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No more Clubhouse access for Gold members on non-Virgin Atlantic flights

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Virgin Atlantic has quietly curtailed one of the unwritten benefits of being a Flying Club Gold member.

Historically, Virgin Atlantic has always been strict with who it gives access to the Clubhouse to. You either have to by flying in Upper Class or Delta One, or a top status member with either program.

That said, there was an unwritten rule that Flying Club Gold members could use the Clubhouse even if they were flying another airline, at the discretion of the lounge manager.

Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse Heathrow bar

TLFL recently tried it and was rebuffed, so we reached out to Virgin who confirmed the change:

“The trial allowing Gold Flying Club Members into the Clubhouse when flying any airline from Terminal 3 is not currently live. However, they are still welcome when flying with us or Delta in any cabin.”

The bottom line is that the Heathrow Clubhouse (review here) is simply not big enough to cope with the volume of passengers that have access to the lounge.

It will get even worse when Virgin joins SkyTeam next year and will almost certainly be necessary to open or use an additional lounge space to cater for all the SkyTeam frequent flyers. Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss hinted as much during the press conference.

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Category

Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (40)

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

  • Phillip says:
    29 Oct29 October 07:55

    On the lounge front, it seems BA is re-adopting it’s Covid stance to 3rd party lounge access for status holders…. Which seems to be denied entry. At least at LCA!

    • Alan Todd says:
      29 Oct29 October 10:40

      Was admitted at LCA last week as Silver flying economy, along with guest..

  • Stuart says:
    29 Oct29 October 08:06

    Air France and KLM will swamp the Virgin lounge.

    • Rhys says:
      29 Oct29 October 09:00

      No, they won’t, because they probably won’t have access!

      • Stuart says:
        29 Oct29 October 09:41

        So Virgin joins an alliance but then brings no lounges to the party?

        • Alex Sm says:
          29 Oct29 October 10:05

          AF and KL normally fly from T4, so Virgin lounge is safe

        • Rob says:
          29 Oct29 October 11:29

          There are already complex rules in place to deal with Delta elites and business class passengers (Air France and KLM volumes are, I guess, thin in comparison) so I think it is manageable.

          • VSCXfan says:
            29 Oct29 October 11:54

            DL used to restrict VS Gold access to their US lounges to those flying longhaul/transatlantic within 24 hrs; VS could similarly restrict AF/KL Elites access to the Clubhouse to those flying longhaul via AMS/CDG.

          • Mikeact says:
            29 Oct29 October 14:31

            As a long time top tier KL flyer, I look forward to starting our long haul flights, via AMS, in the Virgin lounge.

        • Thegasman says:
          29 Oct29 October 15:52

          Look at Qatar, you don’t get in their main LHR or Doha lounges as a OW status holder in Economy. They send you to an inferior option.

      • AL says:
        29 Oct29 October 09:56

        Good… and let’s hope that includes the DL elites, too! 😉

        • Nick says:
          29 Oct29 October 11:21

          AF and KL are not moving back to T4. This is confirmed – and indeed is considered part of VS’s alliance entry.

  • Tony says:
    29 Oct29 October 08:14

    Flybe in the poo again? It’s a weak excuse to say late delivery of a/c to pull off a route. There are plenty of spare a/c available to fill in for the time being. I smell a rat…!

    • Charles Martel says:
      29 Oct29 October 11:33

      Weren’t they just using a LHR slot on behalf of another airline (that might now want it back)?

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:
    29 Oct29 October 09:09

    It’s a shame I never knew about this hidden Clubhouse benefit before it was scrapped. One of the reasons I never bothered with status matching my BA status with VS is because I didn’t see the benefit of it. With Virgin you get all the good stuff with a business class ticket, whereas with BA on a business class ticket you only get access to the mediocre lounges. It would have been nice to have been able to add the Clubhouse into the range of nice lounges I could visit when flying from T3.

    But I understand their decision. It must be over 10 years now that BA stopped open access for golds. One of the reasons they stopped it was the growth of EZY at LGW (which at the time some EZY flights shared the same terminal as BA) and also at other places with a BA lounge like GVA. VS don’t want to get their lounges crowded and I imagine it would have been stopped a lot quicker had it been more widely publicised.

  • John T says:
    29 Oct29 October 09:21

    I know there’s plenty of space in T4 with several lounges having closed, but is there any spare lounge space in T3 for next year for Virgin? They may need a second ‘Skyteam Elite’ lounge to keep the Clubhouse for Upper and FC Golds.

    • AL says:
      29 Oct29 October 09:56

      I think that’s what’s being hinted at – collectively, the SkyTeam airlines might need to come together to build a SkyTeam lounge in T3.

      Space is tight down the corridor where the lounges are – and the Aspire is poor, so can’t give access to that. But there has been other space found recently – the position of the Centurion Lounge, for example. Or they could maybe find some toward the gate area, after the long walkway.

  • CC says:
    29 Oct29 October 09:38

    I hope there will be an airline flying to IOM from LHR early May, what happened to Loganair service

    • Michael C says:
      29 Oct29 October 12:12

      Loganair still going.
      I bought IOM-LHR for GBP 45 the day before the Flybe announcement. The next day it was GBP 235 (one way).
      Which is nice!

      • CC says:
        31 Oct31 October 07:33

        Flights released only up until end of March 2023, I want to go in May. I take you are booked sooner than that?

  • Concerto says:
    29 Oct29 October 10:33

    I fear for all those little airlines. I think we really need them

    • Jm says:
      29 Oct29 October 10:44

      We don’t need Flybe to compete with Loganair on thin routes. I don’t actually think we need Flybe at all if this is how they behave. I really don’t believe that someone suddenly realised 2 days before that they didn’t have a plane… also I think their press release was sneaky. Passengers have a right to be rebooked onto other carriers if travelling within x many days, I did not see any mention of being booked into Loganair, no doubt to save money but passengers left carrying the can.

      • Rand says:
        29 Oct29 October 13:36

        And EU261 comp too I assume. Hard to argue this is outside their control.

        • Guy says:
          29 Oct29 October 16:54

          Good luck getting this out of FlyBe!

          I have a case that’s been going on for 3 months. Repeated excuses including a backlog of payments due, blaming the finance department and now just ignoring me entirely.

          • His Holyness says:
            29 Oct29 October 19:27

            MCOL. It’s way too long. I think two weeks is plenty enough time for payment to be made. I’d do it before they’re bust and you’re a creditor.

      • Numpty says:
        29 Oct29 October 19:23

        Although Loganair is now for sale. Good timing after launching a bunch of new routes…

        • Jm says:
          29 Oct29 October 21:36

          I think the sellers may be quite particular about who they sell to so suspect it’s business as usual for the CEO and Board for now. A profitable airline is quite a thing these days…

  • Mikeact says:
    29 Oct29 October 19:37

    Might be better to post in the BA forum..not here.

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

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