Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Priority Pass adds new airport lounges in Manchester, Glasgow and Bristol

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

Three bits of airport lounge news:

Priority Pass adds a new option at Manchester Airport

Historically, Manchester Airport has tied with London Gatwick for the airport which generates most reader complaints from Priority Pass cardholders about ‘no room at the inn’.

The situation is better than it was, to be fair. The Club Aspire and Clubrooms lounges are now open again in Gatwick South and the addition of Plaza Premium seems to have reduced the strain on Gatwick’s North Terminal.

Some relief is also now in sight at Manchester – if you’re willing to pay.

The 1903 Lounge in Terminal 2 has joined the programme. 1903 is the ‘exclusive’ brand at Manchester Airport – so exclusive that it has a dress code. The Priority Pass app says the dress code is ‘smart casual’ whilst the website says ‘casual and elegant’ – take your pick!

An additional fee must be paid on the door if you enter with a Priority Pass. Oddly it doesn’t say what this fee is but I am guessing it is £15.

Rhys reviewed the new 1903 Lounge in Terminal 2 here. It is open from 4am to 8.30pm. Image below.

The 1903 Lounge website is here if you want to learn more or book for cash. Priority Pass cardholders can also pre-book 1903 via this site for £21 although I was struggling to find available slots when I checked yesterday.

1903, by the way, references the year that the Wright brothers made their first flight.

1903 lounge Manchester Airport T2 joins Priority Pass

The 1903 Lounge in Bristol has also joined

The 1903 Lounge at Bristol Airport – the old Aspire Plus lounge – has also joined Priority Pass.

Slightly confusingly, Manchester Airport is now running the lounges at Bristol Airport even though it doesn’t own the airport. The old Aspire Lounge is now an Escape Lounge (our last review is here) and the old Aspire Plus lounge is now a 1903 ‘luxury’ lounge (old review here).

As with Manchester, access to the 1903 Lounge will require payment of an additional fee on the door. The fee is not stated but I am guessing it is £15. Current opening hours are 3.30am to 7.30pm.

Note that the Bristol – but not Manchester – 1903 Lounge is ‘adults only’.

Both of these lounges are due a full refurbishment in 2024. Whether it is worth paying the premium to use your Priority Pass at 1903 before the refurbishment is therefore questionable.

Lomond Lounge Glasgow joins Priority Pass

Meanwhile in Glasgow ….

The Lomond Lounge at Glasgow Airport has also joined Priority Pass as a ‘premium’ option.

It is important to note that no walk-ins are accepted. You must pre-book your visit here and pay an additional fee of £16 at the time.

Current opening hours are 4.45am to 6pm. No children are allowed in the lounge via cash bookings, although some will be there if they are flying business class on certain airlines.

Rhys was VERY impressed by the Lomond Lounge when he reviewed it in 2019 – click here.

You can pre-book your slot on the Glasgow Airport website here.

The Upperdeck Lounge, reviewed here, remains available for Priority Pass cardholders who don’t want to pay an extra fee.

PS. Glasgow has also gained a Priority Pass restaurant deal, Bird & Signet. I have added it to our Priority Pass UK restaurant master list here, which also explains how these deals work.

PPS. You can see ALL of our UK airport lounge reviews on this page

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

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.

Category

General

Comments (28)

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

  • Joseph Heenan says:
    28 Dec28 December 04:24

    Rhys’s review of the Glasgow Lomond Lounge is unfortunately now quite out of date.

    I think it is fair to presume that the original vision of the lounge as a high end lounge has failed to cover costs. Its primary use is now as the lounge for KLM and one more airline that escapes me right now.

    I was in there a couple of months ago and whilst it’s definitely better than the upperdeck lounge the food options have been severely cut back since Rhys’s review – e.g. there’s no orderable food options at all now. The WiFi is the standard (really quite bad/annoying) free airport WiFi. I think you’d struggle to justify it being worth £16 per person extra for most people.

    • Iain says:
      28 Dec28 December 13:54

      UpperDeck has a maximum of 4 alcoholic drink vouchers (that’s Scotland for you!).

      • RK228 says:
        28 Dec28 December 14:25

        Not sure if it was a Christmas thing, but my wife and I got vouchers for eight drinks each last week at Upperdeck. It was an early-morning flight though, so I only used them for one Bloody Mary and returned the rest to the front desk.

    • His Holyness says:
      28 Dec28 December 14:33

      Lufthansa. It’s still much better than Upper Deck, which has no not food. There’s curry, cottage pie, pasta- all BA pax favourites. That’s “Galleries First” levels of catering. Cottage pie is an upgrade.

