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EXCLUSIVE: Four British Airways lounges in the USA have joined Priority Pass

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Times are hard, but are they this hard? Or is actually a smart move? British Airways has signed up some of its airport lounges in the United States with the Priority Pass lounge card programme.

Some of the flagships, such as New York JFK and Boston, are excluded.

Four lounges are now in the programme, however.

British Airways lounges in the USA have joined Priority Pass

As of today, you can enter the following British Airways lounges with a Priority Pass:

  • San Francisco (International Terminal A)
  • Seattle (South Satellite)
  • Washington Dulles (Concourse B)
  • New York Newark (Terminal B)

Newark may not be ‘new’ (it’s not listed as a ‘new’ lounge) but the other three only joined Priority Pass today.

It’s not as bad as you think

The good news, if you’re worried about overcrowding, is that this is not actually a big negative for BA premium passengers.

Priority Pass holders will only have access to these lounges at restricted hours.

  • San Francisco – 5am to 11.30am
  • Seattle – 5am to 10am
  • New York Newark – 8am to 2pm

These should not clash with a wave of British Airways departures. What BA is doing is cashing in on its real estate at times of the day when it doesn’t have many, if any, passengers of its own to look after.

This isn’t even a ‘BA thing’. Virgin Atlantic struck a similar deal a few years ago, and other major European airlines have also joined Priority Pass in recent years. When the bulk of your flights are in the evening, it is a shame not to monetise your assets for the rest of the day.

You can check the details by searching for the lounges on the Priority Pass website here.

As a reminder, you can buy a Priority Pass directly here. You also get two (soon to be four) free visits each year with an Amex Gold card and unlimited free visits, for up to four people at a time, if you get your via an American Express Platinum card.

PS. The British Airways lounge at Amsterdam Schiphol is also in Priority Pass. However, there is some doubt as to whether this lounge will ever reopen. It is worth noting that, when the Singapore lounge reopened recently, BA’s publicity said that ‘all’ BA lounges were now open again. This implies that Amsterdam may not return, and will join Manchester and Newcastle as victims of the pandemic.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (51)

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

  • happeemonkee says:
    21 Jun21 June 11:46

    Priority Pass need to sort out LAX. Not one PP option there at all on my last trip a couple of weeks ago including TBIT

    • merlin90 says:
      21 Jun21 June 15:58

      Yes, it’s terrible. I forget what exactly they used to have but do remember accessing the Alaska Airlines lounge in T6 with Priority Pass at least once (although they tended to rebuff PP customers, or put them on a waitlist, if they had lots of actual AS flyers trying to get in).

  • Nick says:
    21 Jun21 June 12:04

    Is this an old article re-published? Dulles joined Priority Pass in 2016, and anyone who thinks times are hard for BA hasn’t booked a transatlantic flight from Heathrow recently… Or is it just the site’s use of Cunningham’s Law for non-credit card stories 🤣

  • JK says:
    21 Jun21 June 12:23

    Amsterdam lounge last week had a note on the door saying “exciting new plans coming soon” or words to that effect. Not sure how long that note has been there though… Shame as the location and views are excellent, BA still has a lot of flights each day, and the Aspire lounge is terrible these days.

    • ChrisC says:
      21 Jun21 June 13:04

      I disagree.

      Have used the Aspire in lieu of the BA lounge twice this year for morning flights and I thought it was on at least a par with the BA offering. If anything the range of food was better than what I rememebr BA offered.

      Same location and same views as well!

      • Amit says:
        21 Jun21 June 13:23

        Shame they didn’t have any room to let people into the asipre lounge on my visit a few weeks ago.

  • Scott says:
    21 Jun21 June 12:40

    Soon to be four PP passes via Amex Gold….have I missed something?

    • Rob says:
      21 Jun21 June 13:10

      See tomorrow. Changes from October.

    • JDB says:
      21 Jun21 June 16:21

      Unfortunately, 4 PP passes have the same value as 2 PP passes – zero.

      • Ali B says:
        21 Jun21 June 17:30

        Depends where you use them. Abu Dhabi for example has a cracking lounge if you’re in transit. I wouldn’t subscribe to P.P but as a platinum benefit they can be useful for short haul economy

      • Mark says:
        21 Jun21 June 17:48

        Used my wife’s Amex Gold included passes at the Goldair Handling lounge at Athens Hall B (intra-Schengen) today whilst waiting for a domestic redemption flight using our Aegean sign-up miles from a couple of years ago. I have to say I wasn’t expecting much but was pleasantly surprised. Better food selection than in T5 Galleries Club South on Saturday. Pretty busy, but we did manage to get a seat and it was a pleasant place to wait. I wouldn’t pay for a Priority Pass outright as we don’t often get the opportunity to use them when travelling without lounge acces anyway, but the Amex Gold and Platinum provided passes have been useful on occasion. That said, the last time we did was the T5 Plaza Premium which was pretty dire.

  • Matt says:
    21 Jun21 June 12:58

    I’m really disillusioned with Priority Pass. I have it through the Amex Platinum and I can’t remember the last time I was able to get into a lounge at either Heathrow or Gatwick with it. Every time I try they tell me that it’s bookings only.
    Seriously considering getting rid of it.

  • Amaranth says:
    21 Jun21 June 13:46

    “Times are hard, but are they this hard?” followed by “When the bulk of your flights are in the evening, it is a shame not to monetise your assets for the rest of the day”. Is this article meant to criticise BA or praise them?

    • Rob says:
      21 Jun21 June 14:18

      It’s more ‘this sounds like a desperate move but actually it might be a smart one’.

  • ianM says:
    21 Jun21 June 14:13

    Aspire are very variable in quality, some are decent some are crappy.

    I flew from Bristol on Friday and I have to say it was the busiest airport I have ever seen in UK, pretty big departures and absolutely chockka, hardly a bit of floor to be had, right up to about 7-8pm.

    But the Aspire lounge closed at 3pm…..what’s that all about?

  • manilabay says:
    21 Jun21 June 15:21

    Has anybody been ushered out of a lounge for staying over the times it would be open for Priority Pass passengers, or any pay to enter lounges? Just interested how they actually manage this.

    • Mark says:
      21 Jun21 June 20:56

      I was wondering that also…. If the closing times for PP are prior to their accepting any BA status/premium customers though it would be easy to chuck everyone out at that point though, having brought the closing time to the attention of customers on entry.

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