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How to get a free DragonPass airport lounge membership, worth £44

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An interesting route allows you to get free membership of the DragonPass airport lounge programme.

This allows you to enter any DragonPass affiliated lounge for just £24, which represents a substantial saving – often close to 50% – on the standard cash rate.

Let’s take a step back first for some background …..

PLaza Premium Heathrow Terminal 2 lounge

If you do not have airline status or are not travelling in Business or First Class, the only way to get airport lounge access (without paying steep walk-up prices) is via membership of a lounge club.

The two major lounge access schemes are:

  • DragonPass (perhaps best known in the UK for being given to premium NatWest customers and Barclays Premier and Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card holders)

What exclusive deals does DragonPass offer?

Here are some interesting London examples which are NOT available with Priority Pass:

Exclusive DragonPass offers at Heathrow:

You get dining discounts – but no freebies – at Giraffe (T5), Joe’s Coffee House (T4), The Prince of Wales (T4), Spuntino (T3), The Curator (T3), Leon (T2), Wonder Tree (T2).

Exclusive DragonPass offers at Gatwick:

You can get dining discounts – but no freebies – at Nicholas Culpepper (North), Sonoma (North), Shake Shack (North), Giraffe (South), Wonder Tree (South), Joe’s Coffee House (South)

Obviously DragonPass will also get you into most of the ‘usual suspect’ lounges which Priority Pass can also access such as Aspire, Plaza Premium and No1 Lounges sites.

You can search the DragonPass lounge directory here.

What does a DragonPass card cost?

The standard prices for a DragonPass card are listed here (toggle to GBP in the menu bar).

The standard fee for a basic membership is £68, which comes with one free lounge visit. Additional visits are charged at £24 to your registered credit card.

However, there is a way of getting the basic card for free. You won’t get a free lounge visit included, but you save (£68 – £24 cost of one visit) £44.

The Regus deal for a free DragonPass card

Regis, the serviced offices group, partners with DragonPass even though it no longer lets you get into any of its airport business centres.

Visit myregus.com and sign up for a free account. Note that you can skip many of the questions you are asked.

Membership is free and you can now, if you wish, book yourself paid-for meeting rooms or hot desking space at any Regus centre.

Once registered with myregus, you can sign up for a free DragonPass via this page of their website. (A lot of people find that this link does not work unless you come via the Regus website – it seems to detect where you are coming from and divert you if its not from myregus.com. If so, you will need to click through from inside the Regus website. Set yourself up as a company and then go Quick Access / Partner Offers / Airport Longe and click through.)

This offer is exclusive to Regus members. You will be emailed log-in details for the DragonPass app – there are no plastic membership cards.

There is some confusion over how you pay for your lounge visits. On the registration page, it says:

“Before you visit a lounge you must top-up your account with a Visit.  This can be done in the DragonPass using a Visa or Mastercard.”

This implies that you need to buy a visit pass for £24 (ignore the reference to £19, this page has not been adjusted for a recent increase) via the app before the card will be accepted by the lounge.

However, the confirmation email says:

“Your visit will be automatically processed to your registered payment card. No need to top up. No fuss. Just fast, easy access to relaxed lounges worldwide.”

In practical terms it makes minimal difference. You can top up in seconds via the app if necessary, and unused prepaid visits are refundable.

You’re sorted. With the DragonPass app on your phone you can visit any of their lounges for just £24 per person. This represents a substantial saving on the ‘on the door’ price of many of the lounges.

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

General

Comments (42)

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

  • Traveller2022 says:
    30 Oct30 October 10:29

    HSBC Premier moved over to Priority Pass from Dragon Pass on 1st October

    • Rob says:
      30 Oct30 October 10:39

      No, Premier was previously LoungeKey, another Collinson brand. Collinson is ditching this so HSBC Premier people got moved to Priority Pass.

  • Tony says:
    30 Oct30 October 10:34

    In my recent experience,, any lounge I’ve visited (airline-owned or otherwise) have become experiences akin to sitting in a seat in the airport terminal. Overcrowded with generally average F&B offerings, coupled with a sort of FOMO anxiety where you’re constantly striving to get the best experience you can from it.

