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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.

  • southlondonphil says:
    11 May11 May 08:10

    The Hilton More Points promotion is for Double Points on stays “Up to 2 Nights” i.e. a 1 Night stay will earn bonus points. This error appeared in an article just a few days ago and was, I’m sure, pointed out at the time so to see it repeated once again is somewhat surprising.

  • Holgs says:
    11 May11 May 08:15

    For people flying out of Heathrow without airline status and lounge access, this is a serious blow to not be able to use their lounges vis Priority Pass. Are there any lounges left under the program at Heathrow? I assume lounge key won’t be any different here? Makes me think if I keep my Amex Platinum card.

  • Carol says:
    11 May11 May 08:18

    Does the Hilton spend include food and drinks?

    • Travel Strong says:
      11 May11 May 12:28

      I was short a few quid once and stopped by a Hilton for a breakfast, that was charged to the card there and then (as I did not have a room) and the £50 credit followed shortly after. Come to think of it, it was probably the cash terminal of the Coffee area (likely Costa) that processed the payment there too.

  • Paul says:
    11 May11 May 08:21

    The Hilton offer appeared on every one of my supplementary cards too. Very generous!

  • Rick MacLeod says:
    11 May11 May 08:33

    Thanks for the Hilton/Amex update, however at least one of the featured hotels is definitely not actually featured … the Doubletree by Hilton Aberdeen Treetops closed down pre-Covid, and has since been demolished to make way for a housing development. Probably best not to try and stay there at present!

    • David says:
      11 May11 May 09:34

      likewise the list includes Bracknell. which is being deflagged.

      • ankomonkey says:
        11 May11 May 09:59

        Warwick has also deflagged. And I think the Curio Kitzbuhel mentioned a few days ago as closing for refurbishment and deflagging is also on the list. Hilton are challenging Priority Pass for most location losses right now!

  • lumma says:
    11 May11 May 08:44

    Wasn’t the £5 supplement for the King’s Cross lounge to allow you in on a 1st Advance ticket? When Virgin took over they opened it up to all 1st class tickets

  • Alex Sm says:
    11 May11 May 08:55

    This market fragmentation in the airline lounges sector feels counterintuitive – like going back to pre-London Underground collection of individual lines. Who would bother about a pass for each lounge? Defo some consolidation and “all areas” pass is needed with different categories maybe (no.of visits, additional perks).

    • tony says:
      11 May11 May 09:22

      Isn’t it an 80:20 thing though? The vast majority of passengers will be using airports where there are multiple lounges. Only a minority will travel through an airport with one lounge and even then, it’ll only impact 1/3rd or fewer of travellers, as presumably the plan you join would be present at your home airport.

      As PP have shown, by refusing to pay the lounges enough, they get booted out. This isn’t a free money situation. So if you as the user want wide ranging access you’ll have to pay a commercial rate for it, most likely through one pass/subscription and then by paying additional per-visit charges when the lounge isn’t on your network.

      • Memesweeper says:
        11 May11 May 10:27

        ‘Only a minority will travel through an airport with one lounge …’

        I doubt that, if you exclude airline lounges. What matters is what’s available, origin, transit and destination, in your specific terminals. That, in my experience, is very often just one independent lounge.

    • BuildBackBetter says:
      11 May11 May 13:57

      More competition is always welcome. Many lounges were taking money from PP but not improving things much.
      Caveat emptor!

      • Alex Sm says:
        16 May16 May 17:32

        Those who built overlapping railway lines in London in late 1800s and early 1900s with multiple stations within close proximity of each other also thought of competition but there are cases when less is more or at least there should be some common denominator like a single fare / ticket system

  • Amit says:
    11 May11 May 09:23

    Just went to look at Waldorf Astoria Palm Jumeirah Dubai and they want 390,000
    Points per night :S Not for 5 nights

    • Dominic says:
      11 May11 May 10:50

      That will be for a ‘premium’ room.

      Need to find dates that have normal rooms available.

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

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