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Which British Airways UK lounges are open, which are closed and which will never reopen?

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Whilst British Airways has lounges up and running in Heathrow Terminal 5, the situation elsewhere is a lot more fluid – and a lot less positive.

Shortly before I went to Gibraltar, British Airways decided to reinstate access to the VIP lounge in the airport. (Quick review – it is OK, there isn’t much else going on in the terminal anyway, and it has outdoor balcony seats overlooking the runway which you rarely find.) Unfortunately it hasn’t been as proactive in the UK.

This is the current position as far we know, in alphabetical order:

British Airways Aberdeen lounge still closed

Aberdeen Airport

The British Airways lounge, above, is still closed but is expected to reopen at some point. There are no alternative arrangements in place.

Belfast City Airport

British Airways transferred management of this lounge to Aspire last year. In the last few days it has cancelled its contract with Aspire so you will no longer have access. There are no alternative arrangements in place.

EDIT: By coincidence, the Belfast City lounge reopened to British Airways passengers today.

Edinburgh Airport

The British Airways lounge is still closed but is expected to reopen at some point. There are no alternative arrangements in place.

Glasgow Airport

The British Airways lounge is still closed but is expected to reopen at some point. There are no alternative arrangements in place.

Jersey Airport

Whilst still BA-branded in places, this lounge has been run independently for some years. British Airways is no longer paying for access. There are no alternative arrangements in place – there are no other lounges …..

EDIT: by coincidence, Jersey is accepting BA passengers again from today

British Airways Galleries Lounge London Gatwick Airport South Terminal

London Gatwick Airport

The British Airways lounges, above, in the South Terminal are still closed, with the few remaining BA flights departing from the North Terminal. It is unclear if British Airways will resume services from London Gatwick or not (see this article) due to the need to protect landing and take-off slots at Heathrow.

Manchester Airport

The British Airways lounge is permanently closed. There are no alternative arrangements in place. This article has a few photographs of the British Airways Manchester lounge if you want a reminder of how it was.

Newcastle Airport

The British Airways lounge is permanently closed and has already been stripped out. There are no alternative arrangements in place.

All in all, it isn’t hugely positive for British Airways travellers outside Heathrow …..

Which British Airways lounges are open at London Heathrow?

As a reminder, the current situation at Heathrow is that:

  • Galleries Club South remains open at peak times
  • Galleries First is open at all times, with Business Class passengers being allowed to use it when Galleries Club South is closed
  • The Concorde Room (pictured above, before BA sold off the artwork!) is closed but a temporary lounge for ticketed First Class passengers and qualifying Gold Guest List members has opened on the terrace of Galleries First
  • Galleries Club North remains closed
  • Galleries Club in the ‘B’ satellite remains closed

The lounge in Terminal 3 is also closed, as is the entire terminal, along with the Terminal 5 Arrivals Lounge.

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

British Airways and Avios

Comments (99)

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

  • Pete M says:
    24 Jun24 June 06:58

    Can I suggest a further improvement by adding which of the “BA” lounges that are physically open can be accessed with Priority Pass? BHD, for instance.

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:
      24 Jun24 June 10:25

      BHD and JER are the former BA lounges that accept PP.
      Ones that are still BA managed don’t accept Priority Pass.
      The PP website seems fairly up to date with what’s open.

    • MW says:
      24 Jun24 June 11:20

      I agree, this would be great to have a list of alternatives for PP/Amex Plat holders.

  • Graeme says:
    24 Jun24 June 07:15

    BA told me that Glasgow was closed permanently, although they also said it was closed due to COVID restrictions which was a lie – so who knows?

  • Mark Bennett says:
    24 Jun24 June 07:36

    I believe the situation at Belfast City airport changes today, 24 June. The former BA lounge, as you say now Aspire, accepting BA status holders again.

    • Memesweeper says:
      24 Jun24 June 09:26

      Thank goodness. That really was a terrible omission.

    • sarah says:
      24 Jun24 June 09:59

      i was there on the 14th. No issues.

      • Simon says:
        24 Jun24 June 11:59

        I was there on the 18th and got told the email from BA cancelling the contract had come in the night before. Glad if it’s been sorted though!

    • Sean says:
      25 Jun25 June 08:35

      I flew out of Belfast City yesterday afternoon and they are accepting BA again. They said a new deal was agreed Wednesday night. Not sure if just Belfast or all Aspire.

  • Daftboy says:
    24 Jun24 June 07:43

    I flew from Belfast City weekend before last (Sun 13th) – the now Aspire-branded lounge had just reopened and was accepting BA Club Europe and status passengers, with a BA sign outside the door noting this – so the details in this arrive might not be correct, unless it’s changed in the last 10 days…

    • Rob says:
      24 Jun24 June 08:54

      It has changed in the last 10 days.

      • daftboy says:
        24 Jun24 June 09:43

        Oh that’s very disappointing, it’s a very good domestic lounge. I’m guessing cost is the driver, but a shame to have set up access only to take it away!

  • Alan says:
    24 Jun24 June 07:51

    If BA want to get its premium (Club & First) passengers back flying they need to open the lounges. Lounge access is part of the travel experience.

    • Andrew says:
      24 Jun24 June 08:12

      Also makes having status a bit meaningless.

    • AJA says:
      24 Jun24 June 08:34

      +1

    • ChrisW says:
      24 Jun24 June 08:36

      It’s a bit of a chicken and an egg problem. They don’t open lounges because there isn’t much demand but then people don’t book because lounges aren’t open.

      • Rhys says:
        24 Jun24 June 08:40

        To be fair, people aren’t booking travel right now mostly because the Government has made it extremely cumbersome to travel. If vaccinated travel was allowed test and quarantine free then I think we would see a huge increase in bookings and openings.

        Airlines (and the travel industry as a whole) have had more of a rollercoaster during the pandemic than anyone else. They are often one of the last sectors to re-open, but when they do the Government pulls the rug from under them (as with Portugal and the Green List).

        • TGLoyalty says:
          24 Jun24 June 08:41

          It won’t be test free.

          • TGLoyalty says:
            24 Jun24 June 08:42

            Let me rephrase that. It won’t be test free for a while.

            Perhaps only to green countries if the near 0 trend on positive tests continues

          • Pete M says:
            24 Jun24 June 10:03

            I would urge everyone to complain to BA every time they are not let in or the lounge is closed. The more complaints they have the easier to make the case internally to reopen / start paying 3rd party providers again hopefully!

          • Alex Sm says:
            24 Jun24 June 16:47

            They were quite test free last summer and it worked relatively well even at the height of the pandemic. Currently it is just a money-making machine for test providers, tbh

  • Alex says:
    24 Jun24 June 08:22

    We have a BA Heathrow to Edinburgh flight 17.55 Friday 19 July.

    Will it be Galleries Club South or Galleries First which is open?

  • Anna says:
    24 Jun24 June 08:52

    A couple of years ago we got 10k avios each from BA when a severely disrupted trip meant that we couldn’t use the lounge at MAN …

  • Diydegsy says:
    24 Jun24 June 08:59

    BA website saying Aspire T1 and Escape T2 for Manchester although both not open at the moment.

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

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