NEW: all 11 UK Aspire lounges can now be pre-booked for £6 with Priority Pass

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• BJ says:

  4 Dec4 December 05:42

  So, twice-weekly lounge visits which would be very conservative for a FF now costs them £648/year if they want to jump the queue (because that’s all this guarantees). This is a farce and makes a mockery of PP, amex Platinum etc. Shortly we will see two queues: the regular queue and the pre-booked queues. HfP and other blogs need to come out against this in a big way. There are better ways to solve the problem such as stringent time limits for non-transit pax, bar service with one alcoholic drink per visit, and curbs on lounge crawls. It’s at least a decade since I had a pleasant lounge visit at LHR excluding the 5B lounge.

  • Andrew J says:

    4 Dec4 December 07:02

    Frequent flyers use airline lounges – PP lounges really are for the infrequent flyers.

    • BJ says:

      4 Dec4 December 07:37

      Many FF use both.

    • Froggee says:

      4 Dec4 December 07:55

      In Andrew’s world frequent flyers live in London and only fly BA.

    • r* says:

      4 Dec4 December 09:45

      And at the airports where there are only PP lounges?

      • Rob says:

        4 Dec4 December 10:31

        You’d still get access. BA only has two lounges in mainly Europe now doesn’t it? It uses PP lounges at most of the rest.

    • Robert Jenkins says:

      4 Dec4 December 13:09

      Sorry but that’s definitely not the case. I’ve done 45 flights this year on a combination of Finnair, KLM, Lufthansa, BA, Ryanair and EasyJet based in Manchester. I’ve tried really hard to get status on Lufthansa and BA without success even with some business tickets (Lufthansa) too. Therefore in order to work in airports I pre book lounges. “Free” F&B is less important to me as I can expense that anyway.

      • His Holyness says:

        4 Dec4 December 14:46

        From next year, just short 100 flights in Y so 25 return trips via LH Group Hubs will get you Senator regardless how cheap the fare is. Half that for Business Class.
        With longhaul it’s even easier.

  • Ken says:

    4 Dec4 December 07:08

    Are these restrictions you suggest just for PP users or are you saying people who pay £35 only get 2 hours and one drink?

    • BJ says:

      4 Dec4 December 07:38

      Good question that, I’ll need to scratch my head 🙂

  • BBbetter says:

    4 Dec4 December 07:59

    Not gonna happen. Ultimately it’s a money problem where PP pays very little to lounges, this lounges looking to collect revenue where they can.
    Even Plaza premium has buckled under pressure of revenues to accept the paltry income from PP holders.

  • Travel Strong says:

    4 Dec4 December 08:07

    You missed out the major failing, which is simply optimising the management.

    Regional lounges, are not oversubscribed, are often half full, and still claim to be ‘full’ (whilst sectioning off whole areas to save on cleaning the unused space). Seems to be a mix of poor planning/policies, staffing, and no incentives to take in customers.

    • Rob says:

      4 Dec4 December 08:40

      They are ‘full’ because an airline has bought the spots for passengers who never show. Seats are still sold though and can’t be resold.

      Emirates must be holding 100 seats per flight at Stansted’s Escape lounge for example.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        4 Dec4 December 11:09

        Well they obviously aren’t full as there is a known percentage of no shows … doesn’t take a genius to work it out with all the customer data they must have

        The airlines themselves oversell based on the fact they have no shows … and the flexible nature of PP means you can just say no at the door if it is one of those oversell situations.

        My view is that as soon as pre booking came in they just decided to turn majority of walk in PP away until such a time as you just must pay it to stand any chance of getting in. Perhaps some short term pain for them for a long term gain.

    • Travel Strong says:

      4 Dec4 December 09:07

      Indeed – and where this is the case, this is the poor planning/policies to which I refer. (However, in regional airports, the sectioned off areas seem to be totally cleared/not set up to accommodate a fleet of airline customers… just closed off to manage a smaller area).

