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Priority Pass adds Manchester, Cardiff, Bristol airport food deals – unless you’re with Amex

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Priority Pass has unveiled a number of new restaurant deals across Manchester, Cardiff and Bristol airports for its cardholders.

At each, you will receive a £15 credit towards a meal. If your Priority Pass allows a free guest and you arrive with someone else, you will receive a £30 credit between you.

Unfortunately these deals are NOT available to anyone who gets their Priority Pass via American Express. It is available to anyone who gets their pass directly from Priority Pass or via another financial partner such as the HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard or the brand new £15 per month Lloyds Bank World Elite Mastercard.

(We ran a similar article to this last month to cover new restaurant deals across the London airports – click here to read it.)

Priority Pass adds Manchester, Cardiff, Bristol airport food deals

Here is the list of restaurant benefits that you can now access at Manchester, Bristol and Cardiff airports:

Manchester International

  • Starbucks (Terminal 1)
  • The Grain Loft (Terminal 1)
  • PizzaLuxe (Terminal 1)
  • Upper Crust (Terminal 1)

Bristol International

  • Starbucks
  • Cabin Bar
  • Tortilla
  • Brigg & Stow

Cardiff

  • Caffe Ritazza – EDIT, Cafe Ritazza is now closed
  • Beer House

There may be specific reasons for some of these additions:

  • at Bristol International, the Escape and 1903 lounges are due to be refurbished soon

But if your Priority Pass is issued by American Express ….

There are a grand total of TWO restaurant experiences globally that Amex-issued Priority Pass customers can use.

One is The Grain Store at London Gatwick’s South Terminal. Given that this is the British Airways terminal, it is at least convenient for most HfP readers. The other is the Moevenpick Cafe in Berlin Brandenburg.

My best guess is that Priority Pass wants to charge American Express a higher fee for restaurant visits, as it pays out more than it pays a lounge operator, and that the two parties could not reach an agreement.

This is something that American Express may want to look at again given the frustration over being unable to access UK lounges with Priority Pass due to overcrowding. The fee differential cannot be more than £1-£2 per visit, given that no other bank or credit card provider has brought in a similar restriction.

It is also possible that, if it isn’t careful, American Express may find that people who value the Priority Pass benefit move to competing financial products which do allow full access.

You can find out more about these new Priority Pass options by searching for an airport via its website.

PS. Without wishing to state the obvious, you should not take part in any of these restaurant deals if you have a ‘pay per use’ or – if you’re not alone – a ‘pay for guests’ Priority Pass. The guest fee is now £24 and you are getting £15 of restaurant credit so you can see the problem here!

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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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. 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

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.

Category

American Express Gold card, American Express Platinum card, HSBC Premier Mastercard

Comments (25)

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

  • Martin says:
    13 Nov13 November 05:08

    I thought the only priority pass card issued with the plus 1 was the amex platinum card..
    If there another I’m missing that would be included to use these deals as annex is excluded..

    We used the grain store in August, albeit no meal under £15 per person.!
    So still a cost..

  • t0m says:
    13 Nov13 November 06:15

    So can I go around the 4 establishments at Bristol and fill my boots with £60 of food with my HSBC Premier issued PP? Seems too good to be true!

    • David says:
      13 Nov13 November 06:45

      I am also interested in whether the HSBC issued PP can access these offers.

    • John says:
      13 Nov13 November 08:08

      You should be able to, no different to lounge hopping at airports with multiple PP lounges. A few years ago when the food offers were still available on the Platinum issued PP, I did something similar in a US airport.

    • polly says:
      13 Nov13 November 09:17

      Yes you can. At LGW, in GS, get some decent food, then try to get into a lounge for a couple of drinks. Grain store very happy to swipe card twice, if we can’t get into a lounge. We can then have a nice sit down in there with a glass of bubbly.

  • Nick G says:
    13 Nov13 November 06:36

    I tried to use the PP at Berlin last week when flying Ryanair only to discover they fly from a different terminal to the cafe so I couldn’t use it there. I give up trying to use it now.

    As an infrequent traveller these days the PP with Amex is a complete waste of time. I would rather have the option to pay a smaller annual fee. I literally place zero value on it with the restrictions.

    • LeeG says:
      13 Nov13 November 08:56

      Unless things have changed you can walk between the terminals – it’s a bit of a hike but we were in the same position back in August and chanced upon the fact we could get from T2 to T1.

      Probably 15 minutes or so at a decent pace but if you have the time it’s not wasted effort – as it’s a cafe the food is a step up from standard PP lounge buffets.

    • Adam says:
      13 Nov13 November 10:53

      Did not miss much. The queue to the cafe was 30+ people last Sunday.

    • Bervios says:
      13 Nov13 November 12:11

      Yes second that, you can walk between the two terminals, or even better just use the T1 security (you can use any security checkpoint at BER, and in any case the distance from T1 or T2 security to
      the lounge is about the same) – the food at cafe movenpick (just underneath the lounge ) is excellent, organic yoghurt with fresh strawberries , very tasty sandwiches , or take a bottle Of German fizz away.

  • Jan M says:
    13 Nov13 November 07:33

    Café Ritazza at Cardiff Airport just sells coffee and sandwiches. You’d need to probably buy two of the latter to get to your 15 pounds spend.

  • brian says:
    13 Nov13 November 07:58

    I do miss the short lived days when access was available via the Platinum Card.

  • Pawel says:
    13 Nov13 November 08:02

    I have card from Lloyds Mastercard WorldElite 15GBP/month…
    And can use at 3 food outlets at LTN as well use fast trak…and finish in Aspire lounge not bad…..

    • Doug says:
      13 Nov13 November 09:18

      I don’t know why we don’t have an article about this card. Curious how it compares with my HSBC Premier

    • polly says:
      13 Nov13 November 09:19

      Patel, how is the Lloyds mc working out for you? Can you buy a 2nd card reduced like hsbc world elite? But no avios earned tho…

      • Pawel says:
        13 Nov13 November 12:44

        Card for partner(anyone over 18) is free so 2pruority cards for 15GBP for 2cards

    • the_real_a says:
      13 Nov13 November 13:05

      LLoyds as usual is utterly awful at explaining the specifics on their application site – most likely to avoid a contractual benefit. Is it unlimited PP visits for £15 a month? Or is it limited to certain number of visits? Also is the Fast track also complimentary and unlimited?

      Appears to be totally unsustainable if it is truly unlimited with PP alone now retailing at £400+.

      • Rob says:
        13 Nov13 November 13:43

        How is it unsustainable? It’s not that different to the HSBC deal at £195 vs £180 – albeit HSBC charges £60 for a supp, so for a couple its £255 vs £180.

        That’s not to say that Lloyds won’t lose money on some people, but as long as its only a small fraction they won’t mind.

        • Rob says:
          13 Nov13 November 15:21

          What I meant was HSBC seems to find it sustainable, having kept this package going for a number of years, and has a more generous reward scheme on top. I suspect that Lloyds has run similar copies, or is just assuming HSBC isn’t losing money.

  • Numpty says:
    13 Nov13 November 08:38

    Starbucks at MAN T1 is also listed in the PP app (on my HSBC membership), and nothing in the small print about what you can and cant spend the £15 on…..

  • R2 says:
    13 Nov13 November 15:51

    A switch away from Plat to HSBC looks to be on the cards for the coming year for me then, especially with the fee rise, with no additional benefits on the horizon seemingly…

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

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