Air France and KLM move into the Heathrow Terminal 3 Club Aspire lounge

It’s beginning to look like Air France and KLM are hunkering down in Heathrow Terminal 3 with no plans to return to Terminal 4.

This makes sense, of course. Now that the two airlines have joined the Virgin Atlantic and Delta Air Lines transatlantic joint venture, there will be many customers transiting from short haul to long haul. Making them transfer between terminals was never going to be a good look.

SkyTeam announced some time ago that it had permanently closed its huge alliance-wide lounge in Terminal 4, which was a good hint that Air France and KLM were not going back.

Air France and KLM have now announced a deal with the Club Aspire lounge in Heathrow Terminal 3. All business class and SkyTeam elite members flying on the two airlines will be invited to use the lounge.

Whilst good news for Air France and KLM passengers, it is bad news for Priority Pass, DragonPass and LoungeKey cardholders. With a large influx of SkyTeam passengers throughout the day it will be increasingly difficult to gain entry using a lounge club membership card.

If you are not travelling in Business Class and don’t have airline status, your other options in Heathrow Terminal 3 are:

• The Centurion Lounge (review) – if you have American Express Platinum
• No1 Lounge (review) – if you have Priority Pass etc or will pay cash

I suppose we should be grateful that the Club Aspire lounge still exists at all. The owners of Club Aspire recently bought No1 Lounges and, at Gatwick North, have chosen to permanently close the Club Aspire lounge to focus on No1 and its sister lounges. It seems that Club Aspire and No1 will co-exist in Terminal 3.

You can see our review of the Club Aspire lounge in Heathrow Terminal 3 here.

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How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (August 2022)

As a reminder, here are the four options to get FREE airport lounge access via a 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 Plaza Premium, Delta and Eurostar lounges.  Our American Express Platinum review is here. You can apply here.

EDIT: Until 25th October 2022, there is an exceptionally generous sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card. You will receive 60,000 Membership Rewards points – double the usual amount – and £200 to spend at Amex Travel. You need to spend £6,000 within six months to earn the bonus.

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

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for the first year. It comes with a Priority Pass card loaded with two free visits to any Priority Pass lounge – see the list here. 

Additional lounge visits are charged at £20.  You get two 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.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard gets you get a free LoungeKey card, allowing you access to the LoungeKey network.  Guests are charged at £20 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.

PS. You can find all of HfP’s UK airport lounge reviews – and we’ve been to most of them – indexed here.