American Airlines unveils biggest ever Heathrow summer flight schedule

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• Fazzy Bear says:

  18 Jan18 January 10:08

  Got a emirates flight in the time frame but booked last week so unfortunately won’t be able to utilise. Shame it can’t be back dated.

• Patrick says:

  18 Jan18 January 10:55

  I asked at T3 American lounge reception yesterday and she thinks the First lounge will likely open “in the Spring”.

• Paul says:

  18 Jan18 January 12:42

  Loss of Priority Pass at Bristol is another reason for ditching Amex.

  We fly from Bristol (no longer a free PP lounge) or Heathrow (where we use the Virgin UC Lounge)

  Mind you, our recent PP lounges leaving Turkey and Rome were shocking experiences so wont really miss those either if we exit Amex.

  • David H says:

    18 Jan18 January 13:01

    Have you watched the On the Beach advert ? Would you want to share a lounge with hundreds of noisy families ? The point of a lounge is to get away from them ! Plus if On the Beach is offering it for free you can pretty much guarantee the food and drink will be pretty minimal.

    • Rob says:

      18 Jan18 January 13:11

      OTB only offers lounge access with 4-5* hotels. However, as they are offering this at all airports they use, you can be pretty sure that most available space at Gatwick over next Summer will be taken by them.

• The Lord says:

  18 Jan18 January 13:05

  Slightly off topic but related to the Emirates point. How do you actually book a flight with a stop off somewhere? I am thinking of when using a Kayak or Skyscanner to book in particular.

  • Bagoly says:

    18 Jan18 January 14:30

    My recommendation is to book direct with airlines.
    Using any OTA is fine until you want to E.g. choose a seat, let alone change the flight or if there are IRROPS.

• Mark Janes says:

  18 Jan18 January 17:26

  I’ll certainly be avoiding Aspire and No1 lounges based on recent experiences. However we booked into the Clubrooms at LGW N yesterday and it was excellent. Attentive at-table service, freshly cooked full English, a couple of Mimosas, decent coffee and a waiter who made a point to keep an eye on the departure boards and let us know when the gate came up. Place was almost empty mid morning. £15 inc fast track security. Worth it as far as I’m concerned.

  • Erico1875 says:

    18 Jan18 January 18:11

    How did you get it for £15?

    • Rob says:

      18 Jan18 January 19:14

      That’s the top-up price if you have Priority Pass.

• Ryan says:

  19 Jan19 January 00:31

  Adding to the comments about OTB; I used Aspire in Bristol a few times just before Covid – never had any issues with capacity / noise etc

  Since reopening, it’s been a hotpot of “4/5*” OTB holidays (for me that’s an oxymoron).

  No judgement but it always seemed to be the ones with large families and thinking they were being posh!

  It was always a thing to look forward to (relatively for Bristol!) but now we have to wait and see if anything shows up – can’t see there being any room though

  • ECJ says:

    19 Jan19 January 14:18

    Long term PP unlimited user. I flew from Stansted last week, there was a line of about 40 people sitting on the floor outside taking up space with their luggage like a fire risk. I walked up to the desk, wanted to grab an espresso, a swig of orange juice and a mini croissant (flight started boarding in 10) an arm’s length away instead of queuing with the masses at Pret in departures, and was told there were no tables.

    I said I didn’t want or need the whole table service malarkey – I literally wanted to swig and leave, standing up by breakfast bar, coat on, for less than 1 minute in the lounge . I was on a mid-week business trip, in wet school-term January, not some bargain basement family package tour advertised on the TV in peak season August. No, they said. There were people and families ahead of me waiting for tables for the “lounge experience” and the wait would be at least 45 minutes.

    I went to pret and paid for myself. I won’t bother going to the lounge again. It’s a shame, as pre-pandemic it was great. I’ve had similar experiences with other PP lounges in the UK in recent months. I agree that it is pretty much worthless these days.

  • MichaelR says:

    19 Jan19 January 18:40

    Mirrors my experience. I use it a fair bit as a Flying Blue Gold. Priority Pass users have long since been routinely refused. Since Covid, it’s consistently overcrowded and not particularly pleasant. It doesn’t help that the Aspire Plus Lounge has not been reopened (it was a small lounge, but all Business Class and status customers were sent there when it was operating)

    I am concerned that OTB will be put at the top of the tree and end up absorbing all of the capacity, such that even those with airline status will end up getting refused. This did happen to me a few years ago at Bristol with the old Aspire Plus Lounge – it had been block booked for TUI Premium Passengers and I was refused access when flying paid Business Class with KLM. Complaints to KLM didn’t elicit much more than a “we’re sorry” email.

• Josh says:

  19 Jan19 January 19:27

  PP at Bristol has been functional useless since they reopened post pandemic. The overflow lounge has been repurposed as a bar so not much capacity remains. Altho last time I was in there couple weeks ago they were at capacity but basically empty.

• Alan says:

  20 Jan20 January 01:36

  Also be careful taking an eastbound AA flight as no EU261 compensation and even worse CS than BA. A few years ago I had a rolling overnight delay with them – zero support, stuck for 8h wandering around JFK (lounge closed, kept increasing delay 1-2h at a time to avoid paying for hotel, etc), pitiful amount of compensation.

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