  • No longer Entitled says:
    28 Dec28 December 04:34

    Manchester 1903 used to be adults only. Children were only permitted if they were the guest of an airline with a corresponding ticket in a suitable class. Their website indicates that this is still the case although the article indicates otherwise.

    • Novice says:
      28 Dec28 December 08:01

      Last time I was there, it was totally packed and didn’t feel premium at all due to the fact.

      There was just one member of staff taking orders but you had to basically queue near the kitchen counter and give her your order.

      I don’t understand how having more people use it is going to be a good thing.

    • TimM says:
      28 Dec28 December 08:25

      Yes, the original 1903 lounge (T3) was adults-only. I would be surprised if this policy has been relaxed at some venues and not others.

      It is worrying that Manchester Airport Group is extending its tentacles even further. If they start exporting their Cell-Block H security to other UK airports, it will be the end of international travel.

  • daveinitalia says:
    28 Dec28 December 06:30

    I was on a delayed and then cancelled BA flight out of Newcastle yesterday and so I had time to talk to the people working in the Aspire lounge. As the press reports mention this is going to become a three tier lounge. The bits that were previously the ex-BA lounge are now fully refurbished and open and it’s a massive improvement. The food is currently still the same, but hopefully will improve when it’s fully open. The plan is that once the lounge is fully open that the bit which used to belong to BA will become the business lounge and will be generally used by airlines a the bar there will become self service. Once the refurb of the original Aspire area is finished in a few months that will go back to being a tended bar and the top tier section of the lounge will be used by Emirates and anyone who will pay the extra.

  • Nick G says:
    28 Dec28 December 07:43

    What BA Amex Gold PP lounges can I use for free at Manchester these days?!

  • wacca-wacca says:
    28 Dec28 December 09:47

    Bit confused. I would have been allowed into Bristol 1803 using my Amex Plat if had been open or if I arrived earlier. They said my card was OK to enter, but they was close to closing time so said I could not enter based on that.

  • LittleNick says:
    28 Dec28 December 10:11

    So Priority Pass is just becoming a scheme where lounge access is discounted these days. Ok I’m exaggerating but seems the trend

    • BBbetter says:
      28 Dec28 December 10:49

      Thats not an exaggeration. I’d be surprised if the model doesnt change that way.
      Whats interesting is how long Amex PP is going to lag behind.
      @Rob, is PP paying a higher fee to access plaza premium nowadays? Or did Plaza premium buckle under pressure after loss of revenue from PP?

    • Tariq says:
      28 Dec28 December 13:20

      It would probably be good for expectation management if they did frame it that way.

      • Rob says:
        28 Dec28 December 15:06

        Except there are 1,000 lounges and only 30 charge for reservations.

        • LittleNick says:
          28 Dec28 December 16:52

          Do you not think that this number will increase?

          • Rob says:
            28 Dec28 December 16:59

            Some US ones may do it, but outside the UK and US you will virtually never have issues getting into a PP lounge and so no-one would pay (except a few Brits or Americans who expect PP lounges to be equally rammed outside their home countries and then kick themselves for paying £6 to reserve a slot in an empty lounge).

            I can literally only think of one occasion, ever, in three decades when I’ve not got into a PP lounge outside the UK and that is Salzburg on a Saturday at the peak of the ski season – and the lounge only seats around 40, which is fewer than the number of qualifying passengers on a BA flight at that time of year I would suspect.

  • Josh B says:
    28 Dec28 December 12:24

    Lomond at GLA was lovely when opened and they put in a decent investment but sadly it was just before Covid and was then shut for a lot of the pandemic so it’s unsurprising that it’s declined somewhat!
    1903 at BRS is ok but isnt worth much of a premium in my view. It’s small and cramped and the drinks options are only marginally better than the other lounge.
    Agree with LittleNick who notes that these lounge memberships are fast becoming effectively PAYG discounted schemes and increasingly represent poor value! Another example of the shitification of everything 🙄

  • The real Swiss Tony says:
    28 Dec28 December 13:28

    Was in the larger Aspire lounge at BHX a couple of weeks back. Two data points that may be of interest
    1) I was able to get in with my PP card, no reservation, but later heard the agents telling walk-ups that the PP allocation had been used for the morning, there was a bank of flights leaving I think 10-ish and after that they would let more folk in. So it does look like there’s some kind of pattern or process.
    2) They had kind of split the lounge into 3 sections. Families at the far end (whose kids ran all over the place…), airline J class guests in what used to be the quiet zone at the front (they turfed out a couple who attempted to sit there), then everyone else in the middle. Deeply flawed as I wanted to work, not listen to the tool opposite have a video call with his mate where he repeatedly shouted “i’m in the lounge”… The “business” end of the lounge remained empty throughout.

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? GET THE ONLY FREE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!