• Steve H says:

  4 Dec4 December 06:04

  It appears then that the Gatwick South Aspire lounge still isn’t pre bookable, according to the list on HFP. Does anyone know why this isn’t included ?

  Also responding to BJs comment, the pre booking doesn’t “ jump the queue “ as such, it simply allows access to over subscribed lounges. It’s now rare to gain access to the London Airports without pre booking sadly… How long before pre booking isn’t possible as all the pre booked slots are gone ? Next year maybe ?

  It seems never a problem in many other European countries, I guess just a capacity thing…

  Anyone else feel that lounge access has now become like handing out sweets to kids, it’s everywhere and devaluing the product in the UK…

  • BJ says:

    4 Dec4 December 06:29

    Restrict access to 2h before scheduled departure for non-transit pax and allow only one free alciholic drink per pax and the problem will disappear without any need for pre-booking.

    • r* says:

      4 Dec4 December 09:52

      At least priority pass have been adding restaurants to try to mitigate the issue in the UK.

      The real turd in the grass is American Express who then provide a cut down priority pass that doesnt give you this.

      • zapato1060 says:

        4 Dec4 December 10:31

        Lloyds world elite £15 per month for 2x people includes these restaurants but the £54 per month Amex platinum doesn’t. I agree that’s where the problem lies.

  • Barry says:

    4 Dec4 December 07:19

    Rob has highlighted before the cultural differences between most European countries and the UK – such as far fewer people have credit cards and the associated lounge access

    • BJ says:

      4 Dec4 December 07:45

      It is also obvious from comments that even amongst HfP readers many go to the airport hours in advance to spend ages doing puv-crawls if lounges. Airports to blame too for encouraging pax to arrive 3h+ before flights when this should not be necessary. It’s simply a ploy to reduce spending on security etc while encouraging retail spending.

      • BBbetter says:

        4 Dec4 December 10:21

        Not so sure about that. Long haul economy checkin can be unpredictable. Some airlines have too few counters and some staff are simply slow. No fast track sold at LHR. Always better to arrive early.

  • tony says:

    4 Dec4 December 10:21

    @Steve H Aspire Gatwick South is showing as bookable next summer and oddly Clubrooms isn’t. So I’m not sure what’s going on but there’s seemingly some flux here.

    • Steve H says:

      6 Dec6 December 22:59

      Thanks Tony, I’ll check it out for 2024, odd that it’s not on the HFP list. Club rooms south are still closed to PP DragonPass etc. I believe they only open it for specific long haul airlines use ( Turkish etc ).

  • Bumblebee says:

    4 Dec4 December 10:55

    I did try booking once for a London slot, and there were none left !

• Froggee says:

  4 Dec4 December 07:33

  What we need now is a crowdsourced (exclusively for premium HFP subscribers) list of when you likely need to pay for access on a lounge by lounge basis with a percentage chance of getting in at different times of the day…

• zapato1060 says:

  4 Dec4 December 08:10

  It’s come down to if it’s a UK airport then it’s an unlikely bonus if we get a lounge whereas worldwide, way more than likely.

  • JDB says:

    4 Dec4 December 08:58

    The problem will spread rapidly as more and more people are sold access through a variety of channels vs limited capacity increase. Also, as the lounges are so busy, costs have increased so quality and maintenance have been reduced, yet pax obviously don’t care and are still queuing to get in to these places as a matter of principle.

    It already isn’t just a UK problem – yesterday in Belgrade the (PP accessible) Air Serbia Premium lounge had a big sign outside saying the lounge was full so only open to JU Business Class passengers.

    • His Holyness says:

      4 Dec4 December 09:57

      Not a fair comparison. You’ll never have an issue getting into the (rubbish) airport operated and long-time Priority Pass lounge next door. JU are only taking part since 2022 and only to get a bit of revenue when they’re empty.
      TK, being a premium airline send their pax to JU.

• TooPoorToBeHere says:

  4 Dec4 December 09:30

  Earlier arrival at the airport is a cultural change and will not be easy to reverse.

