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

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

• Mouse says:

  1 Jul1 July 07:00

  “long downtown transit times for passengers” – you’re really not joking here -just looked up Chicago RFD airport – according to google a 100 mile drive from downtown, or three times the distance from Luton or Stansted to London. There are going to be some disappointed passengers arriving in “Chicago”!

  • John T says:

    1 Jul1 July 07:57

    Another issue they will have is that RFD does not feature when you search Google Flights to ‘Chicago’ (only O’Hare and Midway do).

    BA and American are offering return nonstop flights to Chicago for under £500 later this year. You’d think Norse would have to be priced at under £350 return for people to book the inconvenience of RFD. I doubt they will be that cheap….

  • sayling says:

    1 Jul1 July 08:27

    “London Southend Airport”…

    • Rob says:

      1 Jul1 July 09:03

      I’m guessing you’ve never been to the airport. With its own train station, you can be in Liverpool Street – and so onto Crossrail – in little more time than a Gatwick Express to Victoria and faster than a tube from Heathrow.

    • Bip says:

      1 Jul1 July 09:46

      I’m reminded more of the 2006 Ryanair stunt where they advertised flights to London Prestwick – just a short 400 mile train ride across the Scottish border

  • david says:

    1 Jul1 July 14:35

    I booked some weekend flights to Frankfurt. As it was a group of guys, I didnt want to travel alone via Avios OR give a huge amount of avios to cater for the whole group so we are flying into Frankfurt Hanh. An hour an half away from Frankfurt. Jeez.

• tony says:

  1 Jul1 July 07:14

  I hope they have indeed done the sums (or math, sorry) here. From Google maps, Rockford appears to have a stand alone international terminal with a single gate. I recall a story about a charter company, maybe Thomas Cook, wanting to run a ski flight into Sacramento. The airport and CBP offered a guarantee that all passengers would be cleared into the country within 240 minutes of the plane parking at the gate, presumably because they would only have two immigration officers working. Needless to say, Thomas Cook rightly told them to do one.

• ChrisC says:

  1 Jul1 July 07:21

  BWI is hardly a secondary airport. It’s busier than IAD and only a couple of miles more distant from DC than IAD is.

  • HPN-HRL says:

    1 Jul1 July 07:57

    …as well as having better public transport into DC proper.

  • Rhys says:

    1 Jul1 July 08:25

    I love BWI, I always flew there direct when I was studying in Baltimore with BA. But labelling it as a Washington DC airport is slightly misleading….but at least it’s directly on Amtrak

    • ADS says:

      1 Jul1 July 12:24

      the “metropolitan area airport code” WAS covers DCA, IAD and BWI

      so this one seems fairly reasonable !

  • dougzz99 says:

    1 Jul1 July 09:44

    BWI works for Maryland and IAD for Virginia. I hate those stupid mobiles at IAD, and it feels like the metro extension has taken forever. BWI is fine, but a bit nowhere and the BA flight felt too late in the day, unless that’s changed.
    I much prefer DCA – National. Always feel the best route to Washington is JFK and a change to arrive at DCA.

    • VSCXfan says:

      1 Jul1 July 19:05

      BWI (officially named Thurgood Marshall Baltimore-Washington International Airport) Amtrak station offers fast direct trains south to Washington Union Station (as well as north to Philadelphia) and easy road access to the Beltway and DC’s northern suburbs. RFD and ONT on the other hand offer easy access to Rockford Illinois and Ontario California……

• krys_k says:

  1 Jul1 July 07:59

  Lounge related question. I’ve always wondered why the club rooms were closed in Luton. Thought that was a good concept and even if I didn’t have a PP I would have happily paid the £30 odd quid for entry. Perhaps not enough others thought the same.

  • Rob says:

    1 Jul1 July 09:00

    No1 went bust due to excessive debt loaded onto it by its private equity owner. Another operator could probably make it work but the location, tucked around a corner, did not encourage walk ins. The ban on naked flame cooking also seriously impacted the food they could offer (they were bringing in precooked fried eggs and reheating them for example) which was not really cutting it given the premium Clubrooms price.

