Airport lounges, anyone use them? More specifically T1 Manchester?

alx · 8 Jan 2015 at 09:04

Amp34 said:
BA lounge at T5 is huge, has a buffet hot food area, dozens of wine and spirit options and large comfortable seats. BA lounge at Gatwick (South?) was muc smaller and didn't have hot food but was comfortable and plenty of soft and hard drinks. Servisair lounges on the other hand always seem to be small, packed and grotty with a choice of some biscuits and crisps for food (And signs saying you'll be charged if you take them out the lounge.

As already said the better lounges appear to be be those run by the airlines, the third party ones aren't worth it, unless you get them as a free perk with a card or affiliation.

Yeah the BA T5 lounge is pretty decent, was with my gf there once and she couldn't believe it was all free

. I also like the SuperYacht World magazine they usually have there as well

.

randomshenans · 8 Jan 2015 at 09:10

T5 has many lounges! You have a north and south lounge which are pretty big and then if you go to a different gate set (like the B/Cs which you shuttle to) they have lounges too.

JFK Admiral lounge is poor. You get a voucher for one free drink and no food. Boston's lounge is also pretty poor, but the airport in general doesn't have much to offer.

The BA lounge at Newcastle is really nice actually. Same sort of setup as most BA lounges but in Newcastle I didn't expect it to be so fancy. Ha.

Skidder · 8 Jan 2015 at 09:11

I recently got bumped up from BA silver, which I've been for years, to gold and even though the normal business lounge at T5 is good, the first lounge has much better food which you can have made to order and champagne and more drink choices. Which of course is absolutely no use to the OP. I've never paid for lounge access, I'd be more inclined to find a good restaurant and draw out a meal and drinks.

jkb · 8 Jan 2015 at 09:13

randomshenans said:
The BA lounge at Newcastle is really nice actually. Same sort of setup as most BA lounges but in Newcastle I didn't expect it to be so fancy. Ha.

That's the one thing I miss about flying KLM, they use the Aspire lounge at Newcastle and it is full of holidaymakers. However the Crown lounge at Schiphol and Privium more than make up for it

randomshenans · 8 Jan 2015 at 09:14

My mate's gold. He rubs it in all the time when he sits down and orders a proper meal. You can get Champagne in the Club lounges though on BA, you just need to ask for it from the staff.
I'm going to be 20 points short of keeping my silver by April 30th, but have flight to the US 4th May, so I'll see if they'll let me have that.

Skidder · 8 Jan 2015 at 09:15

randomshenans said:
My mate's gold. He rubs it in all the time when he sits down and orders a proper meal. You can get Champagne in the Club lounges though on BA, you just need to ask for it from the staff.
I'm going to be 20 points short of keeping my silver by April 30th, but have flight to the US 4th May, so I'll see if they'll let me have that.

one of my partners was in a similar boat last year and they were nice about it

I probably won't keep gold this year unless I get some Asia work

Russinating · 8 Jan 2015 at 09:18

Quartz said:
How do you find out what the lounges offer?

Search for them. My access is through Lounge Club and they list facilities and descriptions etc. They tend to be the cheapest/non-exclusive ones as well so if you just want to turn up and pay then check out www.loungeclub.com.

If you travel a fair amount then you get free membership to the above with Amex Gold.

Rotty · 8 Jan 2015 at 09:29

Used both, the Aspire lounge is nicer but I use the other one (Servisair) as the booze is self service

Amp34 · 8 Jan 2015 at 11:16

randomshenans said:
T5 has many lounges! You have a north and south lounge which are pretty big and then if you go to a different gate set (like the B/Cs which you shuttle to) they have lounges too.

JFK Admiral lounge is poor. You get a voucher for one free drink and no food. Boston's lounge is also pretty poor, but the airport in general doesn't have much to offer.

The BA lounge at Newcastle is really nice actually. Same sort of setup as most BA lounges but in Newcastle I didn't expect it to be so fancy. Ha.

True. I was talking specifically about the club lounge. I'm guessing the first class and Concorde lounges are even better.

Amp34 · 8 Jan 2015 at 11:30

Russinating said:
Search for them. My access is through Lounge Club and they list facilities and descriptions etc. They tend to be the cheapest/non-exclusive ones as well so if you just want to turn up and pay then check out www.loungeclub.com.

If you travel a fair amount then you get free membership to the above with Amex Gold.

Amex gold only gives you two passes a year. You need platinum for unlimited which charges £450 a year.