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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.

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If you have a small business, consider American Express Business Platinum instead.

American Express Business Platinum

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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

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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.

  • Dave says:
    24 Jun24 June 09:09

    Are there any Priority Pass lounges open at Edinburgh as an alternative to the closed BA ones?

    • Stu N says:
      24 Jun24 June 10:52

      Not at the moment – No1 permanently closed (see article earlier in the week), no news on Aspire.

    • sigma421 says:
      24 Jun24 June 13:25

      The new Aspire (the one upstairs next to No. 1) is bookable from 1 July at the moment.

  • Maki says:
    24 Jun24 June 09:10

    BA has not renewed the lease with Larnaca airport. So, no lounge access for business class passengers while at the airport. Absolutely unacceptable.

    • Chris L says:
      24 Jun24 June 10:11

      Agreed, that is unacceptable. But I guess the question is whether BA are not renewing various contracts as a temporary measure to control costs during Covid, or is it slashing lounge access a permanent change? I believe that a big part of the Larnaca market for BA is Cyprus-based business travellers flying to North America. I don’t see these customers accepting the removal of lounge access.

      • Sam G says:
        24 Jun24 June 12:20

        I wonder if it’ll go the way of Star Alliance where 3rd party lounge access isn’t offered to status holders by a lot of the member airlines/airports, instead only given to those flying Club

      • Lady London says:
        24 Jun24 June 17:31

        Funnily enough quite a few of UK industrialists, private equity magnates etc do seem to live in Cyprus for some strange reason. So a bit like Nice and Barbados, presumably BA would want to retain some services there?

    • Aaron C says:
      24 Jun24 June 14:49

      It’s awful. They’ve also stopped paying the fast track security so you have to queue up in a snaking non-EU passport queue with hundreds of Russians.
      What’s the point in paying for CE if there are no ground benefits?

      • John says:
        24 Jun24 June 16:41

        Maybe you should stop paying for CE if there are not enough benefits

        • Aaron C says:
          24 Jun24 June 22:46

          Well yes that’s just what I intend to do. It’s absolutely not worth the money at the moment especially with economy being fairly empty.

  • VFRonTop says:
    24 Jun24 June 09:15

    The daa lounges at Dublin have reopened but I was told that BA haven’t renewed their contract (as of 10 days ago)

  • kitten says:
    24 Jun24 June 09:19

    We’d know BA’s intentions if there was any feedback about lounge access still being provided by BA at outstations. If that was provided and not currently provided, or still provided, then we’d have a clue.

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:
      24 Jun24 June 10:00

      At BLQ I was told last week that there had been talks with BA to resume lounge access when the BLQ-LHR route restarts (currently planned for July, but I suspect if Italy remains yellow that will change). They had cut access last year. I had lounge access at BLQ in October, but not December (but Iberia still has it).

      Apparently the talks are on hold, I’m guessing they were suspended after BA went back into extreme cost savings mode when the government suddenly revoked Portugal’s green list status and didn’t add anyone new.

      Of couse even when you hear from someone who works there you can never be sure if it’s fact or rumour.

  • Colin JE says:
    24 Jun24 June 09:33

    This is worrying. Running the lounges isn’t cheap admittedly, but must be a drop in the ocean compared with running half full flights.
    I used to take BA rather than EasyJet because of the BA lounge at Edinburgh.
    If there’s no need to connect with an onward flight BA seems to be leaving itself wide open to competition with its status passengers. And why travel CE when there’s no difference in seating, unless you want the tier points and someone else is paying? I’d rather book an exit row.

    • Doug M says:
      24 Jun24 June 09:45

      Exit row is unreliable, particularly now they cancel and consolidate flights where they can. Curtain moves take you out the seat and don’t put you back.
      I think guaranteeing no random next to you is a huge variation in the seating between CE and ET.

      • Chris L says:
        24 Jun24 June 15:27

        If you have status you’ve got a fairly good chance of having an empty seat next to you in ET anyway, assuming the flight isn’t full.

  • Anna says:
    24 Jun24 June 09:40

    Related question in case lounges re-open – OH has Amex Platinum, I have supp. Does his PP just cover 2 of us, i.e. we don’t each get a guest? We’ve both been on the 2 year break so I can’t remember how it works!

    • Doug M says:
      24 Jun24 June 09:45

      Pretty sure you’re both PP members and both get +1. That first Plat sup is like a real card.

    • Rob says:
      24 Jun24 June 09:49

      You both get a guest if you both present your individual Amex Plat or Priority Pass cards, depdending on lounge.

      • MW says:
        24 Jun24 June 11:22

        I thought some lounges that you can get into with Amex Plat (Plaza Prem?) don’t allow a guest?

        • Rob says:
          24 Jun24 June 11:32

          Hmmmm … need to check. Never actually gone into Plaza T5 with a guest.

          • Anna says:
            24 Jun24 June 11:41

            It may well not be an issue anyway as we will either be flying from MAN or LCY this summer!

          • MW says:
            24 Jun24 June 11:45

            Just checked T&Cs and seems like you are allowed a guest after all. Not sure which lounge I am thinking of (not Eurostar, some other lounge)

            12. Plaza Premium lounges. This benefit is available to Platinum Cardmembers. Cardmembers receive complimentary access to any global location of Plaza Premium Lounges. […] Cardmembers may bring 1 companion into Plaza Premium Lounges as complimentary guests.

          • Rob says:
            24 Jun24 June 11:57

            Delta? Eurostar doesn’t allow guests either.

          • Memesweeper says:
            24 Jun24 June 13:24

            I’ve managed to guest in at PP T5. Perhaps it wasn’t allowed thou!

        • HAM76 says:
          24 Jun24 June 13:27

          Also depends on the country that issued your Amex. In T5 they have a list of the various Amex issueing countries and corresponding access rules. With my Plat issued in Germany I do not get a free guest in T5 despite having a guest on PP.

    • Lady London says:
      24 Jun24 June 17:34

      Yes a family of 4 can enter on a main card and supp on same account carried by the parents.

  • Vasco says:
    24 Jun24 June 09:54

    Massive shame about Belfast City, that lounge was great. 🙁

  • sarah says:
    24 Jun24 June 09:57

    Do you know when Belfast City happened? I was there on the 14th and it was fine.

    • Pete M says:
      24 Jun24 June 10:01

      Last Friday (18/Jun) from what I was told on Sunday. But someone said it may be back now further up in the comments. It was heaving on Sunday anyway, despite not letting BA customers in (LCY and LHR flights at the same time) – a lot of people clearly have PP.

      • Simon says:
        24 Jun24 June 12:02

        Replied upthread Sarah but I tried to get in with BA gold card last Friday the 18th and was told the email cancelling the contract had come through the night before. Got in with PP and sat and emailed BA to complain. I had a response by the time my flight into LHR landed but it basically said “thanks for letting us know, sorry you are disappointed”.

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

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