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Club Aspire to reopen its lounges at Heathrow and Gatwick

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News in brief:

Aspire lounge re-openings in London confirmed

If you are passing through Heathrow Terminal 5 soon, Aspire has confirmed that its Club Aspire lounge will reopen on Tuesday 25th May.

The Gatwick North lounge opens earlier, on Friday 21st May. The South Terminal at Gatwick remains closed, so if you are flying from Gatwick you will be in the vicinity of this lounge.

Our review of Club Aspire lounge at Gatwick Airport’s North Terminal lounge is here.

Our review of the Club Aspire lounge at Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 is here.

Both lounges are accessible via Priority Pass.

The Plaza Premium lounge in Heathrow Terminal 5, which is the only other independent option, does not yet have a published reopening date. The Plaza Premium lounge in Terminal 2 has been open for some time.

Hilton Honors buy points 100% bonus worth it

(Another) 100% bonus when you buy Hilton Honors hotel points

Well, would you believe it?

Hilton has brought back its offer of a 100% bonus when you purchase 15,000+ points, just a week after the previous ‘100% bonus’ offer closed.

The Hilton ‘buy points’ page is here

The annual purchase limit has been increased again for some people. If targetted, you can now buy 160,000 points, which would double up to 320,000 points with the bonus.

320,000 points is what you need to book a 5-night stay at an 80,000 points per night luxury hotel, given the ‘5 for 4’ deal given to all elite Hilton Honors members. 320,000 points would cost $1,600, which is currently £1,125 or 0.35p per point. This is virtually what I value them at, so it’s hard to lose money here.

This is the same deal I used to book 5 nights at the Waldorf Astoria Palm Jumeirah Dubai over Christmas, saving over 60% on the cash price. I wrote about how I did that in this article.

If you don’t see the 160,000 points offer, your purchase cap will be 80,000 points with a 100% bonus on top.

The page to buy points is here if you are interested. The offer runs to 8th July.


Getting airport lounge access for free from a credit card

How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (April 2025)

Here are the five 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 1,500 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

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee 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 – 30,000 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 £290 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 good package, but only available to HSBC Premier clients Read our full review

Got a small business?

If you have a small business, consider American Express Business Platinum which has the same lounge benefits as the personal Platinum card:

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

You should also consider the Capital on Tap Pro Visa credit card which has a lower fee and, as well as a Priority Pass for airport lounge access, also comes with Radison Rewards VIP hotel status:

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits 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 (26)

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

  • JAXBA says:

    This US non-elite member can only buy up to 80K HH points, which doubles to 160K. Even the GIF banner I get says the same. $800.

    • Rob says:

      Interesting. I have 160k. Will amend the text.

      • MD says:

        I’m definitely seeing buy 160k + 160k bonus. Diamond, if that matters.

      • MW says:

        I’m a (UK) HH Gold and its only 80k+80k here.

      • Dave B says:

        Also a UK Gold and get 160K + 160K showing

      • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

        My Gold a/c shows 160+160 (as does Mrs T’s). My other standard a/c shows only the 80+80…

      • Sunil says:

        Also 160 + 160 for me as Diamond. Also something I’ve just noticed – if you purchase in increments of 15,000 (so 30k with bonus), the points post instantly. I did this twice. I then tried 22,000 and am still waiting (says can take up to 48 hours). May be a coincidence but if you are buying for a large redemption and worried about availability going, try breaking it down into small chunks.

  • tony says:

    Does anyone have data on when the other Aspire lounges are opening? The Executive Lounges dot com website (which I think is owned by Aspire) allows you to book into the T5 one for today. The Priority Pass app also has reopening dates of May 17th.

  • Adam says:

    Off topic but my Amex Gold is now offering 15,000 points for referral. Thought the 12,000 earlier this month was strong!!! Wife’s card only offering the standard 6,000. Interesting to see what the range of offers people are seeing.

    • DT says:

      This has been discussed since the day after the previous offer ended. Some Golds get 15k and some Plats get 24k, currently targeted. New Plat SUB is 70k which is shame to the two Plats I referred during the previous offer.

      • Adam says:

        Didn’t see that. Thank you.

        All great offers although I think everyone I know got the last 12,000 offer.

        • Tom1 says:

          Do you see a different referral rate on the app vs website?

  • TimM says:

    A search on BA for lounge availability at Manchester now redirects to Oneworld showing

    “Aspire Lounge (temporarily closed) (MAN) Manchester Airport Terminal 1” and
    “Escape Lounge TEMPORARILY CLOSED (MAN) Manchester Airport Terminal 2”

    All BA flights to/from MAN have now been moved to T1 as notified by email in the last couple of days. Is there any word on the MAN T1 Aspire lounge re-opening?

  • Dave B says:

    Will buying some points for Hilton count as activity, I am now 15 months away from my last stay.

    • Rob says:

      Yes, I believe so. Booking and cancelling a redemption may also count – need to check.

  • Doug says:

    seethe … I don’t know how many points I can buy as the site uses cross site tracking.

  • GJS says:

    Rob – thanks for the heads up last week that the Hilton bonus was coming back. We now have enough points for five nights in Snowdonia. What chance of another increased Amex Platinum Business bonus this summer? I’d quite like to get HH Gold before our stay in July.

  • Chris D says:

    Given the previous recommendation for Qured, I thought I should detail a relative’s experience with them…

    Sat 14 May – ordered a test. Web site said Monday despatch.
    Tue 17 May – no sign of test. Emailed them and got a nonsensical response that orders placed on Monday would be despatched on Tuesday(?) for arrival Wednesday.
    Wed 18 May – no sign of test, no response to emails, later a generic email that they will be dispatched soon.

    The test now cannot arrive in time and a more expensive last minute alternative has been procured. A search on Twitter reveals many people with the same issue. It is a pretty big failing to sell more tests than they have.

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

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