Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Review: the new Extime (British Airways) lounge at Paris Charles de Gaulle Terminal 2B

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

This is our review of the new Extime lounge in Paris Charles de Gaulle Terminal 2B.

Extime is a new hospitality brand created by Aeroports de Paris that extends from lounges to duty free shopping as well as brand new gate areas. It’s part of a big renovation and improvement project happening at Charles de Gaulle which we reviewed here.

The Extime lounge in Terminal 2B is one of the first Extime lounges to open. At the moment, there’s another one in Terminal 1, with more to follow. British Airways uses Terminal 2B so you may find yourself in here sooner rather than later.

The good news, as you will see, is that the Extime refurbishment has been very impressive and the lounge is of a very high standard. The bad news is that, unless you have access with a particular airline, you’ll be paying €110 for the pleasure!

Where is the Extime lounge Terminal 2B?

The lounge is located very centrally, just at the back of the main duty free / shopping area. It is well sign-posted and shouldn’t take more than a minute to get to.

It is on the first floor, so you need to take the lifts.

Inside the Extime lounge at Paris CdG Terminal 2B

Once you’ve scanned your boarding pass and verified your eligibility you move through a series of rooms as you head deeper into the lounge.

First up is a short corridor in a beige colour scheme with some beautiful botanical-inspired artwork on the walls:

The decor immediately struck me as particularly Asian-inspired, and reminded me a bit of a Plaza Premium lounge.

The first room you’ll find is a fairly dark living-room style area, although it feels darker than the rest thanks to a mesh curtain by the window:

After this you have the main lounge area with the buffet:

This feels a lot more open, although there are also more private seats by the window. Cloches with (fake) orchids add a bit of colour to the space and simply deepen the Asian connection:

Finally, you have another equally sized space to the main area separated by a semi-open wall. This space feels a bit quieter and more focussed:

and

There are sockets virtually everywhere including mains, USB-A and USB-C.

Food and drink in the Extime lounge

The food and drink offering is probably the weakest part of the lounge. It’s in a little square buffet zone:

Whilst you do get self-pour champagne, wine and spirits:

The food selection is less impressive, with a number of average-looking hot items. These included baby potaties, julienne vegetables, chicken pot, rice etc:

Plus a basic selection of salads and cold cuts. It’ll tide you over but it’s nothing special, although as this terminal was originally meant for short-haul flights this isn’t a huge surprise.

There is also a special kosher section for when El Al flights operate.

I didn’t have time to try any so I can’t speak to how any of it tastes!

Who can access the Extime lounge?

As an independent lounge, Extime accepts passengers from a number of airlines. The following airlines currently have an access agreements:

  • Air Baltic
  • Air Austral
  • Air Serbia
  • Air Tahiti Nui
  • American Airlines
  • British Airways
  • Croatia Airlines
  • El Al
  • Finnair
  • Royal Air Maroc
  • Royal Jordanian

Unfortunately, the Extime lounge is not offered by any of the lounge aggregator companies such as Priority Pass or DragonPass. You can pay cash for entry but I was told the cost was €110, which is slightly ludicrous – most good airport lounges are around the €50 mark. I suspect it is at that price to put people off, rather than because it is good value.

Conclusion

I have to say I was surprised at the quality of the lounge. Terminal 2B is one of the more short-haul focussed terminals at Paris Charles de Gaulle, so to have a lounge that matches a decent long haul one is impressive.

Its strongest suit is the decor and design, which I think creates a calm environment, whilst the food offering is a bit weaker and could do with improving.

I would be totally happy here before a short flight to London – it’s certainly better than the British Airways Galleries Club lounge you’d get at Heathrow!

Getting airport lounge access for free from a credit card

How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (April 2024)

Here are the four options to get FREE airport lounge access via a UK 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 Eurostar, Lufthansa and Delta Air Lines lounges.  Our American Express Platinum review is here. You can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

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

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

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

Additional lounge visits are charged at £24.  You get four 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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard gets you get a free Priority Pass card, allowing you access to the Priority Pass network.  Guests are charged at £24 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.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard

A huge bonus, but only available to HSBC Premier clients Read our full review

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

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (73)

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

  • Phil G says:
    8 Feb8 February 08:00

    Surely the main score should be how good the f&b offering is, which here is poor (was there last week) and the lounge soon fills up when El Al passengers pour in.
    The fit out looks good but it is not to a high quality if you look closely

    • Rob says:
      8 Feb8 February 08:34

      Is this based on you actually having visited it or looking closely at the photos? Rhys was sending me a stream of text messages when he was there saying how high spec it was.

