • TGLoyalty says:
            16 Nov16 November 11:45

            Even if they close your account try again in two years when you are eligible for a sign up bonus again anyway.

            What’s the saying? Time is a great healer?

          • B says:
            16 Nov16 November 12:05

            You can make circa 200k every 6 months from self referring, 800k a year for a couple. That’s excluding the 270k limit that was reaxebky offered in the business platinum. A couple can do circa 200k every 24 months if playing by the new rules.

            Lest say they enforce self federal ban in 2 years time (ar berry figure). Self referral could have netted 1.6m while without you’d be looking at 200k.

            Make hay while the sun shines is my view.

          • BJ says:
            16 Nov16 November 13:32

            What I figured too, an involuntary fallow period, hopefully followed by a welcome back. If my sign up bonus doesn’t work on my next application I will likely trigger it voluntarily anyway. If I need flexibility of an avios redemption 3-4 years down the road then I’ll just buy a few 100k avios or other miles as Shoestring often touts the wisdom of.

          • Harry T says:
            16 Nov16 November 14:27

            @BJ you’re going to go AMEX cold turkey for two years? Not tempted to just get a referral in a few times a year?

            My concern is the BAPP or SPG might not exist in two years, or they change the sign up bonuses.

          • BJ says:
            16 Nov16 November 15:38

            @Harry T, possibly but likely only if I think I will get caught up in this and my sign up bonuses stop. It’s early days yet, time for reading what everybody has to say (especially Rob) and evaluating any evidence of patterns that might emerge, not a time for knee jerk reactions. Like you said, we do not know what the amex landscape will look like a few years down the line. All I know for sure is that amex has been good to me, and I would like to keep it that way going forward even though the best days are probably behind us. My travel plans and related avios-earning goals are somewhat modest so it makes no sense to succumb to greed when a steady approach to earning a diversified portfolio of both miles and points from multiple sources does the job, and with much less harm to our credit files. I haven’t had a mortgage for many years already but it is obvious from occasional comments here that care needs to be taken with credit files in this respect. It would be plain stupid for younger readers to compromise something as huge as a mortgage by too much zeal for the miles and points game. Thus, if you’re in the position of needing a mortgage at some point then it would be a good idea to factor thst into your credit card strategy. A good tip that Rob once provided was to keep at least one bank account and one credit card very long term to demonstrate stability and loyalty.

          • Harry T says:
            16 Nov16 November 16:08

            Thanks for the wisdom, BJ. If I don’t end up emigrating to Australia in a few years (my most probable course of action, given how much I enjoyed my time there) then I will be looking at a mortgage here and I must keep my credit score in mind, rather than just embracing short term gains.

            I have had a Halifax Clarity Card for some years and I plan to keep that long term. Moving forward, I have my eyes on getting an SPG Amex and keeping that to spend on (can convert points to Alaska miles and Asia miles like you suggested) and perhaps just churning the BAPP and Platinum bonuses every two years. Difficult to weigh up making hay whilst the sun shines vs thinking long term. It is tempting to keep maximising referrals on the Platinum Card.

            Of course, when I get an SPG again, I will get to see if the Amex IT gods also favour me and that will change things…

          • BJ says:
            16 Nov16 November 18:16

            All the best with your plans.

          • Harry T says:
            16 Nov16 November 18:55

            @BJ thank you!

          • Lady London says:
            17 Nov17 November 14:34

            OT @Harry T if you’re eyeing Oz long term keep a beady eye on it as its not just the professional criteria which you sound to meet easily but I believe age limits sometimes come into play as well.

    • Andrew says:
      16 Nov16 November 22:57

      Lot of chat on this one about referrals, spouse etc and what is happening in the USA…

      Taking GDPR into consideration, is it likely that the same software analysing points and cross referencing between spouses could be run legally in the UK or rEurope?

