Find the Cheapest Airport Lounge Access For You & Upgrade

8 min readMar 7, 2021

Want to find the cheapest airport lounge access for you?

Just take the quick quiz above to get a speedy answer 🙂

In the meantime I have a little confession to make!

Don’t tell anyone but I have a real fear of flying.

Infact it was so bad that for many years I was too scared to fly but I wanted to see the Yangtze Gorge before it was flooded so much that I just had to deal with my fear.

One of the things that helps me deal with my fear of flying is to upgrade the airport experience and use an airport lounge.

Being able to work in a lounge, or simply enjoy a bit of a quieter environment while sipping on something nice and eating a few snacks can really help take my mind off the upcoming flight. It also feels like a little treat.

As a Professional Traveller I am generally travelling for work so having lounge access means that I can get some work done ahead of or after a trip. I hate to get home and have loads of paperwork to do preferring to get it all done before I get back.

A lounge pass enables me to do that and I often complete my tour reports in a lounge while waiting for a connecting flight.

I find lounges a good option for when I have a longer flight to deal with, when I have plenty of time at the airport inbetween connecting flights.

The airport lounge at Istanbul SAW was a lifesaver when there was no vegetarian breakfast options available at the airport!

On the rare occasions I travel with family I have enjoyed taking them into a lounge. My nephew has Asperger’s and after much preparation work for his first flight one of the things that took his mind off being nervous was discovering the lounge and the free snacks — it was time to fly before he knew it.

Airport Lounge Access Membership Schemes

Priority Pass Best for the most amount of lounges available worlwide Best for mid range use of lounges — StandardPlus plan works out to £18.90 per lounge use

Priority Pass is probably the most widely known of the airport lounge membership schemes and it is the one I have.

Members can access over 2000 lounges all over the world.

They have three membership levels;

Membership can be accessed online and there is a membership card as well as a digital app with a digital membership.

This is handy for contactless travel.

Dragon Pass Best option for less frequent use, or higher use (over 10 visits per year) Discounts for meals at airport restaurants Good range of lounges available

Dragon Pass members can access 1300 lounges all over the world.

Membership is accessed online through their app.

Dragon Pass with Free Membership

There is a little trick that can help you save the cost of Dragon Pass membership meaning you can just buy the lounge access directly.

Simply sign up for a free account at Regus (an offfice workspace company) and you get free Dragon Pass membership.

Before you visit the airport lounge you need to have purchased a one time lounge access through the app.

UK And Europe Lounge Access

Aspire and Swissport Best option for regular use of lounges in the UK and some other parts of the world (limited choice) The best option for two people to use as membership includes free guest visits

Aspire members have access to lounges across the UK and in some European countries as follows;

Belfast
Birmingham
Bristol
Edinburgh
Humberside
Glasgow
Inverness
London
Gatwick
London Heathrow Terminal 3
Liverpool
Luton
Manchester
Calgary International
Montreal Pierre Elliott Trudeau
Copenhagen
Helsinki Vaanta
Amsterdam Schiphol (26 & 41)

There is access to Heathrow Terminal 5 but only with a Platinum Annual Membership which gives access to more European countries

You can book lounge access online through Aspire with lounge access costing around £25 per person.

They also have two membership schemes;

LoungePass Good option for occassional airport lounge access

LoungePass is an online directory of airport lounges that you can book at a discounted price.

It has over 650 lounges at 350 airports worldwide.

LoungeBuddy Good option for finding out if you can access airport lounges through your flight tickets or other memberships

LoungeBuddy has an online site where you can book lounge access.

It also has an app where you can enter details of your airline ticket, membership schemes etc and it will let you know if you are eligible to use any airport lounges.

B ank Accounts and Credit Card Memberships

You can get access to airport lounges as part of your credit card.

Finder has an easy comparison of airport lounge access cards.

The top one currently is American Express Preferred Rewards which offers two free visits per year.

However, for it to be worthwhile you would need to clear all spending before getting charged interest.

Barclays previously offered the Travel Plus Pack packaged bank account which cost £18 per month. This is currently suspended due to Covid19 but included;

Worldwide multi trip insurance cover
RAC cover for the UK and Europe
6 Free airport lounge visits
Discounts on hotels and airport parking

If you were going to use all these things then this might be a cheaper way to access airport lounges.

Which Is The Cheapest Way to Get Airport Lounge Access?

I ‘ve done a comparison of how to buy airport lounge access.

