Airport lounges are one of the best parts of the pre-flight experience. If your flight ticket doesn’t include airport lounge access and you don’t have elite airline status, you don’t have to settle for an uncomfortable seat with an overpriced coffee. That’s where lounge passes come in!
The main lounge pass options are Priority Pass and DragonPass, as detailed in our article about lounge access with lounge passes. Priority Pass is one of the most popular lounge pass providers in the UK. You can access 1,700 airport lounges and experiences worldwide!
It doesn’t matter which airline you’re flying or which class of ticket you hold. If you’ve got a Priority Pass membership, you can access participating lounges across the globe.
As a new customer, you can now save up to 30% on membership plans using our link. Get your pass here.
In this post:
Priority Pass Lounges
If you’re unfamiliar with airport lounges, you may wonder what’s so good about them. I love having everything in one place, stress-free, without the added costs you would most likely end up with outside of the lounge. Lounge access includes complimentary food and drink, comfortable seating, and screens that display departure times. If you love a calm wait for your flight or you just want somewhere to work with solid power outlets, lounges are a great option.
In most Priority Pass lounges, you’ll find*:
- Complimentary drinks, including alcohol and snacks (some lounges charge extra for things like Champagne).
- Buffet-style meals or à la carte menus
- Free Wi-Fi and plenty of power outlets – no restrictions on time usage!
- Quiet areas to relax, work or nap
- Comfy seating
- Conference rooms
- Showers
- Newspapers, magazines and flight info screens
- Runway views from some lounges
*Facilities vary by lounge. You can look at the exact facilities of each lounge on the Priority Pass app.
Lounges are suited to all traveller types. If you’re travelling for work, you can take advantage of fast Wi-Fi, quiet spaces to work, and even private meeting rooms in select lounges.
If you have children, you can often find high chairs, family rooms, and a relaxing space with everything you need to wait for your flight. For everyone else, it’s simply the best way to unwind, escape airport chaos, and start your journey on the right foot.
Priority Pass lounges are usually owned by independent companies like Plaza Premium, not by Priority Pass or airlines. However, selected airline lounges are available at some locations. Some of these are top airline lounges and there may be time restrictions. For example, the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse at JFK is available from 5:00-1:30 daily.
Priority Pass Membership Plans: Which One is Best for You?
There are three membership plans available. The benefits you will receive and the number of lounges you can access are the same for all plans. The only difference is the number of visits that come with your pass.
You will need to use our link for the above discounts.
The best plan for you ultimately depends on how often you travel. You also need to consider things like whether there is a lounge at your departure and return airports. You should also consider layovers, as these are a nice chance to squeeze in an extra lounge visit!
Here are the plans available:
Prestige Plan
Cost: £419 per year (currently 10% off – £377)
This is the most comprehensive plan and includes unlimited free member lounge visits during your membership year. The Prestige Plan can pay for itself quickly. For example, if you went on 12 return flights in a year, each lounge visit would work out at £15.70.
Looking at the value another way, you’re paying just £31.42 per month for unlimited lounge access!
You should really be planning 16 visits in a year to make the Prestige Plan worthwhile vs the Standard Plus plan. This makes each visit £23.56 (cheaper than the £24 entry fee with the other plans after your allowance has been used).
Standard Plus Plan
Cost: £229 per year (currently 20% off – £183)
This plan comes with 10 free lounge visits during your membership year. Visits after your 10 free visits, access will be £24.
You could use 10 lounge visits on 5 return trips per year and benefit from lounges at your departure and return airports. Each of your 10 visits would cost £18.30, and even with the £24 fee per visit after you’ve used your 10 visits, you’ll save on what the entry fee would have been with a single-use pass. For example, a single-use pass for a No.1 lounge is, on average, £38.
This should be your go-to plan for 6 visits or more. Even though 6 visits would waste 4 of your ‘free’ visits, you would still get each visit for £30.50 with this pass. You then have the flexibility of 4 additional lounge visits. In comparison, 6 lounge visits with the Standard Plan would be £192.