  • Craig says:
    16 Nov16 November 07:16

    OT, Bits: I would appreciate some inspiration please. I have a nice stash of Avios, one 241 voucher and will trigger another one early in the New Year. This covers the long-haul plans I have over the next couple of years, Dubai/Maldives and a Far East trip. I also have 45k Virgin miles, a 241 voucher and no status. I was planning New Year 2020/21 in New York then possibly whizzing down to the Caribbean for a week. I will also be able to earn another BA 241 before the Far East trip. The difficulty I’m having is that I’m really struggling to use the Virgin 241 and am sorely tempted with just converting the points to Hilton, because of various issue the card only cost me £60 for the year. Thoughts?

    • BJ says:
      16 Nov16 November 07:50

      If you can only use the Virgin 241 for PE then I would think it is best to use it to East Coast USA as flights are short enough to be comfortable in PE. My entire lifetime stash of Virgin FC miles went to Hilton excepting LR era, with increasing costs of Hilton redemptions I no longer rate this transfer.

      • Craig says:
        16 Nov16 November 08:15

        No status so Economy only! I think the best option might be the early flight, 0815 with an airport hotel the night before. This would fit quite nicely with a flight back to JFK from Punta Cana.

        • Rich says:
          16 Nov16 November 09:26

          Do you have status with BA? You can status match on virgin. I have done so successfully at Silver

    • Peter K says:
      16 Nov16 November 08:10

      The 2-4-1 on virgin is a joke, unless you are a gold member or want to try premium economy (but then it’s not 2-4-1).

      I’d keep your Virgin miles in your account unless they are about to expire. Then if you have options:
      1) collect more and you might use on Virgin (or Delta)
      2) move to Hilton when you know you’ll need them
      3) move to IHG
      4) use on Kaligo for a room only rate (there’s an article on HfP about this)

      • Shoestring says:
        16 Nov16 November 08:29

        5) use on the extensive AF/ KLM network, including Europe
        6) use on ex-Flybe network

        • Lady London says:
          16 Nov16 November 11:14

          And avoid economy, and particularly Y with no status, every where you can.

          Numbers just dont usually stack up in Y for many reward tickets. Often the so-called taxes you will pay over more cash than an outright cash ticket.

    • The Savage Squirrel says:
      16 Nov16 November 08:27

      Yes, I just ignore the Virgin 2-4-1 as worthless and work from there in seeing if my spending pattern justifies paying the card fee.

  • Matt says:
    16 Nov16 November 08:44

    Also if you serve in the armed forces you can stack the Bicester Amex discount and Avios with an additional 10% off if you collect a VIP pass from the welcome centre. A nice gesture for our Armed Forces.

    • The Original Nick says:
      16 Nov16 November 10:50

      If you know anyone who works in any of the shops you can get thier 30%-60% discount too. Those 10% discount cards are freely avalilable and I also think you can get them by flashing certain CC at the visitors centre but I’m not sure which ones.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        16 Nov16 November 11:46

        Any Amex is eligible for the 10% but it’s not every store and it’s not even everything in every store but worth trying for a small walk to the visitor centre

        • Bonglim says:
          16 Nov16 November 12:07

          Have done it a few times and the 10% vip card for just having any Amex is pretty good. I would say it works on 75% of the stuff, including high price items like mulberry etc.
          You need an ‘invite’ – on your phone screen is fine – just search for it on google.

  • The Original Nick says:
    16 Nov16 November 10:56

    OT, I’ve used my Amex Platinum card to book The Courtyard by Marriott at Luton airport for the 3rd of January and also the AC Marriott Alicante for the 4th-6th. No charges are showing on my card. Does anyone know when the charge will hit my account because I wanted it to hit before the 31st December to take advantage of the Amex offer of £50 off £200 spend?
    Or could I call the hotels to ask them to force through the charge maybe?

  • Yemi says:
    16 Nov16 November 11:17

    OT/ Bits: I just had a very interesting conversation with American Express regarding my BA premium card. Basically I was told that the credit limit is a monthly limit and one can’t spend over that I.e if your limit is £3000, if you spend £2000 and pay it of within a few days, if you then want to spend another £1500 within that same month, you wont be allowed to as it seems like you’re going over your limit but you aren’t. I was a bit shocked by this. Anyone else had this experience?

