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New Aspire lounge at Edinburgh Airport now open

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The new Aspire lounge at Edinburgh Airport opened roughly on schedule this week – a remarkable feat given how often such projects are delayed.

Now that this is open the existing Aspire lounge at Gate 4 will be refurbished in the new year. Once it re-opens, Edinburgh Airport will have two Aspire lounges.

new Aspire lounge edinburgh airport

We will be reviewing the new lounge in the next few weeks.  Some early-bird readers have already sent us some photos of the space, however.  The new lounge is in what I understand is a new part of the terminal. It is near Gate 16, on an upper floor next to the new No 1 Lounge which we reviewed here.

It looks very classy:

new Aspire lounge Edinburgh airport

There appears to be an extensive range of different seating areas:

new Aspire lounge Edinburgh airport

and

new Aspire lounge Edinburgh airport

…. although apparently the food is the same as in the existing lounge.

The lounge is already available via Priority Pass. You can see more on the lounge website here. It is open from 04:30 until 21:00.


Getting airport lounge access for free from a credit card

How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (April 2025)

Here are the five options to get FREE airport lounge access via a UK credit card.

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with two free Priority Pass cards, one for you and one for a supplementary cardholder. Each card admits two so a family of four gets in free. You get access to all 1,500 lounges in the Priority Pass network – search it here.

You also get access to Eurostar, Lufthansa and Delta Air Lines lounges.  Our American Express Platinum review is here.

You can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for the first year. It comes with a Priority Pass card loaded with four free visits to any Priority Pass lounge – see the list here.

Additional lounge visits are charged at £24.  You get four more free visits for every year you keep the card.  

There is no annual fee for Amex Gold in Year 1 and you get a 20,000 points sign-up bonus.  Full details are in our American Express Preferred Rewards Gold review here.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard gets you get a free Priority Pass card, allowing you access to the Priority Pass network.  Guests are charged at £24 although it may be cheaper to pay £60 for a supplementary credit card for your partner.

The card has a fee of £290 and there are strict financial requirements to become a HSBC Premier customer.  Full details are in my HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard review.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard

A good package, but only available to HSBC Premier clients Read our full review

Got a small business?

If you have a small business, consider American Express Business Platinum which has the same lounge benefits as the personal Platinum card:

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

You should also consider the Capital on Tap Pro Visa credit card which has a lower fee and, as well as a Priority Pass for airport lounge access, also comes with Radison Rewards VIP hotel status:

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

PS. You can find all of HfP’s UK airport lounge reviews – and we’ve been to most of them – indexed here.

Comments (114)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Lyn says:

    Another O/T – re Holiday Inn Express at T4.

    Thanks for the review, Rob, along with the Crowne Plaza. Also thanks to commenters for advice about the TfL train from T4 to T4.

    We were surprised at how pleasant the hotel was. Really good, helpful customer service and a very quiet room on the 6th (top) floor with a better view of plane activity than from any airport lounge.

  • Grimz says:

    OT, Does anyone know if it’s safe to move Avios into AER club via Avios.com after the recent delays? I want to move some out before I book a flight but I don’t need a delay getting the Avios back into BA household account.

    • guesswho2000 says:

      No ongoing delays afaik – there was an outage, and then Avios.com’s CMA website died, but you could still pull Avios from Avios.com using BAEC, just couldn’t push them (that’s how I moved mine over, so first hand experience or it working).

  • Andy says:

    I think on BA, all business fares paid in cash get full TPs. The avios will differ though depending on the fare class.

  • ayearinmx says:

    OT: just flown the Evelop LGW-JFK replacement planes…. not a great experience. Old planes with 18 total movies and six TV series. Had the annoying (for me) foot rests where in the up position, they bash your shins and in the down position they are just too short.
    The only benefit for me was they swapped the 3-4-3 into a 2-4-2 and that meant me and a friend could get window/aisle seats as opposed to middle ones.

  • Paul Anderson says:

    Was in the new Aspire lounge at Edinburgh airport this morning. At 5am there were only 4 other people in the lounge. I doubt that will last long and it will soon get busy. Breakfast was the same as the older lounge with bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs and beans all available as the hot options. Fruit and cereals for the cold option. Both the new Aspire and the No1 lounge say they have runway views, which is technically true, but there are so many walkways and the new arrivals hall in front of the windows that the views are mostly obscured. Good comfortable seating and a much more contemporary vibe than the traditional Aspire lounges you find in airports. Good to have loos inside this Aspire lounge as well.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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