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Amex Platinum cardholders can now pre-book UK airport lounges for FREE

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American Express has responded to issues over the unavailability of UK airport lounges for Priority Pass cardholders.

Effectively immediately, holders of The Platinum Card can pre-book selected UK airport lounges for free.

This is only a six month trial but if successful I would expect it to continue, possibly replacing the Harvey Nichols credit as a benefit from 2025 if that is not carried over.

Priority Pass airport lounge prebooking

How many lounges can you pre-book?

If you have The Platinum Card or the Centurion card, you will have received FOUR pre-booking credits which need to be used by 31st December 2024.

You need one credit per person entering the lounge, so a couple would require two credits.

Here is an important point: supplementary cardholders receive their own pre-booking allowance. If you haven’t issued the free supplementary card on your Platinum account to your regular travel companion, you may want to do so now. (This person also receives all of the hotel elite status benefits.)

Note that this offer does not apply to holders of American Express Business Platinum cards.

How do you pre-book an airport lounge?

You need to download the Priority Pass and register your card.

Search for a participating lounge and you will see a button which allows you to prebook.

If you visit the Priority Pass website here you can see some screenshots of how it is meant to work.

I tried to do a dummy booking to create my own screenshots but it wasn’t working. I’m not sure if it isn’t live yet or if an app update will appear later today.

Am I guaranteed to be able to pre-book?

No.

Some lounges do not release pre-booking slots at peak times. This is usually when an airline has pre-booked some or all of a lounge for its own passengers.

Which lounges are participating?

At the moment, the only participating lounges are those run by Swissport (Aspire), Collinson (the owners of Priority Pass) or Airport Dimensions, which is a Swissport / Collinson joint venture.

This means that you won’t, for example, be able to access any Plaza Premium lounges. The only Heathrow Terminal 5 option is the Club Aspire lounge.

Here is the list with links to the relevant page of the Priority Pass site:

Lounge NameAirport
Aspire LoungeBirmingham International
Aspire Lounge (South)Birmingham International
No1 Lounge BirminghamBirmingham International
Clubrooms BirminghamBirmingham International
Aspire LoungeInverness
Aspire LoungeHumberside
Aspire LoungeLiverpool John Lennon
Aspire Lounge – Terminal 1Manchester
Aspire Lounge – Terminal 2Manchester
Aspire LoungeNewcastle International
Aspire Lounge (Gate 4)Edinburgh
Aspire Lounge (Gate 16)Edinburgh
Aspire LoungeBelfast City
No1 Lounge Heathrow – Terminal 3London Heathrow
Club Aspire Lounge – Terminal 3London Heathrow
Club Aspire Lounge – Terminal 5London Heathrow
No1 Lounge Gatwick – South TerminalLondon Gatwick
No1 Lounge Gatwick – North TerminalLondon Gatwick
Clubrooms Gatwick NorthLondon Gatwick
Clubrooms Gatwick SouthLondon Gatwick
My Lounge – South TerminalLondon Gatwick
Club Aspire Lounge – South TerminalLondon Gatwick
No1 Lounge LutonLondon Luton

Note that two Clubrooms sites are included

‘Clubrooms’ is the premium lounge brand offered by No1 Lounges, with improved food and drink.

Pre-booking these lounges usually costs £15 instead of £6 because it includes a supplement to cover the premium Clubrooms product. American Express appears happy to pay the full £15 on your behalf.

If you are flying from Birmingham or London Gatwick, it makes sense to prebook Clubrooms instead of any other lounge.

Conclusion

This is a good step forward for holders of The Platinum Card.

Adding Plaza Premium would obviously be another step forward – although that would require Priority Pass to do a deal with the competition – but hopefully this will reduce complaints about UK lounge overcrowing this summer.

You can find out more on the Priority Pass website here.

PS. As a reminder, click here to learn more about the new Platinum card sign-up offer of £400 of Amex Travel credit and 40,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert to 40,000 Avios.

