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NEW: Amex Platinum (and Bus Plat) holders can pre-book UK airport lounges for FREE

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Good news! After a successful trial last year, American Express has brought back airport lounge pre-booking to allow you to make the most of your Priority Pass benefit.

Effective immediately, holders of The Platinum Card and The American Express Business Platinum Card can pre-book selected UK airport lounges for free.

This benefit is guaranteed to run until at least the end of 2027.

Full details are on the Priority Pass website here.

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

How many lounges can you pre-book?

If you have The Platinum Card or The American Express Business Platinum Card you will have received FOUR pre-booking credits which need to be used by 31st December 2025.

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

For 2026 and 2027, you will receive EIGHT pre-booking credits on 1st January.

Here is an important point: unlike the trial last year, supplementary cardholders DO NOT receive their own pre-booking allowance.

How do you pre-book an airport lounge?

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

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

Note that, due to an IT bug, pre-booking will not be possible for some people (including myself). You will find that, irrespective of whether you use the app or website, it is impossible to enter an email address to receive the necessary 2FA code.

What is the small print?

There are a few rules to note:

  • the primary cardholder must be one of the guests – you cannot pre-book for other people if you are not there yourself
  • you can reserve a lounge slot up to three months in advance
  • pre-booking credits do NOT carry forward if unused in any calendar year
  • a credit is counted as ‘used’ at the time of booking, not the date of your visit. If you book in December 2025 for a lounge visit in January 2026, the credit is taken from your 2025 allowance.
  • pre-booking credits will be returned if the booking is cancelled more than 48 hours before arrival. Cancellations within 48 hours of arrival, or no-shows, will result in the credit being forfeited.
  • credits will not be returned, irrespective of when a booking is cancelled, if the original booking was made in the previous calendar year (eg if you book in December 2025 for a January 2026 flight and cancel the booking after 1st January 2026, the credits will not be returned)
Amex Platinum (and Bus Plat) holders can now pre-book UK airport lounges for FREE

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?

This is the list of participating lounges, with links to the relevant pre-booking page on the Priority Pass website:

Lounge NameAirport
Northern Lights LoungeAberdeen
Aspire LoungeBelfast George Best City
Aspire LoungeBirmingham International
Aspire Lounge (South)Birmingham International
No1 Lounge BirminghamBirmingham International
Aspire Lounge (Gate 16)Edinburgh
Upper DeckGlasgow
Aspire LoungeHumberside
Aspire LoungeInverness
Aspire LoungeLiverpool John Lennon
No1 Lounge Gatwick – South TerminalLondon Gatwick
No1 Lounge Gatwick – North TerminalLondon Gatwick
My Lounge – North TerminalLondon Gatwick
My Lounge – South TerminalLondon Gatwick
Club Aspire Lounge – South TerminalLondon Gatwick
No1 Lounge Heathrow – Terminal 2London Heathrow
No1 Lounge Heathrow – Terminal 3London Heathrow
My Lounge – Terminal 3London Heathrow
Club Aspire Lounge – Terminal 5London Heathrow
No1 Lounge LutonLondon Luton
My LoungeLondon Luton
Aspire Lounge – Terminal 1Manchester
Aspire Lounge – Terminal 2Manchester
Aspire LoungeNewcastle International
Spitfire LoungeSouthampton

Plaza Premium lounges are NOT available for pre-booking via Priority Pass. This is a blow but – since No1 Lounge opened in Heathrow Terminal 2 – Heathrow Terminal 4 is the only UK airport terminal where Plaza Premium is the only independent option.

Clubrooms lounges are NOT included. This is a change from the trial last year.

HfP has reviewed most of the lounges listed above. Our index of UK airport lounge reviews is here.

Conclusion

This is a good step forward for holders of The Platinum Card and The American Express Business Platinum Card.

It’s a shame not to see Plaza Premium included, especially as it would improve capacity at Heathrow Terminal 5. With many British Airways flyers losing their Silver status next April, there will be a surge of people looking to use the two independent lounges – and only Club Aspire is available via this deal.

