Frequent Flyer Lounge Access worldwide

arroli

Looking to buy an annual pass for hubby who flies worldwide, using different airport lounges

Has anyone experience or recommendations for any companies to use, offers or codes to buy etc?

thanks

Caz3121

check which lounges are at the airports he flies regularly from. eg If he goes from Heathrow T5, there are no paid lounges in the terminal so any pass would be useless.
I have only used Priority Pass, had it free with a paid Amex Platinum. It was ok but as I travel regularly I have access to most lounges that I use with status.

mat5664

Amex Plat charge card gives you Cathay Gold status which will get access to BA lounges, including T5 + you also get a priority pass card for other lounges.

budgetflyer

Cathay Gold Status is being binned after Feb 2014 so if you are going to apply for the Platinum card, need to do it sharpish.

Some other changes are outlined at http://www.headforpoints.com/2013/12/05/amex-platinum-dropping-american-airlines-and-us-airways-lounge-access/

silvercar

Airport angels, but again look at where the lounges are situated.

arroli

He normally flies Qatar Airways and is a silver card holder - however, just recently they have allianced themselves to One World lounges, which has different levels of qualifying status, and is no longer allowed access unless he travels business class.

Mainly uses Doha, Manchester and Madrid airports - it may be easier just to buy personal lounge access each day it is required as different companies offering lounge passes do not all operate from these airports

Doshwaster

arroli wrote: »

He normally flies Qatar Airways and is a silver card holder - however, just recently they have allianced themselves to One World lounges, which has different levels of qualifying status, and is no longer allowed access unless he travels business class.

Yeah, Qatar Silver is equivalent to One World Ruby or British Airways Bronze which doesn't bestow alliance-wide lounge access. However with more ways to earn points now Qatar in One World maybe he could work to make the next tier. I don't fly for work much these days but when I did I always tried to book my business trips to maximise the number of points I got towards status.

I've never been that tempted by the lounge membership schemes such as the Priority Pass and many of the pay-per-entry ones aren't really worth it.

InsideInsurance

mat5664 wrote: »

Amex Plat charge card gives you Cathay Gold status which will get access to BA lounges

Only if you are flying with a One World carrier. You cant access the lounges with your Marco Polo Gold if you are flying by a non One World carrier.

If he is really flying that much with such a limited number of airlines/ airports it really cannot be long before he achieves status to allow him to access anyway.

Airport Angels and Priority Pass are both fairly similar but Priority Pass is slightly wider accepted. Had a bad experience with Airport Angels when it was refused access with the lounge saying they'd withdrawn from the scheme. 2 months it took for Angel to admit they had lost the contract and 2 months after that it was still advertised on their website and app as being part of their network.

If he isnt flying that much then paying on use may be better and there are plenty of ways of getting discounts.

As others have said, there are financial services products that give access (full or limited) as part of the package. Probably the top one is the AmEx Platinum (charge card not cashback credit card) but it carries a #450 a year fee, if you travel a lot, like travelling business class etc then it can easily pay for itself. If you are more an occasional traveller and prefer cheap'n'cheerful then its not cost effective.