Review: the Aspire lounge at Birmingham Airport

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• Justin says:

  18 Nov18 November 06:35

  Travelled through BHX at the start of October and tried to access the lounge with my PP. The lounge was dead, but they were only accepting pre bookings. Went back 20 mins later still dead, still same message of “oh I’m sorry we are full”… Apart from they were happy to let in PAX paying on the door. It’s not even as if there was an Emirates flight that they needed to hold back capacity for.

  I have long valued my Platinum PP, but as many comments yesterday, getting access is getting harder and harder into most UK lounges as they get more money from walk ups or prebookings.

  • Tony says:

    18 Nov18 November 06:44

    Have you raised that with Amex/pp? Would be interesting to know how they respond.

    • Aston100 says:

      18 Nov18 November 16:06

      I raised this with PP 2 years ago, before Covid after getting refused entry yet again into one of the Gatwick lounges (which looked empty-ish, as usual).
      They contacted me back and said they would take it up with the lounges at Gatwick, but I’m sure nothing actually happened.

• Deb says:

  18 Nov18 November 06:59

  BHX is my local airport. Tried the last 3 times to access the lounge and was told only pre booked passengers. So no PP allowed. Two other lounges at BHX not open. Platinum Amex holder – virtually worthless at present for lounge access.

• John T says:

  18 Nov18 November 07:43

  You say “thanks for Priority Pass for supporting this series of articles”. Does that mean PP sponsored them?

  • Rhys says:

    18 Nov18 November 09:04

    No, if PP sponsored them then that would be clearly stated at the top 🙂

    They arranged guaranteed access for us to be able to review.

    • Chris L says:

      18 Nov18 November 10:07

      I think therein lies the problem…if they had any confidence in their proposition, they wouldn’t need to guarantee access for review purposes.

      • Aston100 says:

        18 Nov18 November 16:07

        This.
        Would be good if Rhys & co simply walked up announced with a PP and see what happens.
        It’s like those unrealistic airline reviews that Sam Chui does, whereby the airline knows in advance he is coming and give him an experience that normal passengers would not get.

        • Rob says:

          18 Nov18 November 22:55

          Slight difference here, ie Rhys was in the airport for no other reason than to review the lounge, so if he couldn’t get in the whole project kind of falls apart ….

          We always pay or otherwise guarantee that we will get into a lounge when we intend to review it.

    • Yorkieflyer says:

      18 Nov18 November 12:46

      Using Priority Pass?😬

• Stu N says:

  18 Nov18 November 07:46

  Like others, I’ve found this lounge impossible to access with a Priority Pass and so despite travelling through BHX on a regular basis, I’ve never been in this lounge. Every time I have tried (usually evenings) I’ve been told they aren’t taking Priority Pass customers. A couple of times they have had the cheek to suggest I could pay cash for regular admission which rather blows the “restricted capacity” argument… Last time was in October, but it’s been that way for years.

  I used to pre-book No.1 lounge for £5 as that was a better alternative – sadly no longer possible.

  • Chris L says:

    18 Nov18 November 08:11

    Agreed, pre booking the No1 was good, particularly as the £5 also included priority security.

  • GM says:

    18 Nov18 November 08:48

    No1 reopening on Dec 16th, apparently! Have prebooked card access for Dec 24th anyway – or the website let me do it. Now £6 but included QR for security so hoping that still works.

  • Rhys says:

    18 Nov18 November 09:04

    Have you ever taken this up with Priority Pass?

    • Tony says:

      18 Nov18 November 09:33

      Not sure whether people have fed back to PP but as HfP seems to have a good working relationship with them, based on these articles, it might be helpful if you were able to feedback the problems. There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence in the comments on each of the PP articles to at least raise it as a concern. PP are more likely to listen to you rather than individuals phoning up with specific access problems. Im not saying they’ll necessarily listen or change things but worth doing.

      • Rhys says:

        18 Nov18 November 09:48

        You can be pretty sure that the PP PR team will be reading these comments 🙂

      • Rob says:

        18 Nov18 November 09:56

        How do you suggest this is solved? Lounges don’t turn you down for fun – it’s free money after all.

        • GM says:

          18 Nov18 November 09:59

          Even when all the lounges were open before this, they were VERY reluctant to take PP/LoungeKey etc, even when obviously plenty of room. Aspire South helped a little. It was so universal and frequent as to seem like a policy.

        • Ken says:

          18 Nov18 November 10:01

          Free money?

          I guess if there was sufficient delays in providing food and drinks, there would be no marginal cost at all…..oh wait.

          Perhaps the issue is that the per visit PP pay is simply too low.