For ease of comparison I based my pricing on accessing airport lounges at London Gatwick airport.

I’ve also assumed that for lounge membership schemes one person is the member and one person is the guest, unless advised differently.

If you haven’t completed the quick quiz above you might want to do this now and it will guide you to the cheapest prices for you based on your airport lounge usage.

Otherwise follow through the guide below for all the information you need.

1 Visit Per Year Cheapest = Best Online Deal

Whether travelling on your own or as a couple the cheapest option for you is to get a good online deal. Prices vary depending on the airport so here are prices for Gatwick lounge access.

These are for the cheapest lounge options available, not necessarily the same lounge. All are for 3 hours lounge access unless advised differently.

Find airport lounge deals at;

3 Visits Per Year Cheapest = Best Online Deal or Dragon Free Membership

Whether travelling on your own or as a couple the cheapest option for you is to get a good online deal. Prices vary depending on the airport so here are prices for Gatwick lounge access. These are for the cheapest lounge options available, not necessarily the same lounge. All are for 3 hours lounge access unless advised differently.

Find airport lounge deals at;

The other option is to use a Dragon Pass but avoid the membership fee by signing up as a member of Regus where you can get free membership to Dragon Pass and just pay directly for airport lounge access.

6 Visits Per Year Cheapest = Online Deal, Priority, Dragon or Aspire Pass

Whether travelling on your own or as a couple the cheapest option for you is to get a good online deal (unless using mainly UK and very limited European airports then see below).

However, for more lounge choices and options a Priority Pass or Dragon Free Pass might be the best option. Around 6 visits is the ‘tipping point’ for when passes are better value than buying airport lounge access as you go.

Prices vary depending on the airport so here are prices for Gatwick lounge access. These are for the cheapest lounge options available, not necessarily the same lounge. All are for 3 hours lounge access unless advised differently.

Find airport lounge deals at;

If you are a couple who are planning to use airport lounges mainly in the UK, with a very limited number of European airports an Aspire/Swissport lounge pass is your cheapest option. It provides unlimited lounge access for two people for £259.99 or £129.00 per person

Airports included are:

Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Humberside, Inverness, London Gatwick, LHR Terminal 3, Liverpool, Luton, Manchester, Calgary International, Montreal Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Copenhagen, Helsinki Vaanta, Amsterdam Schiphol (26 & 41)

8 Visits Per Year Cheapest = Dragon or Aspire Pass Depending on Airport Lounge Locations

If you are a solo traveller then the Dragon Preferential Pass comes in at the cheapest option £128 for 8 lounge visits

If you are a couple and plan to use mainly lounges located in the UK with some very limited European airports then the Aspire/Swissport pass is the cheapest option as it provides unlimited lounge access for £259.99 or £129.99 per person

Airports included are:

10 Visits Per Year Cheapest = Dragon Pass or Priority Pass

If you are a solo traveller the Dragon Pass Preferential comes in cheapest at £167

Priority Pass comes a close second at £189

Airports included are:

15 Visits Per Year

Cheapest = Dragon Preferential Pass or Priority Pass Standard Plus

If you are a solo traveller then the Dragon Preferential Pass is your cheapest option at £167

Priority Pass Standard Plus is £189

Airports included are:

20 Visits Per Year Cheapest = Dragon Pass Prestige Pass or Aspire Pass

If you are a solo traveller then the Dragon Prestige Pass is your cheapest option at £268

If you are a couple, and want to access lounges worldwide, then the cheapest option is to buy two Dragon Prestige Passes for a total of £536

Airports included are:

Further Reading;

Check out my article on how I overcame my Fear of Flying if you are struggling with your nerves, it’s full of things I’ve learned over the years that now enable me to fly, where I wouldn’t previously.

If you are interested in finding out more about using a lounge check out my review of Inverness Airport Lounge which is one of my favourites, and also probably one of the smallest!

If you want to find out everything I do to find cheap flights then check out my complete cheap flights guide which is also available as a free Ebook so you have everything you need to refer back to in the future. It’s how I find cheap routes and new destinations and it’s saved me loads of money!

Travel Hacks Blog Articles

Originally published at https://theprofessionaltraveller.com on March 7, 2021.

Find the Cheapest Airport Lounge Access For You & Upgrade

Airport Lounge Access Membership Schemes

UK And Europe Lounge Access

B ank Accounts and Credit Card Memberships

Written by The Professional Traveller