    • John T says:

      1 Jul1 July 09:19

      You can’t fry an egg on an induction cooktop?!?

    • lumma says:

      1 Jul1 July 13:32

      Was very disappointed with the clubrooms when I went in 2019. Slow service but wouldn’t give a glass of wine and a beer at the same time.

      Waiter giving loads of drinks to a rowdy pair of couples but ignoring the rest of the lounge.

• Matty says:

  1 Jul1 July 08:18

  Can you use the Virgin Clubhouse if you have a gold card with Virgin when doing a short hop with KLM or Air France?

  • Rhys says:

    1 Jul1 July 08:28

    Officially no, but I believe they’re quite lenient if your VS Gold and it’s not too busy.

    • Mike Ward says:

      1 Jul1 July 08:47

      Not at CDG they’re not – I was turned away last month when it was obvious the lounge was half empty. They also refuse to accept ITA Volare gold-equivalent.

      • Rhys says:

        1 Jul1 July 09:08

        CDG doesn’t have a Clubhouse!

• Richie says:

  1 Jul1 July 08:41

  Rockford and Ontario may only be successfull if there’s great value car hire and cheap fuel available.

  • Peter K says:

    1 Jul1 July 08:54

    That shouldn’t be a problem! Oh, wait a minute…

  • John T says:

    1 Jul1 July 09:18

    If there’s a single coach service into the city for each flight that doesn’t leave until all passengers have collected their luggage you’ll arrive in Chicago or LA about four hours after you land

    • Richie says:

      1 Jul1 July 09:35

      I’d only fly to Rockford if I planned driving around this part of the US. I’d only fly to Ontario if I was planning a drive East to Palm Dessert etc. Otherwise these flights are unlikely to be cheap enough. Competition is very welcome though.

      • Nick says:

        1 Jul1 July 11:35

        You’re assuming people actually want the city centre. Business – yes. Leisure – not always. I suspect Ontario might do quite well, LAX is a nightmare and many people drive onwards anyway. Rockford less so, but who knows. Hahn worked for Ryanair, and no one expected that.

        • RussellH says:

          1 Jul1 July 14:41

          Hahn worked for a lot of my former holiday customers. Convenient for the Hunsrück, Southern Eifel and Mosel Valley,
          No one ever wanted to go to Frankfurt, but with the airport’s good rail connections, convenient for a lot of south-western Germany.

• dougzz99 says:

  1 Jul1 July 09:52

  It seems to me a terrible idea to be launching this now. I appreciate the difficulty of predicting what’s to come, but flying to secondary airports to save a few quid only works for the very budget constrained. Right now the costs of a holiday in the US mean saving on the flight is insignificant to the overall cost. They’ll always be people looking for the absolute cheapest option, and those suited by the destination, but for me this is another airline that’ll never make money.

  • david says:

    1 Jul1 July 14:41

    If its cheap enough during School Holidays as most of their flights are currently, I will take their offers up. But I would always do the sums including car rental etc or public transport into city.

• RussellH says:

  1 Jul1 July 10:05

  Given the flights to Ontario and Rockford, I am surprised that they have not gone for Oakland rather than SFO.
  The BART connection from OAK into San Francisco is pretty good, and for anyone wanting to visit northern California – think Napa + Sonoma for wine or Humboldt Co. for Redwoods, OAK is much more convenient when driving than SFO.

  • ChrisC says:

    1 Jul1 July 11:34

    Ontario prob all much cheaper.

    • ChrisC says:

      1 Jul1 July 12:59

      Must read before posting!

      Of course ONT is cheaper than LAX which is why they are using that.

      Maybe they got a good deal with SFO rather than OAK? Link to a holiday company?

  • Doug M says:

    1 Jul1 July 11:36

    Agreed. People taking ‘budget’ flights don’t book cabs from airports, they use public transport. Connectivity at least as important as location with an airport. See Rob’s comment about Southend.

    • david says:

      1 Jul1 July 14:43

      Your right there. I normally do the sums with car rental even if airport is far.

  • Thegasman says:

    1 Jul1 July 11:54

    Did Norwegian owe Oakland some cash when they pulled out previously?

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