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Priority Pass announces a major expansion

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An interesting war of words is breaking out among the airport lounge operators.

As we have covered, Priority Pass – the dominant airport lounge club card – has been hit hard in the UK by the loss of No1 Lounges and Plaza Premium. Plaza Premium is removing 57 lounges from the programme on 1st July including five at Heathrow.

Plaza Premium may be planning its own lounge club network. It launched ‘Plaza Premium Lounge Pass’ recently and I get the impression that it is planning to add lounges from other companies in airports where it does not have its own facilities.

Today, Priority Pass has published a statement with its own plans. It is promising to add:

  • 150 new airport lounges during 2021
  • 100 new ‘premium airport experiences’ and off-airport lounges (eg railway stations)

Can Priority Pass find 150 new lounges to add to the porfolio, especially as recent losses have been blamed on the low fees it pays?

Of the 40+ new lounges added in 2021 to date, only one (Belgrade) is in Europe, with the bulk being in China. It is possible that these 150 new lounges will not be in places where you visit on a regular basis.

The ‘premium airport experiences’ element is easier to arrange via deals with airport restaurant operators. Unfortunately, these options are blocked to anyone who gets their Priority Pass via American Express. The only exception is “The Grain Store” restaurant in London Gatwick South Terminal, where someone with an Amex-issued Priority Pass can still get £15 of free food.

The real area of interest in the UK would be if Priority Pass could do a deal with the various rail lounges. It is odd that no-one has done this before, especially as East Coast used to sell lounge access at Kings Cross for a £5 supplement. Priority Pass would pay more than this.

Let’s see where we end up. In the short term, there is no doubt that Priority Pass is now far less useful if you fly from Edinburgh, Heathrow, Gatwick or Birmingham (ie the No1 Lounges and Plaza Premium strongholds).

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 (58)

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

  • Tariq says:
    11 May11 May 05:23

    The inaccurate Hilton offer copy strikes again!

  • John says:
    11 May11 May 05:43

    Three ARCC, one Gold, plus sups on each account and not one Hilton offer… got every other damn offer though! 11 cards. Am I the only one?

  • tony says:
    11 May11 May 06:56

    I also have a £100 off £500 spend at the Shard Shangri-La and £75 off £300 at the May Fair.

  • Lady London says:
    11 May11 May 07:27

    If Priority Pass is willing to fund visits to a level that would make other venues like Regus work then they could transform their business and not keep failing to provide the service they advertise, reliably enough. I won’t pay for their service as not being allowed into lounges that are empty at major airports in the UK and poor lounges in many places elsewhere just got not worth it. If they could guarantee ubiquity by bringing in different types of venues so that as before, I’d always have somewhere I could work, refresh, get a coffee whilst getting some serious work done while in transit I would carry their card again.

    I would guess Plaza P has the market positioning to grab the other opportunity to expand their network – limited day access to lounges at airport hotels. The odd golf course lounge or yacht club lounge in the far future maybe.

    • The Savage Squirrel says:
      11 May11 May 16:41

      I’ve said before that I value PP at very close to worthless for this reason and my usage. It’s a little like a lottery ticket – it gets you a small (but higher than zero) chance of entry into an airport lounge :D.

      • Swifty says:
        11 May11 May 20:08

        Spot on. Getting turned away by someone on the door really grates.

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:
    11 May11 May 07:30

    Talking of London hotels, my Grand Suite at the Sheraton for £269 has been confirmed and debited from my card. Booked for 10% of list!

  • Nick says:
    11 May11 May 07:34

    No Hilton offer on my platinum only on my BA amex.

  • Rob says:
    11 May11 May 07:35

    Prepaid stays are processed by the hotels individually – Amex can’t tell the difference.

    Amex offer T&C’s are ALWAYS misleading, you should have realised that by now 🙂 You won’t see any mention of cumulative either.

  • Louise K says:
    11 May11 May 07:49

    I bought some Hilton points last month but it would only let me buy 80k plus the bonus. Is the 160k plus the bonus targeted?

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

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