Airport lounge access

Doshwaster

TELLIT01 said:

Which has recently done a survey of UK airport lounges and basically say that none of them are worth the money.

I don't think many of the third party or pay for entry lounges are worth it (No 1, Aspire etc) but the airline operated ones are very different and are usually a good experience but you need to be a frequent flyer or paying for a premium ticket to get into them.

DullGreyGuy

TELLIT01 said:

Which has recently done a survey of UK airport lounges and basically say that none of them are worth the money.

Would take anything Which? says with a large pinch of salt. 

Really depends which lounges you are including and against what you are measuring their worth. If you are talking about Aspire etc then it really depends if you paid £50 on the door or £30 by paying in advance. Given you get the same thing then clearly one is getting better value than the other. If they can afford to sell the service to capacity for £30 then clearly it's a service priced to that point and £50 is going to be paying too much. 

There are plenty of other lounges like AmEx Centurion, Airline etc which you can get into by holding certain financial products, airline status, tickets of certain classes etc. Value on these are arguably harder to judge given no direct payment for entry but the offering is often far superior. Cathay's First lounge was using complementary vintage Krug (£400/bottle) and some of the best dim sum I've had last time I was there along with table service meal if you wanted it, free massage in their mini-spa

eDicky

Cathay's First lounge was using complementary vintage Krug (£400/bottle) and some of the best dim sum I've had last time I was there along with table service meal if you wanted it, free massage in their mini-spa

Anyone flying First with Cathay Pacific deserves no less of course - a far cry from the type of holiday extra 'lounges' in UK airports likely to have been included in the Which? survey...

jimi_man

Wonka_2 said:

As a FF it's clear in Europe that the days have gone - on most occasions I see either a sign outside the lounge saying no capacity for Credit Card/LoungePass passengers - or them being turned away (and often then going through every card in their wallet to try one.

If I take my most frequent lounge in Manchester it's now filled with people who've pre-booked/paid as part of their holiday/trip with them allowed to reserve seats leaving even the airline frequent flyers fighting for a place it sit.

That said it's part of the post-covid world and I'm grateful that the facility exists at all

BA lounges are only accessible by status, you can’t pay for them so there would never be an issue of !!!!!! being overcrowded with paying customers. That said they can still get quite busy, though at LHR T5 the B gates lounge is usually very pleasant and uncrowded. 

Wonka_2

jimi_man said:

Wonka_2 said:

As a FF it's clear in Europe that the days have gone - on most occasions I see either a sign outside the lounge saying no capacity for Credit Card/LoungePass passengers - or them being turned away (and often then going through every card in their wallet to try one.

If I take my most frequent lounge in Manchester it's now filled with people who've pre-booked/paid as part of their holiday/trip with them allowed to reserve seats leaving even the airline frequent flyers fighting for a place it sit.

That said it's part of the post-covid world and I'm grateful that the facility exists at all

BA lounges are only accessible by status, you can’t pay for them so there would never be an issue of !!!!!! being overcrowded with paying customers. That said they can still get quite busy, though at LHR T5 the B gates lounge is usually very pleasant and uncrowded. 

Agreed for the airline specific lounges - but again these are becoming less prevalent, especially in mixed airline terminals/smaller airports.

DullGreyGuy

jimi_man said:

Wonka_2 said:

As a FF it's clear in Europe that the days have gone - on most occasions I see either a sign outside the lounge saying no capacity for Credit Card/LoungePass passengers - or them being turned away (and often then going through every card in their wallet to try one.

If I take my most frequent lounge in Manchester it's now filled with people who've pre-booked/paid as part of their holiday/trip with them allowed to reserve seats leaving even the airline frequent flyers fighting for a place it sit.

That said it's part of the post-covid world and I'm grateful that the facility exists at all

BA lounges are only accessible by status, you can’t pay for them so there would never be an issue of !!!!!! being overcrowded with paying customers. That said they can still get quite busy, though at LHR T5 the B gates lounge is usually very pleasant and uncrowded. 

Depends on the lounge... Business and First can be accessed by ticket or status with BA or OneWorld partners plus those with status can bring a guest in. Concord Room can only be accessed by ticket and a tiny number of people with 5,000 tier points

Problem is that Silver, to get business access, isn't too hard to get and certain overseas credit cards come with OneWorld status equivalent to Silver hence they can be mobbed. 

jimi_man

DullGreyGuy said:

jimi_man said:

Wonka_2 said:

As a FF it's clear in Europe that the days have gone - on most occasions I see either a sign outside the lounge saying no capacity for Credit Card/LoungePass passengers - or them being turned away (and often then going through every card in their wallet to try one.

If I take my most frequent lounge in Manchester it's now filled with people who've pre-booked/paid as part of their holiday/trip with them allowed to reserve seats leaving even the airline frequent flyers fighting for a place it sit.

That said it's part of the post-covid world and I'm grateful that the facility exists at all

BA lounges are only accessible by status, you can’t pay for them so there would never be an issue of !!!!!! being overcrowded with paying customers. That said they can still get quite busy, though at LHR T5 the B gates lounge is usually very pleasant and uncrowded. 

Depends on the lounge... Business and First can be accessed by ticket or status with BA or OneWorld partners plus those with status can bring a guest in. Concord Room can only be accessed by ticket and a tiny number of people with 5,000 tier points

Problem is that Silver, to get business access, isn't too hard to get and certain overseas credit cards come with OneWorld status equivalent to Silver hence they can be mobbed. 

Sorry, I should have been clearer. My point was that you cannot just book and pay for or turn up and pay for access to a BA lounge like some others. 

Doshwaster

DullGreyGuy said:

jimi_man said:

Wonka_2 said:

As a FF it's clear in Europe that the days have gone - on most occasions I see either a sign outside the lounge saying no capacity for Credit Card/LoungePass passengers - or them being turned away (and often then going through every card in their wallet to try one.

If I take my most frequent lounge in Manchester it's now filled with people who've pre-booked/paid as part of their holiday/trip with them allowed to reserve seats leaving even the airline frequent flyers fighting for a place it sit.

That said it's part of the post-covid world and I'm grateful that the facility exists at all

BA lounges are only accessible by status, you can’t pay for them so there would never be an issue of !!!!!! being overcrowded with paying customers. That said they can still get quite busy, though at LHR T5 the B gates lounge is usually very pleasant and uncrowded. 

Depends on the lounge... Business and First can be accessed by ticket or status with BA or OneWorld partners plus those with status can bring a guest in. Concord Room can only be accessed by ticket and a tiny number of people with 5,000 tier points

Problem is that Silver, to get business access, isn't too hard to get and certain overseas credit cards come with OneWorld status equivalent to Silver hence they can be mobbed. 

The number of BA Silvers must have increased massively recently due to their Double Tier Point offer on holidays (And I'm one of those who did it)

Both of the Club lounges at Heathrow T5A need a major overhaul but they are so busy that there's never a good time to close them.  The lounge at Gatwick is much nicer