Standard Plan
Cost: £69 per year (currently 30% off – £48)
This pass does not give you ‘free’ airport lounge access. Instead, you will be eligible for heavily discounted lounge access on a pay-as-you-go basis of £24 per visit. 30% off is a great discount!
This should be your go-to plan if you plan to visit 5 or fewer lounges in a year. Add up the cost of individual entries and the Standard Plan to see which is better value.
How to Purchase a Priority Pass Membership
- Visit the Priority Pass site
- Choose your plan – Standard, Standard Plus or Prestige.
- Use the 30% discount (new customers).
- Download the Priority Pass app and look through the lounges.
- Show your digital membership card for immediate access (subject to availability) or pre-book your lounges.
UK Priority Pass Lounges
There are plenty of choices in the UK and abroad, but since many of our readers regularly fly out of London, here are the options:
Heathrow Terminal 2
- Plaza Premium
- No.1 Lounge
Heathrow Terminal 3
- No.1 Lounge
- Club Aspire
Heathrow Terminal 4
- Blush by Plaza Premium
- Plaza Premium
Heathrow Terminal 5
- Club Aspire
- Plaza Premium
Gatwick North Terminal
- Plaza Premium
- No.1 Lounge
- Clubrooms
- Plaza Premium
Gatwick South Terminal
- No.1 Lounge
- Club Aspire
- MyLounge
- Clubrooms
Other UK Priority Pass Lounges
Aberdeen: Northern Lights Executive Lounge
Belfast City: Aspire Lounge
Belfast International: Causeway Lounge
Birmingham: Aspire Lounge – Aspire Lounge (South) – Clubrooms – No1 Lounge
Bristol: Escape Lounge
East Midlands: Escape Lounge
Exeter: The Executive Lounge
Edinburgh: Aspire Lounge (Gate 16) – Plaza Premium Lounge
Glasgow: Upper Deck Lounge – Lomond Lounge
Humberside: Aspire Lounge
Inverness: Aspire Lounge
Leeds Bradford: The Yorkshire Lounge
Liverpool: Aspire Lounge
London Luton: No.1 Lounge – My Lounge
London Southend: Skylife Lounge
London Stansted: Escape Lounges
Manchester: 1903 Lounge (T2) – Aspire Lounge (T1, T2) – Escape Lounge (T1, T2, T3)
Newcastle: Aspire Lounge
Newquay: Executive Lounge
Norwich: Executive Lounge
Southampton: Spitfire Lounge
Teesside: Rockliffe Lounge
You can view all our airport lounge reviews here >>>
Other Things to Note
Guests
You can bring guests into the lounge for the visit fee stated, and their visit will be charged to your payment card. The visit fee is usually £24.
Additional Fees
A handful of lounges charge an additional entry fee in addition to your usual membership access. This applies to all membership plans and is always clearly stated in the Priority Pass app, so you’ll know before you go.
An additional fee will be charged upon entry and applies to all membership plans. The fee will not be charged immediately; your registered card will be billed at a later date.
Time Limits
Most lounges allow a maximum of 3 hours, but they all have specific policies. Depending on how busy the lounge is, you may be able to stay if your flight is delayed.
Subject to Availability
Some lounges are available to pre-book for around £6 per person. You can view the cost of reserving your preferred lounge in the app. Others only accept Priority Pass members as walk-ins, meaning entrance is not guaranteed – not ideal!
The Added Benefits of Having a Priority Pass Membership
A Priority Pass membership has so many ‘hidden’ benefits. Once you’ve downloaded the app and bought your membership, you’ll have access to a range of benefits via the app. Some of these even extend to outside the airport.
Additional app benefits include:
- Order duty-free ahead of time via the Priority Pass App at selected airports
- Complimentary membership for the premium fitness app – WithU (currently valued at £119.88)
- Complimentary drinks and snacks and select restaurant entitlements:
- Entitlement to a variety of well-being packages with Be Relax Spas before a flight
- Purpose-built gaming stations at select lounges through Game Space.
