Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Priority Pass pre-booking now allowed at Stansted, Manchester, Bristol and East Midlands

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

Manchester Airports Group, which owns London Stansted, Manchester and East Midlands Airports, will now allow you pre-book airport lounge access via a Priority Pass card. It is also offering it at Bristol Airport when it manages the two lounges.

DragonPass is also supported. Whilst LoungeKey is not named, the logo does appear so I assume this is also accepted.

This will, I’m sure, appeal to many readers who complain about the difficulty of using Priority Pass cards at these airports.

You need to prebook your lounge slot via the relevant airport website. There is a fee per guest, similar to the one that No1 Lounges and Club Aspire charge at Heathrow, Gatwick and Birmingham for a reservation.

London Stansted airport lounge prebooking

London Stansted

Click here to make a booking and to check lounge opening times. Scroll to the bottom of this page and there are separate links for Priority Pass and DragonPass holders.

The only lounge available is the Escape lounge. This costs £6 to reserve.

Our last review of the Escape lounge at Stansted airport is here, albeit from 2019.

Reservations can be cancelled up to 24 hours before arrival.

Manchester Airport lounge prebooking

Manchester Airport

Click here to book and to check opening hours. Scroll to the bottom of this page and there are separate links for Priority Pass and DragonPass holders.

Your options are:

Terminal 1

  • Escape lounge – £6

Terminal 2

  • Escape lounge – £6 (review)
  • 1903 lounge – £21 (this is a premium lounge, review)

Terminal 3

You are not guaranteed to able to make a pre-booking. Reservations do not seem to be available at times when airlines have contracted large parts of the lounges for their own use. Reservations can be cancelled up to 24 hours before arrival.

East Midlands Airport lounge prebooking

East Midlands Airport

Click here to pre-book and to check lounge opening times. Scroll to the bottom of this page and there are separate links for Priority Pass and DragonPass holders.

The only lounge available is the Escape lounge. This costs £6 to reserve.

Our last review of the Escape lounge at East Midlands Airport is here, albeit from 2019.

Reservations can be cancelled up to 24 hours before arrival.

Bristol Airport

Click here to pre-book and to check lounge opening times. Scroll to the bottom of this page and there are separate links for Priority Pass and DragonPass holders.

Whilst the website says that both the Escape and 1903 lounges can be prebooked, the only lounge that I could bring up was the Escape lounge. This costs £6 to reserve.

Our last review of the Escape lounge at Bristol Airport is here, albeit from 2017.

Reservations can be cancelled up to 24 hours before arrival. Reservations do not appear to be available during peak morning hours.


Getting airport lounge access for free from a credit card

How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (April 2025)

Here are the five 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 1,500 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

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee 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 – 30,000 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 £290 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 good package, but only available to HSBC Premier clients Read our full review

Got a small business?

If you have a small business, consider American Express Business Platinum which has the same lounge benefits as the personal Platinum card:

American Express Business Platinum

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

You should also consider the Capital on Tap Pro Visa credit card which has a lower fee and, as well as a Priority Pass for airport lounge access, also comes with Radison Rewards VIP hotel status:

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits 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.

Comments (98)

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

  • Chris W says:

    When are they going to.build a second lounge at Stansted? I’m amazed Emirates still sends their F passengers to that dire Escape lounge

  • Skywalker says:

    Confused (as usual! 😀 )

    On the OW lounge website it states that the Escape T3 can be used by BA business ticket/status holders

    Does the OW lounge website still refer to the now closed BA lounge, or is that the same lounge that is now being referred to in this article?

    TIA

    • TP Hunter says:

      BA/OW pax get access to the Escape lounge. The former BA lounge has been converted into a PP-only version of the Escape lounge. But this has pathetic opening hours (only until 4pm), so if you have an evening flight you’re forced to pay this ransom fee to access the Escape lounge, otherwise you’ll be refused access as it’s “too busy” (even if there are plenty of seats left).

      MAG want to have their cake and eat it, as usual. All part and parcel of the world-class MAN experience… 🙄

      • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

        This isn’t quite right.

        The former BA lounge is now a seating area.

        The former 1903 lounge is now a lounge specifically for passholders – but only open in the summer season – that you well describe above.

  • joe Jordan says:

    So what next, a £10 super-priority fee to allow you to pre-book anytime, as opposed to the masses that can only book at certain times for £6.

    A fee for a guaranteed soft reclining seat ?

  • aurimas says:

    guys how do u enrol to priority pass as an additional card holder? my wife is main card holder, so she received the codes and stuff, but not me? what do I do? thanks

    • David says:

      If you mean from the Plat then you have to get a supplementary Plat for her then she’ll get PP details.

  • Alex says:

    Was actually using pre booked escape lounge in Stansted last Friday, didn’t know that was new option, the confirmation seems don’t have name on it so staff had to call to confirm but other than that everything seems worked

  • Richard says:

    Does anyone have experiences of using a Priority Pass for access to the lounge at Jersey? I know that the lounge there is by the gates and that there’s no return from that area to the main departure zone, so not too keep to try for access if there’s a high likelihood of being turned away and then stuck with nowhere to go.

  • platUK says:

    Stansted only offered from 2pm onwards as far as it seems right now (up to 1.45pm is “fully booked” even in 2024…)

  • Murray says:

    I got excited seeing the headline only to see that you can only prebook for an additional charge. It baffles me as DragonPass allows you to prebook lounges (at least the Stansted one) at no additional charge at all. I don’t understand why with Priority Pass it is any different.

    • Rob says:

      DragonPass pays more to lounges than Priority Pass and gets better treatment.

    • Jpoint says:

      How can you prebook the Stansted lounge at no additional charge through DragonPass….?

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

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.