Useless lounge access

[johnverney]

I am livid with Amex. The lounge access is useless in Bristol because the lounge is so over subscribed (2nd time being here and giving up trying to get in after 30 minute wait).

Saw a restaurant that advertised an £18 reduction for food with priority pass, but it turns out not THAT priority pass that I have (the priority pass guy I just spoke to over the phone says the amex membership is stripped of everything except lounge access.. which as I’ve discovered, is useless)

I’m planning to speed up hitting my 6 k figure and exit out of this.

[johnverney]

After 1 h 30m, autocorrect typo

[e14]

Other PP holders must be finding the lounge enjoyable, maybe they got there earlier ?

[Supergers49]

Have you used up the 4x PP Pre-Books already?

[Michael C]

I asked on the door at Bristol (just before the pre-booking voucher system started) and
was told the waiting list was 3 hours to enter.

In contrast, pre-booked MAN a few weeks later and it did indeed work perfectly.

[johnverney]

Maybe I’m not happy about subsidising them? And I don’t go on a trip 6o go to a lounge. I turn up earlier I’m turning up earlier to get into a lounge(!)

[johnverney]

I need to look into this.

So far I’ve flown four times from Bristol in three months, so I don’t think it will get me far, but better than nothing

[JDB]

@MichaelC the world has gone mad! Queuing for three hours to see the Tutankhamen exhibition or to see Her Late Majesty lying in state, maybe, but queuing for the privilege of accessing some warm pinot grigio and some manky food, no thanks. Many of these lounges are so second rate that I’m not sure why anyone bothers unless it’s about swanning past the proletariat and/or why the dog licks its bits syndrome and stymied when PP imposes a queue/puts a lampshade on the dog. People will now have to arrive five hours early to flaunt their highfalutin status.

Anyway, in the brave new world of Sir Freebie and his two lovely acolytes, all this world of privileged premium travel will probably be levelled down and/or taxed more. Only those on benefits will be allowed in the lounges (and exempt from lounge tax) as others can afford to buy their own drinks and food etc.

[executiveclubber]

Political pronouncements on here always make me think of the Mark Twain quote – it is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt 🙂

[JDB]

@executiveclubber – to the extent that was aimed at me, I’m delighted to be taken for a fool. It can often be a very effective negotiating strategy when dealing with people who don’t know you! I also enjoy satire.

I’m not sure anyway that it was a political comment. I dislike hypocrisy and ineptitude in public life and I don’t care which side is involved. It has been an inauspicious start and the outlook doesn’t look promising for the travelling classes.

[NorthernLass]

Perhaps it’ll be means tested, @JDB, and if you’re deemed to be able to afford the pinot grigio you’ll be sent to Wetherspoons, where I suppose at least it’ll be warm for anyone who’s lost their winter fuel payment!

Anyway, I was shameless enough to take an economy flight from LHR-MAN last week and as I was in the process of re-qualifying for Silver, had no lounge access. I sat myself down in a rare spare seat near the lower A gates (of course when my flight was called it was departing from the other end of T5), very near where a long queue had formed for the PP lounge. I observed someone’s personal shopper (or whoever those people are) trying to jump the queue for them and getting sent to the back!

I didn’t feel hugely deprived, I have to admit.

[JDB]

@NorthernLass – well done! We too find it eminently survivable in the concourse.

@executiveclubber – if you want something vaguely political from the fool, I like the one about Sir Freebie seeing a little old lady struggling with two bags of shopping. “You shouldn’t be struggling with those two bags of shopping, let me help” he said. So he halved her pension so she could only afford one in the future.

[Michael C]

NorthernLass wrote:

Perhaps it’ll be means tested, @JDB, and if you’re deemed to be able to afford the pinot grigio you’ll be sent to Wetherspoons, where I suppose at least it’ll be warm for anyone who’s lost their winter fuel payment!

Anyway, I was shameless enough to take an economy flight from LHR-MAN last week and as I was in the process of re-qualifying for Silver, had no lounge access. I sat myself down in a rare spare seat near the lower A gates (of course when my flight was called it was departing from the other end of T5), very near where a long queue had formed for the PP lounge. I observed someone’s personal shopper (or whoever those people are) trying to jump the queue for them and getting sent to the back!

I didn’t feel hugely deprived, I have to admit.

Yes, I’ve had many a pleasant vountary pint&newspaper times on the barstools there, when lounge entry was for 2 of the 3 of us!

[Michael C]

@JDB @NorthernLass – the Plaza Premium T5 “experience” made be rethink the whole issue of lounges:
the wine was students-in-Spain-100-pesetas-per-tetra_brik gagworthy!!! Quite apart from the utterly
destroyed furniture…

[NorthernLass]

@Michael, my best friend and I used the drink the white variety of that stuff mixed with lemonade as our “pre-loading” drink on our year abroad in Tenerife in 1990-91 😂. I think it was even cheaper due to Canarias being a tax-free area!