      • DaveJ says:
        8 Feb8 February 11:03

        “(was there last week)”

        • meta says:
          8 Feb8 February 13:07

          You can even tell from pics that it’s done on the cheap. Cheap laminate and you can already see it chipping away. Marble imitation on the shelves is plasticky and design print of the tiles is quite bad. It’s the same with many new hotels that cut corners. It might look good for a few months and on first look, but it’s not for the long term.

          • Rhys says:
            8 Feb8 February 13:08

            That’s pretty much the standard these days, unfortunately.

            That said, I have seen some hotels appear to take very good care of interiors.

          • meta says:
            8 Feb8 February 13:16

            Yes, I think that’s the thing. If you use cheap finishes then you better maintain them frequently.

          • JDB says:
            8 Feb8 February 15:10

            Unfortunately these people are very short term / short sighted and it’s the same with cheap fast fashion. The first glance gives a good impression but it then only takes moments to see the cheap materials, bad finishes, bad joins/stitching so any illusion of ‘smart’ is quickly shattered. Often inbuilt impracticalities that mean cleaning and maintenance are going to be difficult so it quickly looks tatty. These places also aren’t designed for those who think it’s OK to wipe their hands on the seats and brush their mess onto the floor, but that’s another issue plaguing airport lounges.

      • PH says:
        9 Feb9 February 22:34

        Tell Rhys to be more discerning 😉
        It looks like a mid-market nail salon especially with the fake orchids

  • Matty says:
    8 Feb8 February 08:25

    How is the Extime lounge in Terminal 1? Any difference in the food and drink offerings?

  • Andrew says:
    8 Feb8 February 08:44

    The luxe decor aside, I’m not sure I’d describe the perfect airport as having a €110 lounge with weak food and drink?

    • Blenz101 says:
      8 Feb8 February 09:22

      F&B seems fine for a primarily short haul offering.

      I think the 110 Euro is likely similar to Emirates who pitch access at a similar level even at outstations. I’ve also assumed it was priced to allow entry to groups travelling in mixed classes or with different status levels primarily on business trips where the cost will be expensed. I.e. the boss with status or travelling up front will sign off on a colleague joining him/her in the lounge priory to a flight.

      It’s not designed for walk up access under normal circumstances.

    • Rhys says:
      8 Feb8 February 09:25

      You have to ignore the €110 – it’s there to keep demand low, not because it represents good value for money.

      • thelargeguy says:
        8 Feb8 February 10:37

        I checked it out last week and was told entry was E60 for 3 hours

  • Denis says:
    8 Feb8 February 10:23

    If you keep walking straight towards the windows, you will see a closed “VIP Lounge” door on the left where there is no access for BA Club passengers. I was told it’s for Qatar First, friends of airport officials, celebrities and similar. It would be interesting to see what’s inside.

  • Jack says:
    8 Feb8 February 11:52

    Used this lounge back in December and would say it was one of the nicest third party lounges I have used. Very stylish and modern, great friendly staff and I found a good selection of food at around 6 with pasta, beef , salads and deserts available including a range of drinks with a nice champagne offered also. Lounge was about half full and was very relaxing and a very good way of spending some time before a flight . Glad BA moved to terminal 2B it is much nicer than 2A, the check in staff were also very friendly and security was quick too so all in all very impressed with the new lounge and terminal

  • David Spate says:
    8 Feb8 February 13:55

    I spent three hours there recently as fog at Heathrow delayed my flight. Although the F&B wasn’t gourmet I think the comments here are harsh and it was no worse than what is offered by BA LH etc in their entry level lounges. It was empty for most of the time and the three hours passed quite pleasantly

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
    8 Feb8 February 15:24

    “Plus a basic selection of salads and cold cuts. It’ll tide you over but it’s nothing special, although as this terminal was originally meant for short-haul flights this isn’t a huge surprise.”

    What a strange comment to make.

    Just because the terminal was meant to be short haul shouldn’t affect their offering now there are different flights operating from it.

    The offering is what the management have decided to offer or a compromise with airlines over what they are prepared to pay.

  • Thywillbedone says:
    8 Feb8 February 16:47

    For interest: I have just cancelled three redemption seats to/from Dubai …outbound from LHR 14 Feb in Premium Econ and back on 21 Feb in First.

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!