        • Mark says:

          18 Nov18 November 10:48

          I understand this argument but if they state they’re full but will accept you if you pay full price then that directly contradicts their own statement of being ‘full’

        • Stu N says:

          18 Nov18 November 15:43

          Three possibilities:
          – Allow customers to pre-book for a moderate cost, the £5 for No.1 lounge, especially when bundled with Fast Track represented value for money for me.
          – Priority Pass could buy a block of spaces for their card holders so they were in similar position to airline premium cabin/ status passengers. Wouldn’t solve the problem but could mitigate it significantly.
          – PP could pay lounges a decent fee so they were more profitable. This would mean lounges would be more willing to accept PP walk-ups. If PP pay £12 a visit, a rational lounge operator would be willing to run well below capacity to ensure they could always accommodate walk-ups paying £25-30 as the walk-ups would be significantly more profitable.

        • Aston100 says:

          18 Nov18 November 16:16

          Rob, you & Rhys sound surprised (I think?).
          People have been complaining about lounges turning PP holders away for a long time now.
          This isn’t anything new, though the frequency seems to be increasing hugely.

        • Rob says:

          18 Nov18 November 22:53

          No-one turns down free money though, which implies that the slots have been pre-sold to airlines for the use of their own passengers.

          Any A-Level economics student can tell you why a business with high fixed costs and low variable costs isn’t going to reject your £12.

    • Stu N says:

      18 Nov18 November 14:38

      Yes, “working hard to deliver value/ feed back to lounge operator blah blah blah”. Have spoken to Amex as well who fed back to PP.

      Nothing changed.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    18 Nov18 November 09:12

    “cheek to suggest I could pay cash for regular admission“

    Well that really is taking the mic. I would feed back to PP/Amex if that ever happens again.

    I’ve only used this lounge once pre covid as preferred No 1 (used to pre book though) it was an ok place to pass the time before boarding.

  • Lady London says:

    18 Nov18 November 17:22

    Sounds like could be worth collecting some recordings of these conversations

• Rob L says:

  18 Nov18 November 08:13

  I’ve travelled through BHX weekly this last year and never made access to this lounge. It always appears empty but the staff always refuse access saying they have to keep space free for business passengers so can’t accept Priority pass. As the others have said Priority Pass is totally useless at the moment. No idea when the two other lounges at Birmingham will reopen, there appears to be demand they just don’t seem to want the business.

  • GM says:

    18 Nov18 November 09:45

    They’re saying No1 reopens Dec 16th so hope that’s true.

    • Rob L says:

      18 Nov18 November 22:50

      I’ve reserved my space for the 21st! Fingers crossed

      • GM says:

        20 Nov20 November 06:12

        And me for the 24th! Will be good to get back…

• Colin JE says:

  18 Nov18 November 08:18

  Disappointed to hear how much trouble people are experiencing getting access.
  How about Dragon Pass? You mention Lounge Key but I thought Dragon Pass gets access and may be held by more people nowadays, especially as the Barclays travel pack includes it, with decent insurance.

• GM says:

  18 Nov18 November 08:34

  Have prebooked for LoungeKey last two times (£5 fee). First time was mid October and they turned away everyone after me. They said reduced capacity, expecting premium passengers and only one open etc. Ordered my breakfast through the QR code and it didn’t come so had to ask. My full English was one sausage, one rasher, eggs and beans. Two weeks ago lounge was much busier…with people having loud conversations in the quiet zone. Breakfast options were sausage or bacon bap, or veggie sausage bap.
  Basically don’t count on getting in there in the morning without pre-booking. It was a bit like that before the pandemic too – only got in through kindness of guy on desk once, another time managed Aspire South. Usually paid to prebook No1 Lounge (was £5, now £6…but seems to still have QR code for fast track security as a bonus)

• ken says:

  18 Nov18 November 08:55

  Would be lovely to see Rhys try and get in to either Birmingham or Manchester with a simple priority pass, not a sponsored invitation.

  My money’s on, “Sorry Sir, we are full” (as tumbleweed blows accross the lounge).

  If you don’t get in at Manchester, believe me, you have dodged a bullet.

  • john says:

    18 Nov18 November 15:28

    Perhaps at the next one Rhys could ask with PP first before flashing his ‘reviewing the lounge’ invite and feedback if he could get in!

    • Lady London says:

      18 Nov18 November 17:26

      Now I know why there were so many rashers of bacon on that plate delivered by table service.

      • GM says:

        20 Nov20 November 06:14

        Seriously! My breakfast was one sausage, one rasher, eggs and beans. Nothing like he got. And they’re not even doing that this month – it’s sausage or bacon bap. Nice, but limited. And buffet a bit miserable.

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