You can find out more about the offer – and check the current list of participating lounges, if you are reading this after the original date of publication – by visiting this page of the Priority Pass website.

PS. As a reminder, click here to learn more about The Platinum Card sign-up offer of 50,000 Membership Rewards points, which converts to 50,000 Avios.

The Platinum Card from American Express

50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

The American Express Business Platinum Card

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

Category

American Express Platinum card

Comments (175)

  • Mark says:
    30 Jul30 July 13:10

    Can I use all 4 of my credits in 1 go to get a family of 4 in, then at the door my wife use her pp to guest 1 person in and I guest the other? Basically, I don’t want 4 people on 1 card to enter the lounge.

    Reply
  • Lee says:
    30 Jul30 July 13:13

    This will be of (some) benefit to us. Wife and I usually fly business so the Amex Plat PP didn’t offer much value but an upcoming Loganair Southampton to Edinburgh trip means we can try out the PP lounges. (had been in 2 minds whether to spend the 4 x £6 to guarantee lounge access – especially at SOU where I imagine the Spitfire lounge is unlikely to be crowded) but now I can pre-book for free may as well do so.

    Reply
  • Kimbo says:
    30 Jul30 July 13:37

    I’m a supplementary Platinum card holder. I’ve just a made a booking for 1 adult and 1 child for the LHR Aspire Lounge at T5. Not sure if it’s a glitch or they have removed the booking fee for children, but I have only been charged £6 for the adult. Unfortunately I can’t seem to cancel my original booking where I paid £12 because I’m not getting the verification email with 6 digit code through to allow me to do so…

    Reply
    • JimBurgessHill says:
      30 Jul30 July 13:59

      I had the same problem trying to cancel a cash booking (as had made new booking using the entitlements). I phoned and cancelled the old booking easily.
      +44 20 8680 1338

      Reply
  • Nick says:
    30 Jul30 July 14:59

    Have a flight tomorrow from Heathrow and can’t make a booking because the OTP takes about 40 mins to arrive (assuming us HFP’ers have managed to overload the system and it can’t keep up). Called up priority pass and they refused to take a booking over the phone and told me to wait 2 hours. Wouldn’t budge when I pushed them saying I need the booking for tomorrow morning and could they please book on my behalf to avoid my disappointment. They were a bit rude, but claimed they also need to the use the OTP system to making bookings on behalf of customers so couldn’t 🤷‍♂️ Will try again in a few hours

    Reply
    • Rob says:
      30 Jul30 July 15:14

      This was meant to launch on 16th with no bookings accepted until 19th. It got delayed to today so its possible that the system won’t accept bookings until 2nd – although Amex never mentioned any delay when the date was moved.

      Reply
  • brian says:
    30 Jul30 July 15:04

    “Note that, due to an IT bug, pre-booking will not be possible for some people (including myself). You will find that, irrespective of whether you use the app or website, it is impossible to enter an email address to receive the necessary 2FA code.”

    Is this the same issue that lots appear to be having with regards to not receiving a 2FA code? When asked to enter my email address I instead have it correctly prefilled and on submitting it suggests that it has sent the verification code to the correct email. Is the bug that somewhere behind the scenes no email was sent as I did not manually add my email?

    Reply
  • ColinThames says:
    30 Jul30 July 15:13

    Got the email from Amex but unable to book for free at EDI Aspire lounge. It’s wanting £12 for two. Hopefully it’ll shake out over the next few days?
    When we’re told to log in to PP with our Amex credentials what does this mean? I’ve had the same login for years but only had the most recent Bus Plat for 11 months.

    Reply
  • Voldemort says:
    30 Jul30 July 15:37

    Might be worth reaching out to your press contacts because PP is showing prebook entitlements but still trying to charge at an eligible lounge. PP via phone didn’t have a clue.

    Reply
  • byronlewis says:
    30 Jul30 July 16:14

    Can anyone confirm if I have a Business Plat and Personal Plat I get 2 lots of ‘entitlement’? They are differrent PP account numbers but bizarrely when I tried to book earlier on one account the primary e-mail from the other account showed up and I was unable to type the correct one into the box. Also i’m having issues with the OTP!!!

    Reply

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