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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 (May 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 in-depth review of The Platinum Card from American Express 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

The American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card 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 Credit Card 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 Credit Card

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 The American Express Business Platinum Card which has the same lounge benefits as the personal Platinum card:

The American Express Business Platinum Card

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 Platinum card

Comments (218)

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

  • DanC says:
    9 Jul9 July 10:48

    Would be good to see if we can campagne HSBC to do the same !

    • Numpty says:
      9 Jul9 July 19:26

      I wouldn’t want to replace the restaurant credit though. £18 per card credit at Starbucks, and then still getting into lounge was a great start to last trip.

  • r* says:
    9 Jul9 July 10:56

    An improvement, but it needs to be more than 4 really.

    • Rob says:
      9 Jul9 July 10:58

      It’s a personal card. Are you taking more than 4 personal trips between now and December?

      Note that Business Platinum cardholders are not getting this.

      • Andrew says:
        9 Jul9 July 11:10

        I’m struggling to see where Amex state that the Priority Pass benefit is only valid on personal trips?

        • Guernsey Globetrotter says:
          9 Jul9 July 11:20

          In the linked announcement on the Priority Pass website it says “American Express has granted UK issued CONSUMER Centurion® and Platinum Primary and Supplementary Cardmembers 4 complimentary lounge pre-book entitlements” (my emphasis added). Assume that reference to ‘consumer’ means it applies to personal and not business card holders…

          • Rob says:
            9 Jul9 July 11:27

            Obviously you can use it on business trips, but complaining about not being able to use a benefit aimed at consumers for business purposes isn’t necessarily going to go very far.

      • Oviplokos1 says:
        9 Jul9 July 11:12

        it takes just 2 trips between, say, Edi and Lon to use up your allowance if you don’t have a partner (travelling with you).

        • Rob says:
          9 Jul9 July 11:23

          Except you wouldn’t use it in EDI because Plaza Premium blows everything else out of the water 🙂

          • LittleNick says:
            9 Jul9 July 18:33

            Is the food any better in the EDI plaza premium lounge vs the rest of them as didn’t find food offering that great when I last went to the one at T2?

          • Alan says:
            9 Jul9 July 23:33

            Meh, it’s decent but really crowded now it’s PP – the food isn’t that much better than the Aspire next door.

      • HampshireHog says:
        9 Jul9 July 14:21

        WOW, can really see this moving the dial, not.

      • r* says:
        9 Jul9 July 23:42

        I dont do any business trips, but yeah I’ll certainly be doing more than 4 before the end of the year, usually go away for a weekend at least once a month.

    • LLLL says:
      9 Jul9 July 19:17

      I strongly agree. 4 tokens could be just 2 trips depending on your chosen airport pairing. Arguing that 2-4 trips per year is sufficient isn’t really logical to the Amex Platinum target market which is aimed at heavy travellers.

      This whole lounge overcrowding and pre-booking nonsense has been a very large factor in killing the Platinum value for me. Some of the regional airports aren’t even on the pre-booking list (good luck getting into the Bristol lounge on an early flight in school holidays).

  • Toma says:
    9 Jul9 July 10:59

    I’ve become less tied to the priority pass benefit over the years.

    It was valuable when I didn’t have airline status (when the lounges were still decent). However it feels like the quality of the No1 lounges has gone down hill and are always really busy with poor food and drink offerings. Either that or I’m just used to a much higher quality airline lounge these days…

    • chris w says:
      9 Jul9 July 11:19

      When were they good? I have never been impressed with a UK priority pass lounge

      • Rob says:
        9 Jul9 July 11:24

        Who remembers the old Servisair lounges in Heathrow T1 and T3?!

        • tony says:
          9 Jul9 July 11:56

          I recall the old Servisair lounge at Gatwick South. It was landside and you could get access with a Diners Club card. They didn’t used to request a boarding pass but word got round and eventually it became like a pub on a Friday evening…

          And the St George’s lounge at T3 (think it was called). BA operated but I think they may have had their own facility. I used it in the mid 90’s, again courtesy of Diners Club. Loads of alcohol – and a few crackers for food….

