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DragonPass removes your ability to buy $10 airport lounge passes via RED by Dufry

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Back in January, we covered one of the most popular deals we have ever written about.

You could, by using a code to give yourself 30 days of trial Platinum membership in the RED by Dufry duty free loyalty scheme, order unlimited airport lounge passes for $10 (£7.80) each via DragonPass.

This included the Plaza Premium Lounge in Heathrow Terminal 5 which is NOT available via Priority Pass or Lounge Club.  Even better, the passes were refundable if you ended up not using them.

One thing was not clear at the time.  Your Platinum status in the RED by Dufry scheme was only valid for 30 days.  What would happen at the end of that period?  Would DragonPass remove your ability to buy $10 lounge passes or would it be valid for a year?

We now know the answer.  If you log into your DragonPass account, you will see that you can no longer buy $10 lounge passes.  You are now required to pay $27 per pass.

In some cases, $27 is still a decent deal – it is cheaper than booking Plaza Premium in Terminal 5 directly.  It clearly isn’t the same as paying $10 though!

For clarity, the lounge passes you bought for $10 are still in your account and safe to use once travel resumes.

(EDIT: We have now got to the bottom of this.  RED has cancelled the $10 lounge deal for Platinum members, whether on a free trial or having earned their status the hard way, and is making all members pay $27.  This doesn’t make any difference to HfP readers but at least we now know why it happened.)


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 (52)

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

  • Trevor says:

    My chat with Amazon:
    “Cancellation of Auto renew feature is currently not available in Audible UK.”
    “No if you cancel it today, it will not run through to July.”
    So all good, you just need to remember to cancel within the 3 months….
    Trev

  • PJJ says:

    Hi all. Anyone have a Dragon Pass membership (£128.00 for 8 visits = £16.00 per visit)
    Reasonable value for the light traveller (ok, not as good as the £7)
    Are you guaranteed access with the membership ?
    T.I.A.

    • Rob says:

      No guarantees, no. Same as a Priority Pass. That said, outside of certain London lounges it is less of an issue than you might think.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      Entry isn’t guaranteed. It’s still dependant on the lounge taking walk ins and capacity. Perhaps less of an issue in the upcoming months.

  • Joe says:

    I have earnt DuFry Platinum and it is saying USD27 on the DuFry page too.Hopefully the $10 will come back

    • Lady London says:

      +1 I accidentally earned Duffy Platinum and it’s still showing me USD27 for any new visits purchased too. Still reasonable value.

      I’m not too stressed by it as I was moving away from lounges anyway. One door closes, another door opens in this game. Good chance of a few doors opening when things get going again too.

      I wonder if these passes can also be used for Regus? Dragonpass has a deal, I saw a few Chinese in there using it when I was regularly in Regus but that’s a long long time ago (and I miss that pass it was darn useful).

  • Lance Hudson says:

    I’d like to make it clear that you can not access all DragonPass lounges with the Dufry offer. This tripped me up initially as it works at most major airports, but certainly not all. I was denied access to a lounge in Spain despite it being a DragonPass member and, once I contacted them, DragonPass confirmed that ONLY lounges stated as a ‘benefit’ in the RED app could be accessed. So no lounges at all in Spain, and it can be quite limiting outside the U.K.

    • Mac D says:

      Yes I found this super annoying, shows up when not logged in but goes when logged in, think I might just refund them all

    • avstar says:

      very limiting. anyone have an idea of where i can find shortlist of those it can be used at?? or is it just lounge locations where there is also a DUFry shop location?

      • Lance says:

        Just use the RED by Dufry app. Any lounge which shows the current ‘$27’ access offer works. If the airport / lounge isn’t listed, even if it’s on DragonPass, it won’t work!

  • Janeyferr says:

    Remember that most library services give you access to free eAudiobooks. Many have online registration.

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

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