Back in late 2017, I wrote a piece about how some airlines fly to airports that have a lounge, but choose not to contract with the third party provider for the service. This leaves business class passengers and frequent flyers with no lounge to visit before the flight.
The airline I was specifically referring to at the time was British Airways, as I had just come back from Ibiza where no lounge access was available. Pleasingly, a few months later BA added lounge access to a bunch of cities that previously did not have it.
More Third Party Lounges
Bordeaux was added during 2018, and some more will come this summer. Passengers travelling from Greece get three new lounges, one in Thessaloniki (Manolis Andronikos Skyserv Lounge), another at Heraklion on Crete (Goldair Lounge) and one at Rhodes. Cyprus sees Paphos gaining lounge access.
Italy is not left out, with passengers leaving Olbia on Sardinia and Palermo in Sicily also getting some love. The Mediterranean theme continues with a lounge at Split in Croatia. Finally, Dalaman in Turkey will also feature access to a facility.
You’ll Still Be Waiting Here
There are still some places that have lounges where BA has not contracted for them. It is possible they are being negotiated, but you never know. Clearly they must be up to a certain standard for the airline to pay them for their services, so tiny or bad facilities won’t be eligible.
Places with a lounge but access is not permitted when flying BA include Bari, Brindisi, Cagliari, Catania, Cologne, Corfu, Funchal, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Madeira, Montpelier, and Mykonos. Eligible Club Europe passengers or people with status can go to a check-in desk and get a voucher for food and drink to make up for the lack of a lounge.
Overall Thoughts
Part of the experience of travelling in business class is using the lounge facilities before departure. Chilling with a drink or grabbing a bite to eat is all part of perks of the travel class or frequent flyer card.
Considering the amount of destinations in British Airways’ European network, it really is only a handful of places that have lounges that you can’t use. Some places have no lounge in the airport at all, which is arguably worse.
Do you think airlines should always offer lounge access or is this no big deal? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by Nick Morrish / British Airways.
With thanks to Head for Points.