We were also chortling at a 5L container of red wine on the bottom shelf in Mercadona for just over 5 euros last week.

Did you get chance to sample the sparkling wine on draught in the MAN lounge, or don’t they have it in the new BA section?!

[NorthernLass]

My other “LHR personal shopper” story occurred some years ago when one marched to the front of the security queue in T5 accompanied by a young man laden down with many bags from LV, Dior, etc. Security got their revenge by insisting on going through each and every bag!

[Internaut]

Supergers49 wrote:

Have you used up the 4x PP Pre-Books already?

Not all airports and lounges allow pre-booking. Bristol certainly doesn’t.

[Internaut]

executiveclubber wrote:

Political pronouncements on here always make me think of the Mark Twain quote – it is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt 🙂

Nail and head in glorious harmony.

[zapato1060]

It does beggar belief that the £15 Lloyds card allows PP lounges and restaurant credits but the £54 Plat only the former.

[JDB]

zapato1060 wrote:

It does beggar belief that the £15 Lloyds card allows PP lounges and restaurant credits but the £54 Plat only the former.

Quote

I’m not sure why it beggars belief. It’s the reality of the market. Lloyds and the other high street banks are on the up and growing in the premium credit card market whilst Amex is dumbing down its products and has been in long term decline in the UK. You have probably observed just how much Amex has to pay to acquire and retain cardholders; that’s money that could otherwise be used to improve benefits. If the Amex product were better they wouldn’t need to pay the jumbo SUBs or any retentions, so it’s a bit of a vicious circle they have created for themselves. There’s a significant element of trying to bang the US square peg into the UK round hole.

[Maples]

If the HN credits are going away next year, I wonder if the current pre-booking stuff will become permanent and be included as a proper benefit in the same line as the HN credits currently are. Not sure how I’d feel regarding that.

I was very annoyed at T4 in LHR when I couldn’t get into both the lounges there because of the waitlist or because it was only for specific airlines but it’s expected for the UK.

[Misty]

JDB wrote:

@MichaelC the world has gone mad! Queuing for three hours to see the Tutankhamen exhibition or to see Her Late Majesty lying in state, maybe, but queuing for the privilege of accessing some warm pinot grigio and some manky food, no thanks. Many of these lounges are so second rate that I’m not sure why anyone bothers unless it’s about swanning past the proletariat and/or why the dog licks its bits syndrome and stymied when PP imposes a queue/puts a lampshade on the dog. People will now have to arrive five hours early to flaunt their highfalutin status.

Anyway, in the brave new world of Sir Freebie and his two lovely acolytes, all this world of privileged premium travel will probably be levelled down and/or taxed more. Only those on benefits will be allowed in the lounges (and exempt from lounge tax) as others can afford to buy their own drinks and food etc.

Ha, Ha well I appreciate your sense of humour

I thought of you the other Saturday morning when in the lounge, at the adjacent table were four young men (I think they were men) wearing rather fetching tracksuits, complete with hoods. Three of whom had their hoods up, even though it really wasn’t cold or draughty in the lounge. To accompany this fine spectacle the lady at the next table had a screaming babe in arms, and didn’t seem to know what to do to silence the poor fellow, then she had a lightbulb moment adjusted her top clothing and proceeded to nurse him at the table, which in fairness did calm the little fellow down, so I guess all’s well that ends well.

[JDB]

Thank you @Misty – love it! If it weren’t already crystal clear, the total inappropriateness of tracksuits for premium travel was rather rammed home by the summer unrest with tracksuits appearing to be the preferred garb of many of the rioters. Fortunately they were then obliged to get themselves some ordinary suits for their court appearances only to be put back into tracksuits for their prison sojourns. So please, tracksuits for sport, rioting or prison but not in airport lounges, premium cabins or respectable hotels.

[NorthernLass]

@JDB, I fear for your mental health if you ever find yourself in one of the Escape lounges at MAN. Not only is such garb de rigueur (Burberry or Juicy Couture if you want to make a statement), you will be treated to a variety of northern accents loudly bewailing the confiscation of full-size Lynx body sprays and such like by the eagle-eyed security staff.

*If flying on an LCC, however, they may just have dressed in preparation for the rioting and prison you mention 😂

[Jan M]

I used my (new) pass twice this month, in Amsterdam and Dalaman, and both times regretted it. The food was piss poor at Schiphol and alcohol was not included at Dalaman (although to be fair, that might be for legal reasons… Just wish I had known.)