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

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.

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 Name	Airport
Aspire Lounge	Birmingham International
Aspire Lounge (South)	Birmingham International
No1 Lounge Birmingham	Birmingham International
Clubrooms Birmingham	Birmingham International
Aspire Lounge	Inverness
Aspire Lounge	Humberside
Aspire Lounge	Liverpool John Lennon
Aspire Lounge – Terminal 1	Manchester
Aspire Lounge – Terminal 2	Manchester
Aspire Lounge	Newcastle International
Aspire Lounge (Gate 4)	Edinburgh
Aspire Lounge (Gate 16)	Edinburgh
Aspire Lounge	Belfast City
No1 Lounge Heathrow – Terminal 3	London Heathrow
Club Aspire Lounge – Terminal 3	London Heathrow
Club Aspire Lounge – Terminal 5	London Heathrow
No1 Lounge Gatwick – South Terminal	London Gatwick
No1 Lounge Gatwick – North Terminal	London Gatwick
Clubrooms Gatwick North	London Gatwick
Clubrooms Gatwick South	London Gatwick
My Lounge – South Terminal	London Gatwick
Club Aspire Lounge – South Terminal	London Gatwick
No1 Lounge Luton	London 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.

---

How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (September 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 1,500 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.

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

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Platinum is increased to up to 80,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 80,000 Avios. You will receive 8 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

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.

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.

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