Small correction: No1 Lounges have had this option for some time. Previously it was all done through here.
A lot of airport lounges that are part of priority pass are having issues with overcrowding, this has caused some lounges to leave the program or limit when Priority Pass members can access the lounge. No1 Lounge’s who operate a number of lounges in various UK airports are trying something different. You can pay £5 (roughly $6.5) to reserve your space at the lounge, the fee is per person so if you’re bringing guests you’ll need to pay it for each guest. Pre-booking is done via the Priority Pass website.
This is similar to a solution that I suggested for Centurion Lounges, although the key difference is that I said a set amount of entries should be guaranteed as part of membership and then after that access should still be available for free on a capacity basis. This is more or less the same idea, but without any entries guaranteed for free. I do also find it interesting that Priority Pass is providing the back end to pre book the lounge visits, that either indicates that they plan to offer this to other lounges or that they couldn’t afford to lose these lounges. The lounges affected are:
- Birmingham (BHX)
- No1 Lounge
- London-Gatwick (LGW)
- My Lounge (North Terminal)
- No1 Lounge (North Terminal)
- No1 Lounge (South Terminal)
- London-Heathrow (LHR)
- No1 Lounge (Terminal 3)
Hat tip to TPG
If reservation fees become the norm than Priority Pass Membership becomes a more of a discount card. I would be down a good number reservation fees for delayed flight connections as well.
When are peak hours at Heathrow? If I have a mid week T3 departure at 17:30 would I be wise to reserve? Also, is the No1 better than Aspire?
I’m OK with this, because I’d rather use PP and pay a small fee to get in a decent lounge than to deal with the absolute crap PP choices in the US right now.
Pretty absurd imo.
Not sure this is actually new. A reservation and fee was required for all Priority Pass lounges that I tried to access at Manchester airport last summer as well. And I was told only English PP holders had a way to pay the reservation fee, not American PP holders. So maybe that part has changed.
I’m not an every week traveler, but do travel a decent amount, but have yet to actually use PP at a lounge. The ones I come across are usually bursting at the seams and it ironically seems less crowded at the gate. I hope they continue to add more restaurant options, because one can usually find a seat with a little personal space at those. Minute Suites is also a good option especially if they’ll let you stack your PP accounts back to back.
No one is at the ones in Aruba. Air Canada Lounge at CDG was empty when I went there.
Back end support surprised me as well. I think there’ll soon be more that requires pre-booking, maybe some for free but it does seem like the way they’re going for.
Why doesn’t Priority Pass just pay them more per person. If you are going to have to pay to get in lounges even with Priority Pass what is the point of having the lounges?
This is to control the crowd. Few of the PP folks will not want to pay the extra fees which may bring the crowing issue down. If PP pays the fees, it makes no sense to put this charge.
Priority Pass space availability has become more and more an issue especially around peek travel hours.