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Aer Lingus to close its Heathrow Terminal 2 lounge for refurbishment

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Aer Lingus has announced a lengthy closure of its lounge in London Heathrow Terminal 2.

The lounge will be closed from 10th June to ‘early September’.

You can find out more on the lounges page of the Aer Lingus website here (click the ‘Learn More’ button).

refurbishment of the Aer Lingus lounge at London Heathrow Terminal 2

During the refurbishment, customers can use the Plaza Premium lounge. This is still in the main Terminal 2 building but on the lower level.

Unfortunately, with Singapore Airlines also using Plaza Premium whilst its own lounge is being refurbished, the chances of getting in with a Priority Pass over the summer are likely to be low.

What can we expect from the new lounge?

Aer Lingus says:

The refurbished lounge will enhance your travel experience with a number of key improvements including:

  • New seats, furniture and furnishings to offer a variety of zones for customers to work, eat or relax
  • Installation of individual work pods and private meeting rooms
  • A new barista coffee service

What the lounge REALLY needs is decent food. If you read our last review here, you’ll see that we have always been very positive about the space as it stands – except for the very poor food provision.

refurbishment of the Aer Lingus lounge at London Heathrow Terminal 2

Who can use the Aer Lingus lounge?

The following Aer Lingus customers are eligible to use the lounge, and will be eligible to use Plaza Premium during the closure:

  • AerClub Concierge, Platinum and Silver members
  • AerSpace customers
  • Business Class customers
  • British Airways Gold and Silver members flying Aer Lingus
  • Lounge voucher holders

Note that BA Gold and Silver cardholder are allowed in (no guests) when travelling on Aer Lingus. It doesn’t matter if your ticket is booked as a British Airways codeshare or has an Aer Lingus flight number.

The rules are different for BA Gold and Silver members when flying on Aer Lingus from other airports. The rather complex rules are covered in this article.

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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.

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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.

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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:

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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:

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

Category

Aer Lingus and AerClub

Comments (19)

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

  • polly says:
    30 May30 May 07:35

    Seriously?? They chose the highest peak season, with one of the busiest routes in the world “ to close for refurbishment “ what great timing. Who makes these decisions????

    • Andrew. says:
      30 May30 May 08:28

      Perhaps lowest season for Business/Corporate travel?

      Irish school holidays start in June (or even May), then English go all the way through to September.

    • Blenz101 says:
      30 May30 May 08:46

      I’m sure they will have done the maths. I’d be willing to bet business travel drops off over the summer months during the school holidays so lounge is in least demand.

      I’m sure the cost of how many passengers this will impact and the likely payment to Plaza Premium will have been factored into the decision making.

      • Nick says:
        30 May30 May 11:04

        Exactly it – summer is busy from an overall volume perspective but business/corporate travel drops off a cliff. EI know when their status holders travel and will have planned accordingly.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      30 May30 May 11:23

      It’s not as simple as you think.

      Work has to be coordinated between HAL, EI, contractors and suppliers and fitted into a schedule of all the other airside works being done.

      There are also a limited number of contractors willing and able to work airside as their staff all need security clearance to work airside plus all the other restrictions.

      • JDB says:
        30 May30 May 11:48

        It’s a particular problem with working airside, but anyone who has to plan/manage projects will know that it’s incredibly difficult getting skilled workers anywhere; it’s a real problem and one can’t dictate exactly you want x done. And that’s on top of getting whatever permits, permissions etc. that are required.

      • Matarredonda says:
        30 May30 May 16:01

        Exactly my thoughts.
        Construction work airside is always very complicated.

  • Charlie says:
    30 May30 May 08:15

    To be fair, those with access to the SQ lounge (biz/first/gold) are able to use any of the Star lounges (Lufty, Air Canada, United) which are all significantly better than the Plaza Poo lounge anyway.

  • David says:
    30 May30 May 12:07

    Just flew on SQ last night. Started off in the Lufthansa lounge which was clean and peaceful. Then went to the United lounge before we boarded at 2130. Packed and filthy.

    • Rhys says:
      30 May30 May 14:28

      United is normally not too bad at that time as the peak US flights have passed hours earlier.

      • Chabuddy Geezy says:
        30 May30 May 16:17

        The issue is the Air Canada lounge closes around 1730, so everyone on Star Alliance in the satellite terminal is sent to United. Once the SQ lounge is back open this should be more manageable.

  • GM says:
    30 May30 May 12:49

    Read the headline and first thoughts were that 1. the lounge seemed fine to me when I visited last year. Quite pleasant, actually and 2. that the renovation better include hot food bars etc.
    By far my biggest disappointment with it was the “soft” offering. Similar to the Dublin one with a lack of any proper meals, essentially.

    • Rob Southern says:
      30 May30 May 13:12

      This 👆 1000% agreed!

    • John says:
      30 May30 May 17:05

      I remember being driven out of the upper mezzanine level of their Dublin lounge once (“upstairs is closing”) so we could be kettled downstairs. Convenient for table clearing I suppose; not that there’s much to clear.

  • James says:
    30 May30 May 13:49

    Walked in an out last time I was there. Had to go the Plaza Premium for food. It was cheese and crackers in there – the food needs a complete overhaul!

  • John says:
    30 May30 May 17:02

    They should merge the space with the Senator lounge next door, and permit the handful of EI status holders to use that. At present it’s about as useful as an empty room can be.

  • Bernard says:
    30 May30 May 23:24

    I’m confused by the focus on meals and hot food?
    The Aer Lingus sectors out of Heathrow are all very short. Why would you expect a large food offering beforehand?
    There are many many daily commutes of far shorter duration.
    More seats and power outlets would be far more useful.

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:
      30 May30 May 23:41

      I wouldn’t need hot food per se. But I’ve never encountered a bad cold buffet in a hotel function room in Ireland. Good meat, good bread, great cheese. Yet the EI Lounge offers watery soup, bland dinner rolls, crackers and vacuum packed individual cheese servings – all English. It’s bizarre

  • Blair Waldorf Salad says:
    30 May30 May 23:42

    Irish school holidays start today; some schools in Dublin city centre have already wrapped up for the year based on what I saw this morning

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

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