  The memory of the disastrous queues at MAN will fade, but trains aren’t going to recover their pre-covid reliability (a cultural change has happened in the industry and reliability no longer matters) nor will the roads become less congested.

  You have to very consistently get through travel, check-in/bag drop, and security, in a reliable businesslike way before you will become willing to arrive later at the airport, and those things are just not going to happen at the larger airports.

• Max says:

  4 Dec4 December 09:57

  Pre-booking is a complete money-making con for the lounge operators. I entered a lounge that had a sign outside saying it was full – inside it was mostly empty. People need to stop paying these fees and allowing the operators to get away with this scam.

  • Mike Hunt says:

    4 Dec4 December 10:09

    Max – it may have been visually empty but full virtually. a PP lounge does not need people in to be full

  • BBbetter says:

    4 Dec4 December 10:23

    Read Rob’s comments above. Airlines bulk book seats at lounges.

    • Travel Strong says:

      4 Dec4 December 10:52

      All solved with one statement instead of ‘full’:

      “We are technically full – but I’ve got a couple of spare no-show seats from an airline booking. If they turn up we will need the seat back though. Is that OK?”

      Just needs some pragmatic policy setting from the corporate management team.

      • Mike Hunt says:

        4 Dec4 December 12:27

        Travel Strong – you must be a lawyer. You have turned one word into a paragraph !

  • Rob says:

    4 Dec4 December 10:29

    I’m sure there’s some logic in your argument here – that a lounge which turns away people despite having capacity is a money-making con – but I’m struggling to see it 🙂

    If Sinead declined to take last-minute advertising from a business when we had advertising space available to sell I doubt I’d believe her if she claimed it was a cunning ‘money making’ scheme for HfP ….

    • TGLoyalty says:

      4 Dec4 December 11:12

      Depends what the margin is on a PP entry .. receive £15 but costs £14 it’s probably not worth the hassle vs the now learned behaviour that you must pay £6 more next time… it’s not all just free money.

      Cleaning, additional power, consumed F&B etc etc

      • Rob says:

        4 Dec4 December 13:31

        I agree with your logic but you simply wouldn’t sign up with PP on that basis.

        • Ken says:

          4 Dec4 December 15:36

          So what is the margin ?

          PP pay £10, with marginal costs of £7 ?

          In which case a person paying the booking fee of £6 is close to being worth 3 times that of a non booked PP

          If those numbers are even close to being correct, why not ‘educate’ PP holders and never admit them without a booking?

        • Rob says:

          4 Dec4 December 15:40

          May well happen, but PP is a global product and only around 3% of its lounges are in the UK. Those visiting the UK will get stuffed under this scenario as they have no way of knowing that they would be expected to prebook.

          (As indeed, if we’re honest, will 90% of UK PP holders.)

• xefo says:

  4 Dec4 December 11:56

  Ridiculous as even pre-booking availability is not guaranteed, for example Stansted on some days shows no availability for pre-booking via PP but is available to pre-book directly by paying the full fee.

  • The Savage Squirrel says:

    4 Dec4 December 13:17

    I’ve never pre-booked a PP lounge (I’m not that bothered about getting in TBH), but what happens to your £6 if you pre-book and are turned away? Refunded?

    • Rob says:

      4 Dec4 December 13:27

      Won’t happen, in theory.

  • Rob says:

    4 Dec4 December 13:29

    It’s not ridiculous, it’s common sense. If they expect to sell out at £30+ why would they be stupid enough to sell pre-booking slots for £6 (+ the £10 PPass will pay)?

    There is talk of a 3rd Emirates flight, which if it happens before the Emirates lounge opens will basically mean that Escape will be booked out for 9 hours per day with Emirates customers, as opposed to the current 6 hours per day.

• Jill Kinkell says:

  4 Dec4 December 14:09

  Inverness lounge is tiny..only about 25 seats. Let’s hope they’re not all prebooked to the extent it prevents me getting in!

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