    I can’t say I’ve felt any different walking to my flight whether I’ve been in a lounge or not. Unless its free, arguably a better pre-flight experience would be to sit near the gate with headphones on and a Pret.

    Maybe I’ve been unlucky, but I’m not feeling the lounge love these days.

    • babyg_wc says:
      30 Oct30 October 13:10

      Qatar/Qantas/AirNZ/Cathay lounges are still much better than sitting at the gate… but yeah the PP/BA lounges are pretty poor, and its only the free booze/food that make the effort to pass through them worthwhile.

    • Mike says:
      30 Oct30 October 13:24

      Generally agree. Only the “top” airline lounges can offer something where you might actually enjoy spending time there. For instance, LHR T5 BA Concorde Room, Etihad First Class lounge, Qatar Al Safwa lounge, FRA Lufthansa First Class Terminal, and the like. Even then, the level of service you can expect is very different. Etihad First gets you an airline rep to escort you from the moment you arrive at the terminal to the moment you’re sat down on the plane. Qatar First? Not so much. Lufthansa First gets you a car-ride to the plane (and from the plane to the terminal, but not always!). As for BA First? Well, the ground service there is certainly lacking. There’s the Concorde Room, but that’s pretty much it.

  • Colin Thames says:
    30 Oct30 October 10:47

    Just to complicate matters, both my Barclays Avios Rewards and Barclays Travel Plus Pack provided Dragonpass accounts are showing extra passes at £18.50 in the app.

    • flyforfun says:
      30 Oct30 October 13:35

      Yes, but you’re paying £20 per month for the privilege of the card. You have to work out the value of paying more for entry vs the ongoing cost of the card. This has given me food for thought as my flying patterns may change soon.

  • geoff says:
    30 Oct30 October 10:48

    If you have the Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card – get the DragonPass + buy some lounge passes, then down grade to the Barclaycard Avios, what happens to the lounge passes?
    Do they get cancelled and refunded?
    Remain? When would they expire?

    • JDB says:
      30 Oct30 October 11:57

      @geoff – “If you are no longer an Avios Plus cardholder, your access to the DragonPass Premier+ app will be automatically cancelled. Any lounge passes or other discounts will be cancelled and refunded in accordance with the terms set by Assurant.”

  • PhatGit says:
    30 Oct30 October 12:11

    This has reminded me to renew as the pass only lasts for a year. Strangely you can’t seem to renew via the Regus app or on a iPhone bowser, both going to the airport search page. Had to drag out the laptop and all worked fine.

  • DW says:
    30 Oct30 October 21:30

    Revolut recently moved over to Dragonpass. I pay £6 a month for premium and get various perks including travel insurance. There is also a smart delay feature on Revolut app where you register your flight and get up to 4 lounge passes for you and your guests if your flight is delayed more than 60 minutes.

    You can also purchase any lounge pass for £20.

    Surprised no one has mentioned it here.

    • Earthman says:
      30 Oct30 October 21:38

      Revolut Ultra comes with dragon pass unlimited ie free into all lounges on their lis,the insurance offering is better too eg cancel for any reason up to 2500 in a year if you bought the trip on revolut
      Its 45 a month though but that insurance cover,free lounges and other freebies soften the blow a lot

    • Rob says:
      30 Oct30 October 21:50

      Can’t believe the ‘flight delay’ thing keeps going. What you do is pitch up at the airport, look for any flight on the board which is delayed by 60 minutes, type those details into the app and a few seconds later you get 4 x free lounge passes ….

  • Roy says:
    30 Oct30 October 23:57

    I notice that the Dragon pass Premier+ app _seems_ to allow prebooking of Plaza Premium lounges – I have actually tried to complete a booking so I don’t know for sure it actually works.

    Is there any way for Amex Platinum holders to pre-book? I’m not aware of any way of prebooking via either Amex or Priority Pass. If this is unique to DragonPass then this would seem to be a major benefit, assuming Plaza Premium T5 hasn’t managed to get the queues under control.

  • vijay says:
    5 Nov5 November 13:10

    I just signed up but its showing me £ 30.23 or $35 for a lounge in heathrow. Have the prices changed or did i sign up incorrectly (used the regus link)

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