- Pre-order take-out from more than 485 cafes and restaurants across the US and UK and pay-as-you-go food and drink takeaway options before a flight
- Pre-book private airport transfers at over 1,100 airports
- Access to over 50,000 car rental locations with bookings at preferential rates
This makes the membership even better value for money.
Get 30% Off Your Lounge Pass
With this discount of up to 30%, Priority Pass memberships now start at £48. If you’re a frequent flyer, unlimited lounge access for £377 is a great deal. This offer is valid until 31 December 2025. Considering most pay-on-the-day lounges are in the £35-£45 range, your membership can easily end up paying for itself.
Even if you use lounges only a few times a year, the experience is well worth the cost, especially when flying at peak times or on long-haul routes. The more you travel and use the lounges, the more affordable your pass will be.
Get Your Priority Pass Membership at Up to 30% Off Here >>>
This article has been sponsored by Priority Pass.
7 comments
You can definitely tell the article is sponsored as it doesn’t mention the high chance that you will be unable to enter many lounges due to overcrowding!
It took me nearly a year to use just 4 passes due to the number of times we were turned away as the lounge was full or priority for the airline customers
I can understand your frustration, but you can gain access if you pre-book, like you would if you were going to a busy restaurant or something similar.
Priority Pass membership for £400 isn’t good value – if you are travelling that often it’s hard to see that you would need the membership – by then you should have frequent flyer benefits. I’d recommend paying as you go.
In any case, the paid for lounge offering is generally not as good as premium airline operated lounges.
Sponsored advertorials like this don’t provide any independent material and are of little interest to readers trying to “turn left for less”.
I beg to differ. Sponsored posts are exactly why TLFL are able to constantly bring you valuable articles for free!
The Priority Pass value is subjective to the user. It’s a shame you haven’t seen much benefit but we know plenty of our readers do.
Never been able to use it at Edinburgh. Always full as it accepts bookings too. So unless you’re a business class customer, you don’t get in. And if you are business in Edinburgh, then you can usually use the BA lounge. I’ve used Drsgon pass more often in Europe.
Hi Frances, have you tried pre-booking before to reserve a space before?
We recently used the 100,000 MR points offer to obtain our first platinum cards in our 10 year AMEX history as we felt that with a more than 2 year AMEX MR gap now was the time to take the plunge – we obtained 150,000 Avios from one card, 120,000 Avios from the other and a lot of dining credit. Alongside this we cancelled the cards and obtained each tranche of Avios for about £150 for each card with pro rata refunds. Alongside this we dined at the Ivy with dining credit of about £300.
We also obtained 2 Priority (one main pass and one supplementary) passes via Amex which allowed us to bring in a guest each so a family of 4 could enter each lounge – I do believe this isn’t mentioned in the review but HfP does mention this specific benefit.
Now – was it worth it? On a recent family Easter trip to Singapore, Ko Samui and Singapore before returning home we visited the No 1 Lounge at T2, the SATS lounge at Changi, the Ko Samui lounge and then the Marhaba at Changi. Were they worth it? No 1 Lounge had a great ambiance, the SATS lounge at Changi was okay (you could pour your own drinks which I always appreciate but it was 9am so I didn’t!), the Ko Samui lounge was okay as it was the only air conditioned room at the airport (if you haven’t been it’s a lovely airport and everything is outdoors) and then on the return morning journey we were turned away from the Changi SATS lounge as it was full (my preferred option) and sent to the Marhaba lounge instead which was in all honest opinions below average – although you could self pour but once again it was 8am so I didn’t.
My overall conclusion? If it comes for “free” with your platinum card that’s great and the timing of our applications suited our purpose, but I wouldn’t go out of the way to enter a PP lounge. As others have suggested, you could be better in a terminal bar/cafe and it could be a better experience – I hope that helps. The Avios we’ve earned have just managed to book us a flight next year for a family of four back to Singapore at Easter so our strategy has worked out very well for us (I believe dynamic pricing is coming for Avios so we’ve earned and now burned!) – anyway, those are my thoughts, happy to hear other opinions. If you fly very often for work (we don’t) then the PP could work very well for you.