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How does DragonPass Premier+ with the Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card work?

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Barclaycard has added an airport lounge access discount to its Avios Plus credit cards. You can now get discounts for yourself and your travel companions at thousands of lounges worldwide.

The discount is being offered in conjunction with DragonPass, the lounge aggregator, under its ‘DragonPass Premier+’ offering.

How does DragonPass Premier+ work?

DragonPass Premier+ lets you book lounge passes at a discounted rate of £18.50 per guest.

DragonPass Premier+

You can use lounge passes at any one of the lounges in the DragonPass network. Your lounge passes are not tied to a specific lounge or date. Thousands of lounges are available across the UK and globally.

Your DragonPass lounge passes do not guarantee you entry to a lounge. If you turn up on the day and find the lounge is full, you will be turned away.

Many lounges have a challenge at the moment with capacity, and a useful feature offered through DragonPass compared to other programmes such as Priority Pass is that you can pre-book for an additional £5 fee. This guarantees you entry at your booked time and even the combined cost of the pre-book fee and lounge pass (£23.50) is a lot less than many lounges charge on the door.

Is DragonPass Premier+ a good deal?

That depends if you already get free lounge access or not.

If you do not currently have access to a lounge program then being able to purchase lounge passes for £18.50 (£23.50 for a confirmed booking) is not bad, especially given that some lounges charge almost double for walk-in customers.

For comparison, here are some of the prices charged directly by lounges for advance bookings:

  • Aspire Heathrow Terminal 5 from £39.99
  • Plaza Premium Gatwick North from £39.60
  • Plaza Premium Edinburgh from £39.60
  • No1 Gatwick South from £34
Plaza Premium Lounge Edinburgh bar

Barclaycard believes that this is competitive with other banking products, including the HSBC Premier Mastercard which charges £20 per visit (soon to be £24) and does not allow pre-booking.

Whilst HSBC Premier’s World Elite Mastercard offers free lounge access (cardholder only, no guests), it is £195 per annum and is only available to HSBC Premier customers which requires an income of £75,000+ plus one of the following HSBC products: a mortgage, an investment, life insurance or a protection product.

In addition, the earn rate with the HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard is 1 Avios per £1 (rather than 1.5 per £1 with Barclaycards Avios Plus).

Who is eligible for DragonPass Premier+?

The DragonPass Premier+ offer is exclusive to cardholders of the Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card. If you have the basic Avios card you do not get discounted lounge access, although you can still use DragonPass independently to purchase lounge entry at non-discounted rates.

This article looks at the benefits of the Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card.

To learn more about the cards, read our Barclaycard Avios Mastercard credit card review here and our Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard credit card review here.

The new DragonPass Premier+ benefit is a new, ongoing benefit. Both new and existing cardholders get access to the discounted lounge passes.

Don’t forget that Barclays and Barclaycard are currently offering a crazy 100,000 Avios bonus when you sign up to both Barclays Premier with Barclays Avios Rewards and the Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card. You can find out more about the 100,000 Avios offer here.

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Comments (57)

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

  • JD says:
    28 Oct28 October 08:59

    Their eligibility checker for the credit card never says I’m approved. Despite me having their premier banking current account with avios rewards. I’ve never been rejected for a credit card application previously, and hold amex british airways plus CC. Have checked with equifax, which does give me an excellent credit rating. Am also a top rate tax payer, so am a bit stumped why I keep being rejected.

    Any ideas what I can do to find out why I’m not elligible?

    • Rob says:
      28 Oct28 October 09:05

      Why do you care what the checker says? Curious. Just apply and see.

      Unless you’re applying for a mortgage in the next 3 months a rejection makes literally zero difference to your credit report. You get the same ‘ding’ by getting a new mobile or utility contract or buying insurance in installments anyway.

      (Oddly, I never see people being advised not to get a new mobile phone contract if they are about to apply for a mortgage even though the impact on your credit report is the same as a failed card application.)

      • JD says:
        28 Oct28 October 09:39

        The checker doesn’t hit your credit report, unfortunately, I am expecting to apply for a mortgage, and I did get dinged by this when it first came out. All a bit frustrating.

