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Manchester Airport to re-open its lounges – and get 20% off parking

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Manchester Airport has announced that its directly-owned airport lounges will open on 11th July.

This means you can now book the Escape lounges in Terminal 1 and Terminal 3.  The 1903 Lounges and Premiair terminal will remain closed.

It isn’t yet clear what facilities will be available in the lounges.

Our review of the Escape Lounge in Manchester Terminal 3 is here.

If you want to pre-book slots for cash, you can do so here.

Manchester Airport lounges to reopen

….. and save on Manchester Airport parking

Until midnight today (30th June) you can save 20% on official airport parking for July and August, and 15% on parking between September and December.  All bookings can be cancelled or changed without penalty.

The special discount is only available via this link.

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 (107)

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

  • jil says:
    30 Jun30 June 06:52

    Effectively wirecard investors were subsidizing the £4.99 card fee before.

  • Caz says:
    30 Jun30 June 06:56

    I signed up for curve blue on Friday (great timing!) and then it was showing a 4.99 fee to get a physical card, but I’ve just checked the app now and it says ‘Get it for free’ – maybe they have scrapped it already?! Anyone else? I want to order one if it’s free!

  • Liz says:
    30 Jun30 June 07:00

    I have a refund of £90 from Thurs. I shall contact Curve and see what they say. Bad timing!

  • Mike G says:
    30 Jun30 June 07:45

    I’ve taken Curve out of my wallet now, too unreliable and not worth the hassle

    • Andrew says:
      30 Jun30 June 07:47

      +1 pointless product.

      • MD says:
        30 Jun30 June 07:55

        With a little imagination, certainly not a pointless product.

        • The Savage Squirrel says:
          30 Jun30 June 08:09

          Haha indeed – pointless is the exact opposite of what it can be…

          • Secret Squirrel says:
            30 Jun30 June 08:20

            Two Squirrels certainly agree, amazing how many nuts a squirrel can accumulate using curve.

          • Doug M says:
            30 Jun30 June 09:33

            I’m with the Squirrels, anything but pointless for the user.

          • Harry T says:
            30 Jun30 June 09:56

            Depends which underlying cards you have access to. I only have the free IHG card and frankly don’t see the point of storing extra nuts for the winter with that earnings rate.

          • Travel Strong says:
            30 Jun30 June 10:45

            The sky is the limit on Earning rate when you MS! Points per £ on the underlying card is meaningless if using it to full advantage. And IHG is the perfect card to use it with, due to it’s own unique perk

          • Points Greedy Squirrel says:
            30 Jun30 June 12:27

            It’s made me tens of thousands of points so far!
            sincerely hope that’s not pointless, though you never really know

            All the squirrels agree

        • johnnt5a says:
          30 Jun30 June 08:40

          +1 not a pointless product

          • TGLoyalty says:
            30 Jun30 June 10:34

            Absolutely agree not pointless. Even adds Apple Pay to my IHG card. Not carried a wallet for months. Two cards in the back of my phone curve+Amex plus Apple Pay.

            If only I could squirrel away Marriott shaped nuts.

    • FlyingChris says:
      30 Jun30 June 12:13

      Any clues/hints to these nut based opportunities that don’t attract cash advance charges? NSI?

  • DJ says:
    30 Jun30 June 07:55

    The £5 physical card fee was mentioned in the terms and conditions they emailed out back in April, when they announced to migrate card issuing operation in-house.. So I guess it’s expected l.

  • Hardpack says:
    30 Jun30 June 08:04

    Great product for charging in US$ and euros without FX fees. I’ve earned £50+ simply for using it at Sainsbury’s and Amazon etc

  • Harry T says:
    30 Jun30 June 08:07

    Thanks for the parking discount – literally booked some yesterday. Cancelled for free and rebooked for 20% off today through your link.

    • PaulC says:
      30 Jun30 June 10:16

      I found my parking in Sept-Oct to be cheaper with Holiday Extras going via MSE.

  • Ian O says:
    30 Jun30 June 08:17

    Does Curve allow AMEX again? I see the ability to top up for a few?

    • Andrew says:
      30 Jun30 June 08:48

      That would be something of interest

    • Secret Squirrel says:
      30 Jun30 June 09:04

      Just tried Amex top up, initially it stated a fee so was hopeful then it failed.

      • Rhys says:
        30 Jun30 June 09:28

        It was Amex that blocked Curve, not the other way around. I can’t imagine that Curve changing their processing company will persuade Amex to re-instate!

    • Travel Strong says:
      30 Jun30 June 10:49

      Where is there a top up option for anything in the app? Cannot find it!

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

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