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How does DragonPass Premier+ with the Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card work?

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Barclaycard has added an airport lounge access discount to its Avios Plus credit cards. You can now get discounts for yourself and your travel companions at thousands of lounges worldwide.

The discount is being offered in conjunction with DragonPass, the lounge aggregator, under its ‘DragonPass Premier+’ offering.

How does DragonPass Premier+ work?

DragonPass Premier+ lets you book lounge passes at a discounted rate of £18.50 per guest.

DragonPass Premier+

You can use lounge passes at any one of the lounges in the DragonPass network. Your lounge passes are not tied to a specific lounge or date. Thousands of lounges are available across the UK and globally.

Your DragonPass lounge passes do not guarantee you entry to a lounge. If you turn up on the day and find the lounge is full, you will be turned away.

Many lounges have a challenge at the moment with capacity, and a useful feature offered through DragonPass compared to other programmes such as Priority Pass is that you can pre-book for an additional £5 fee. This guarantees you entry at your booked time and even the combined cost of the pre-book fee and lounge pass (£23.50) is a lot less than many lounges charge on the door.

Is DragonPass Premier+ a good deal?

That depends if you already get free lounge access or not.

If you do not currently have access to a lounge program then being able to purchase lounge passes for £18.50 (£23.50 for a confirmed booking) is not bad, especially given that some lounges charge almost double for walk-in customers.

For comparison, here are some of the prices charged directly by lounges for advance bookings:

  • Aspire Heathrow Terminal 5 from £39.99
  • Plaza Premium Gatwick North from £39.60
  • Plaza Premium Edinburgh from £39.60
  • No1 Gatwick South from £34
Plaza Premium Lounge Edinburgh bar

Barclaycard believes that this is competitive with other banking products, including the HSBC Premier Mastercard which charges £20 per visit (soon to be £24) and does not allow pre-booking.

Whilst HSBC Premier’s World Elite Mastercard offers free lounge access (cardholder only, no guests), it is £195 per annum and is only available to HSBC Premier customers which requires an income of £75,000+ plus one of the following HSBC products: a mortgage, an investment, life insurance or a protection product.

In addition, the earn rate with the HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard is 1 Avios per £1 (rather than 1.5 per £1 with Barclaycards Avios Plus).

Who is eligible for DragonPass Premier+?

The DragonPass Premier+ offer is exclusive to cardholders of the Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card. If you have the basic Avios card you do not get discounted lounge access, although you can still use DragonPass independently to purchase lounge entry at non-discounted rates.

This article looks at the benefits of the Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card.

To learn more about the cards, read our Barclaycard Avios Mastercard credit card review here and our Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard credit card review here.

The new DragonPass Premier+ benefit is a new, ongoing benefit. Both new and existing cardholders get access to the discounted lounge passes.

Don’t forget that Barclays and Barclaycard are currently offering a crazy 100,000 Avios bonus when you sign up to both Barclays Premier with Barclays Avios Rewards and the Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card. You can find out more about the 100,000 Avios offer here.

best travel rewards credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – December 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th January 2025, the sign-up bonus on ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is increased to 30,000 Membership Rewards points. This converts into 30,000 Avios. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th January 2025, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card from American Express is increased to 80,000 Membership Rewards points. This converts into 80,000 Avios! The spend requirement is changed to £10,000 in six months for this offer. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

Huge 80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 9th December 2024, there are EXCLUSIVE sign-up offers for our readers on the two Capital on Tap small business Visa cards. You can earn 20,000 points on the Business Rewards card and 30,000 points on the new Pro card. Click here to apply.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

30,000 points (TO 9TH DECEMBER) plus good benefits Read our full review

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

20,000 points (ONLY TO 9TH DECEMBER) Read our full review

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback when you spend at least £2,000 per month.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

Get 1% cashback when you spend at least £2,000 per month* Read our full review

Category

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Comments (57)

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

  • Sinead says:
    28 Oct28 October 12:09

    I just wanted to clarify something on this article. Although we agreed to write an article on this subject as part of a promotional package for Barclaycard, it was not a ‘sponsored’ article, even though we initially marked it as such in error. It is important to clarify to readers that the views and comments in the article are our own, and not the views and comments of Barclaycard.

    • Alex Sm says:
      29 Oct29 October 10:14

      Surprisingly no-one in the comments moaned about this aspect as people often do here about sponsored articles. Maybe it is written too well! 🙂

  • bobthebuilder says:
    28 Oct28 October 12:14

    I’ve got Dragonpass premier + through RBS, but it seems a much better system. Using the app, I can book any lounge for free for myself + £20 for guest, with no booking charges.

  • Max says:
    29 Oct29 October 11:33

    I haven’t received an email to signup for DragonPass. Frankly, now that I’ve hit the target to get the upgrade voucher, I see no reason to keep the Barclays Avios Plus card and pay 20 quid a month, this benefit won’t swing it. I suspect Barclays are going to see a large number of cancelled accounts over the coming months and will need to incentivise further.

  • sxparkin says:
    29 Oct29 October 18:53

    Read the small print – its useless if you are BA silver or above for example – each person £ 18.50 plus reservation charges for a table in an average lounge ? No point – Rather sit at the Fortnum’s bar with a glass or two – Free of Charge in T5 !

  • Leon says:
    2 Nov2 November 20:00

    I’d avoid dragon pass like the plague. A despicable company, I requested refund of 2 unused passes that was done over the phone and refund never received. Currently disputing via my Amex but dragon pass consistently lying to Amex claiming charge was for a membership fee yet no £38 membership fee available. I signed up to the free membership after seeing article on head for points

  • LaTy says:
    3 Nov3 November 16:33

    Just received an email from Barclays stating that: “ If you have Barclays Avios Rewards and a Barclaycard Avios Plus card, from 7 December you’ll also receive four complimentary airport lounge passes each year. Each pass gives access to an eligible airport lounge for one person, or can be exchanged for other benefits like a meal voucher or spa treatment at selected locations. These passes can be used by you and any guests that are travelling with you.

    The four complimentary passes will be available for you to use within the DragonPass Premier+ app or at barclays.dragonpasspremierplus.com shortly after 7 December, and will be added annually on, or shortly after, the anniversary that you became a dual reward customer. Any airport lounge passes that aren’t used to make a booking by your anniversary date will expire and won’t be carried over into the next year.”

    • SW says:
      16 Nov16 November 16:06

      That 4 free passes could be a game changer, I’ve not had the email but have seen a report on another website stating these were coming.

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

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