Review: the Aspire Lounge at London Luton Airport

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• Richie says:

  17 Nov17 November 09:01

  Hope the DART opens before crossrail. Good review, worth bothering with this lounge if you are hungry and like a couple of alcoholic drinks.

  • Gavin says:

    17 Nov17 November 09:10

    It will be. My understanding is that the DART will be operational for SS2022 ie. End March 2022.

• Dave says:

  17 Nov17 November 09:11

  This review is in my opinion a scathing attack on Luton airport.

  There is nothing wrong with this airport, it serves the locality well to many destinations and is very popular Yes, it is aimed at the low-cost market, but what’s wrong with that. It has all the shops and eateries one would need. OK, it doesn’t have high-end shops, but neither does it have that target market.

  Please stop your snobbery – the statement “The main entrance opens directly onto the passenger-holding-pen (with strikethrough) main concourse” is unforgiveable.

  I will happily use this airport instead of Heathrow or Gatwick – its far superior in my opinion.

  Please stick to the facts in your review, not lace it with digs and snobbery.

  • Rhys says:

    17 Nov17 November 09:24

    I like a low cost airport as much as the next person but not when it’s not connected to the train station properly!

    I used to love Stansted. We used to use it a lot as a family – it was very convenient and, at that time, pleasant. It’s a lot less pleasant now!

  • Janos says:

    17 Nov17 November 09:30

    +1

  • John says:

    17 Nov17 November 09:43

    Snobbery is a feature of HFP :p

  • tony says:

    17 Nov17 November 10:01

    Each to their own, but it’s a thoroughly miserable experience and one I will only use as a last resort.

    Waited an hour to get bags off a flight from IOM a couple of years back. Absolutely no one around in the reclaim hall to offer any advice.

    A car drop off system that is tyrannical and seems designed to trip up the uninitiated.

    From my visit in 2006 to my one in 2019, the place remained a building site with the one consistent theme being queues – for absolutely everything.

    I don’t think there’s anything snobbish in stating the blindingly obvious.

    • Bagoly says:

      17 Nov17 November 17:23

      Exactly.
      For the Security Experience I would place it second bottom in the UK, to Manchester.
      For immigration, as a British Citizen, it’s usually OK, but I did have my worst UK entry experience there.
      The Car Rental collection and drop-off is awful.
      Until the recent road remodelling there was always the stress of being delayed by the entry traffic (even having taken the train to the nearest station)
      And the main passenger holding pen is far too small – as soon as there are any delays it is standing room only. I think Rhys’s description is spot on and sums up the view that management seem to have of their customers.

  • J says:

    17 Nov17 November 10:02

    Passenger-holding-pen is a fairly accurate description. On my last flight from Luton it took an age of squeezing past people to get through it. Still miles ahead of Stansted though.

  • VerdantBacon says:

    17 Nov17 November 10:58

    Just because it serves the area well and is popular, doesn’t magically make it a good airport. It’s a convenient one for some, that’s all.

    • Denis says:

      17 Nov17 November 12:50

      +1

  • _nate says:

    17 Nov17 November 14:25

    This airport is inexcusably bad. It charges for drop-offs, it channels you through a maze of shops before you get anywhere sensible, it is poorly connected to transport.. Just what are the redeeming points?

  • Amy C says:

    17 Nov17 November 14:29

    Dave, lighten up, it’s a tongue and cheek comment fgs! Personally I like Luton airport and absolutely detest STN. Luton’s recent refurb seems to have copied the footprint of STN with the snaking through shops after security. However, I still like it. No need to get all affronted and offended. The world needs more humour not people looking to be offended every five seconds.

  • Thywillbedone says:

    17 Nov17 November 15:07

    Have you forgotten the recent mass fist fight at Luton? (17 arrested, 3 seriously injured) Everyone (seemingly) on the sauce from early hours in the main holding pen?

• Charlie Whiskey says:

  17 Nov17 November 09:31

  I thought this was a rather anodyne review. Yes, it describes what is on offer, but there is a marked contrast between the very certain, direct but superficial criticism of the airport as a whole and the complete lack of any helpful opinion on the actual quality of the Aspire Lounge and it’s services.
  Let’s hope that being in hock to Priority Pass, presumably
  for easy access, isn’t going to dumb down these reports such that they are simply space-fillers. Utter integrity is a vital ingredient of this website and must not be jeopardised by sloppy journalism.

• John T says:

  17 Nov17 November 09:54

  I was going to say ‘surely there is enough flights in the afternoon and evening from Luton to warrant the lounge opening longer each day’ but I just checked and there are surprisingly few flights from Luton right now – probably only 30 per day with most before midday.
  There used to be a swathe of overnight Wizz departures to lesser known places in Eastern Europe but they don’t seem to be currently operating.

• Brian says:

  17 Nov17 November 10:36

  I agree with some other comments. The tone of the review implies that Rhys was dispatched to Luton against his will and slightly shocked that he couldn’t use the private jet terminal.
  I’ve never personally used LTN, it’s location doesn’t meet my need but have departed from STN after work, because of the rail link and flight times suit my needs. While I agree it’s a poor experience. BA and LHR doesn’t serve many destinations that are very useful and only from LTN or STN.

  Not all LCC users are tight fisted or cheap. Sometimes schedule and destination are more important than perceived importance.

  • chabuddy geezy says:

    17 Nov17 November 10:45

    Gatwick and Edinburgh serve a lot of LCCs and are an infinitely better passenger experience than Luton or Stansted.

• JK says:

  17 Nov17 November 14:41

  If you live in North London near Thameslink then it’s quicker to get to than most realise. Once the DART opens it will get a lot better, the shuttle bus really is miserable. The terminal has got a lot better over the last 15 years. I used it quite a bit pre-covid as the Level flights were dirt cheap and empty. Stansted definitely still more miserable – it has the train, but it takes ages, costs too much.

• The cyclist says:

  18 Nov18 November 21:45

  Both Stansted and Luton are both sh!tty miserable experiences. I stopped using them both years ago. I would rather travel to and pay more for LHR and I live close to Harpenden!

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