        • HampshireHog says:
          9 Jul9 July 14:26

          I struggle to decide whether the servisair cupboard in T1 was worse than the contract lounge in Katmandu, both from my BMI days

        • Charlie says:
          9 Jul9 July 15:44

          T1. Crikey. The photocopier room in my college library had better facilities even though it too was a windowless void.

        • Numpty says:
          9 Jul9 July 19:19

          Yes. I recall being in one of those awful lounges. Felt like it was a converted toilet.

      • Toma says:
        9 Jul9 July 11:34

        Good was probably the wrong word. Some of them were ok. These days they are just overcrowded as the lounges cash in on those getting a lounge add-on with package holidays.

        • Rob says:
          9 Jul9 July 11:43

          That’s only because the package holiday companies pay substantially more than Priority Pass is willing to pay.

          • NigelthePensioner says:
            10 Jul10 July 07:28

            The cost of which is added into the package holiday for the luckless travellers to pay anyway!

          • Rob says:
            10 Jul10 July 08:31

            easyJet makes 19% profit margin on its holidays, they said last week. When it works well its a goldmine. They also take zero hotel risk as hotels upload their willingness to sell as the low prices easyJet demands on a daily basis.

    • Lee says:
      9 Jul9 July 16:01

      The F&B offering at the British airways lounges is now also dreadful…
      So no competition…

      • LittleNick says:
        9 Jul9 July 18:40

        I don’t think the food offering now at the Galleries First lounge is that bad, there’s quite a good range of food. Enough to cover a meal, yes nothing about it is very special but perfectly substantial. I used to be very critical but i think it has improved

      • r* says:
        9 Jul9 July 23:44

        Post covid the BA lounge has dropped to the level that third party lounges used to be pre-covid while third party lounges have often become even worse. Plaza premium T5 now is terrible

  • ken says:
    9 Jul9 July 11:01

    A great start…

  • Brad Flack says:
    9 Jul9 July 11:12

    I have a few flights from Stansted coming up – any chance they’ll add the Escape lounge to this list any time soon?

    • JPa says:
      9 Jul9 July 11:43

      I can usually get into the Escape lounge within about 15 minutes of getting added to the queue, just make sure you allow a bit of extra time to get in.

      • babyg says:
        9 Jul9 July 12:25

        Escape lounge on a Thursday night is typically 45+ mins wait in the queue for me, would love to see this added too.

  • Rob says:
    9 Jul9 July 11:21

    I’ve amended the article. Amex’s PR wording was a bit woolly – it turns out that you need one credit PER PERSON and not per couple.

    • John says:
      9 Jul9 July 16:59

      Is this real Rob? No blue background

      • Rob says:
        9 Jul9 July 17:12

        Apparently if I type a reply into website (in the same way you do) rather than via the admin portal it doesn’t go blue! I noticed that too.

  • Steve says:
    9 Jul9 July 11:43

    Progress of a sort I guess, but the inference tucked away in this is that the HN benefit will be discontinued?

    • Andrew J says:
      9 Jul9 July 12:44

      Ridiculous if they think this is worth £100 a year! Without the HN credit, the card won’t stack up for me. I would never use a PP lounge as I only fly One World airlines and/or business class.

      • BBbetter says:
        9 Jul9 July 12:54

        Good, cancel the card. One less competitor for the lounge places.

        • DemiNichols says:
          9 Jul9 July 13:08

          They are not a competitor if they have airline lounge access.

      • HampshireHog says:
        9 Jul9 July 14:28

        Generally prepay is £6 per entry, so no.

    • L Allen says:
      10 Jul10 July 07:31

      Yes, I noticed that. Is the removal of the HN benefit a fact or speculation? If the latter, what’s the reasoning behind that assumption?

      • Rob says:
        10 Jul10 July 08:26

        You should generally assume that if I suggest something on HfP then it is probably true but it is not official, or is a strong industry rumour. This falls inbetween the two. I should stress that Amex is still advertising £100 of HN credit as a benefit for new cardholders though so it may stay.

  • Domo1915 says:
    9 Jul9 July 11:46

    If you’ve already paid to reserve assume no issue with cancelling and rebooking with the credits?

    Where do the credits appear or do we get an email?

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

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