    • S says:
      16 Nov16 November 11:23

      not true, but cycling your credit limit is an invitation for an Amex financial review

    • fivebobbill says:
      16 Nov16 November 11:28

      Wouldn’t be 100% sure of that one Yemi, I regularly hit just below the credit limit on a lot of my credit cards, before making a substantial payment to release more credit on the same card.
      In fact I did so yesterday on my BAPP, and having just checked my account my “Available Credit” has increased again by the amount I just paid off.

      • Yrmi says:
        16 Nov16 November 11:33

        Yes my available credit limit has increased to the amount I paid off but the credit is not available to use I’ve been told.

        • fivebobbill says:
          16 Nov16 November 11:54

          Can’t be confident about Amex Yrmi, but I have a Hilton Visa and it’s had a credit limit of £6k since I took it out years ago. I put £10k – £12k through it every month by making payments when I’m near my limit. Never bothered asking to increase the limit for a couple of reasons, it helps me keep an eye on my spending, and the lower limit on my credit report wont hit other card applications.

    • AJA says:
      16 Nov16 November 11:43

      Why don’t you just ask Amex for a temporary credit limit increase? Obviously you can’t keep doing that every month but as a one off Amex will usually agree.

      • Yemi says:
        16 Nov16 November 11:52

        I’ve paid for the item with another card so I dont need the limit increased but I was just surprised at the fact that the credit limit is monthly.

    • Harry T says:
      16 Nov16 November 14:15

      I’ve paid off my card balance during the month on both the SPG and the BAPP and kept on merrily spending. Amex don’t care about this and the IT will let you do it. I should say I wasn’t doing this to manufacture spend or anything, just because I happened to legitimately spend a lot on those cards during particular months.

    • the_real_a says:
      16 Nov16 November 14:25

      Not true. Have done this for near on 20 years without issue. Wealth is not the same as income, plenty of reasons why you would be spending more than your credit limit each month (e.g. look at the income sources excluded from your income declaration). Perhaps it would trigger a FR with AMEX, but if you have been honest on your income.. so what?

    • Jonathan says:
      16 Nov16 November 16:37

      Yemi, I regularly spend 3-4 times my credit limit on 3 of my Amex cards each month and paying them off numerous times throughout the month. Have done for years and never had a problem.

  • Harry T says:
    16 Nov16 November 14:20

    Not that I’ll ever drive down south for a special trip to shop at Bicester Village, but there definitely is a list of participating stores if you click “view participating locations” in the app

  • Harry T says:
    16 Nov16 November 14:33

    @Shoestring
    I’m considering buying 100k Avios or so from Iberia with the recent promotion, just as a general top up (looking at a 241 to Cape Town to Hong Kong, which would wipe most of my Avios, so would be good to have some extra afterwards).

    Is it worth waiting for a better price than this? It’s around 1.06p per Avios.

    And would I be better off paying on my Gold Amex for 2 points per pound (though FX fee) or running it through Curve linked to Virgin?

    • Harry T says:
      16 Nov16 November 14:34

      * Virgin Rewards +, so 1.5 points per pound.

      Also have Halifax Clarity if that helps.

      • Shoestring says:
        16 Nov16 November 14:58

        1.06 won’t ever be beaten (by anything significant) bot 100K Avios

        isn’t Curve FX fee-free on weekdays? in which case it would be better than Clarity

        • Harry T says:
          16 Nov16 November 16:12

          @Shoestring – I think Curve is free for the first 500£ a month of international spend or something… not that they ever enforce their T&Cs!

          Right, looks like I should jump on this offer unless it is likely to recur at a later date.

    • Secret Squirrel says:
      16 Nov16 November 18:51

      Do you mean the groupon iberia deal? Thought that ended Nov 7th?

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