    • Wollhouse says:
      28 Oct28 October 09:50

      I have Barclays wealth, premier w Avios and a Barclays mortgage: they gave me £200 limit and said they needed to verify my income. So far they have rejected everything about 5 times advising they need payslips. I’m retired….. the agent I finally spoke to said they cannot speak to an actual human- they have to do everything by messaging and so they can’t have an actual conversation. I was so fed up i sent a copy of my tax return- apparently this also isn’t good enough to verify my income??? So I’ve given up. So good luck trying to find out why you’re not eligible. Very painful and frustrating customer “service”. Annoying as a Mc would be useful.

      • Erico1875 says:
        28 Oct28 October 12:56

        I just uploaded a bank statement

      • lifelessordinary.xyz says:
        28 Oct28 October 16:21

        Bank Statements and P60 worked.. First attempt was 3 months of bank statements only, Refused… second attempt sent 3 months of statements and the most recent P60 and covering letter pointing out the relevant entries on the bank statements in relation to the P60 as the line items on bank statements aren’t always obvious. Being part of a bank you’d think they would know this, especially from major pension providers. Approved after 7 days. Making sure the amounts total to the net tax value of the gross earnings amount you stated on application might also be important.

  • VinZ says:
    28 Oct28 October 09:08

    I got an email even of I downgraded my card months ago.

    • Tom says:
      28 Oct28 October 09:26

      Same here. Got the email and Dragonpass membership details, despite having cancelled the card back in the summer.

      • Nigel Keya says:
        28 Oct28 October 09:55

        same here – I cancelled the card but got the email & signed up to Dragonpass yesterday

  • Jeff says:
    28 Oct28 October 09:28

    Just received my avios plus card but… I cannot add it to Apple Pay! It says that a text will be sent to my (correct) phone number for verification purposes but it never does. Anyone with same experience and how do you overcome it?

  • strowger says:
    28 Oct28 October 09:43

    Shambolic IT, much like BA and Barclays. App and website full of error messages and failures.

    £18.50 for a voucher that might work, vs £20 with Curve metal only if admitted, is a poor deal. Especially as I have zero confidence that any booking or purchase made inside Dragonpass is going to work, given all the errors it’s given trying to sign up & then sign in.

  • oldak says:
    28 Oct28 October 09:55

    For those with Amex Platinum and Barclaycard Avios Plus, which lounges does Platinum not give access to that 18.50 would be a good deal for?

    • Rhys says:
      28 Oct28 October 10:06

      Dunno! I would say ‘none’ but there are probably some niche lounges that PP doesn’t have.

      • Kevin says:
        28 Oct28 October 18:30

        It appears the difference with dragonpass lies in the restaurant and Spa offerers – I‘ve seen some free 15min massages, and a perhaps rare £15 off at a restaurant without it counting as a visit ( simply requiring you to redeem the offer).

  • janolabs says:
    28 Oct28 October 10:20

    Can I just book a slot for £5 and turn up with a Priority Pass/Amex Platinum and have a guaranteed entry for free (besides having paid the £5 to book the slot)?

    • Rob says:
      28 Oct28 October 10:52

      Someone who tried it said no.

      • BuildBackBetter says:
        28 Oct28 October 11:49

        Changing the question slightly, can we book a slot for £5 and pay at the lounge using amex plat? Wouldnt amex refund any lounge charge as long as the lounge is in its list?

        • janolabs says:
          28 Oct28 October 13:41

          I doubt. When you access lounges with Platinum, your card is not charged, just verified that it’s active.
          Also, the Premier+ app links £5 bookings to entrance fees, which seem to be inseparable indeed.

  • John T says:
    28 Oct28 October 11:13

    Good Lord surely no-one is paying £40 to access that dreadful Aspire Lounge at LHR T5….

  • PeterPepper says:
    28 Oct28 October 12:00

    Hmm…. have you seen the DragonPass reviews on Trustpilot? With 93% of 146 reviews attracting just one star, it’s not worth the hassle for me, I’m afraid.

    • Rob says:
      28 Oct28 October 12:11

      That’s meaningless though! If you buy a voucher and pay to reserve (free at some lounges inc Plaza) then you’re in. End of story. Once you understand this element you’re fine.

      I’m sure Avios has similar feedback from those who don’t understand the nuances.

    • Numpty says:
      28 Oct28 October 14:02

      from reading the reviews they are mostly regarding denied entry due to ‘full’ lounges, so you’d get the same experience with Priority Pass. Liked the reviewer who was refused access to a lounge and was off to close his current account because of it!

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