Diners Club stops free airport lounge access for cardholders

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A month ago, I wrote this piece about Diners Club. In particular, I noted that the long-forgotten Diners Club charge card comes with one key benefit – airport lounge access.

In the article, though, I also noted that various European Diners Club cards had begun to introduce fees or spending criteria for accessing the lounges. And, with poor timing, just a month after my article the UK card has followed suit.

As you can see here, there is now a £15 fee for visiting any of the 400 airport lounges in the Diners Club network.

This is still cheaper than getting a Priority Pass lounge card but not by much. It was probably asking too much for Diners Club to continue to fund this benefit, though, given that the card only costs £50 per year.

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Category

General

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Tom says:

3 Oct3 October 07:40

That is a damn shame, but great spot. I was about to take one of these cards for the lounge access alone after ditching my Plat.
- M says:
  
  3 Oct3 October 08:14
  
  Wonder if they’ve been hit by huge number of applications. I’ve applied after reading about it here on HFP. Never got a response.
  - David Butcher says:
    
    4 Oct4 October 11:27
    
    I recall once applying for a job with Diners Club. This was back in the seventies and they were obviously under different management at the time. Anyway, I was interviewed but my point is that I never got a response either! Plus ca change…….
Ben says:

3 Oct3 October 08:23

Is this just for new customers? I applied when the card was free and they haven’t started charging me yet. I’ll be canceling my card if this benefit is now going to cost me £15 a go.
- Carlos says:
  
  3 Oct3 October 18:24
  
  It’s for all members. I have been with them for almost a year and I got the letter about the fee yesterday.
Ian says:

3 Oct3 October 08:43

Rats. My card arrived yesterday. Suppose I’ll be ringing up to cancel it now.
Justin says:

3 Oct3 October 09:31

The free lounge access was the only reason I applied, I’ll be cancelling as well…
- Justin says:
  
  3 Oct3 October 10:04
  
  Just cancelled my card (which arrived today) under the 14 day cooling off rule. They tried to talk me into keeping it, advising that more places will be accepting the card and that access to the lounges at £15 per visit was still a good deal and doesn’t need to be booked. As an infrequent flyer, paying for lounge access would still be better than paying the annual fee plus £15 each visit.
  - Ian says:
    
    3 Oct3 October 10:30
    
    Same. Having added a supplementary cardholder to the account, it took the fee up to £69/year. I pointed out that for the same cost I could join PP and pay £15 for lounge access (to more lounges…)…
Roger says:

3 Oct3 October 09:33

Hardly surprising.

I had an invitation from WEXAS Travel to ‘renew’ (?) my membership with free Priority Pass membership (£15 per visit/guest) for one year and presumably no credit check. No idea whether it would continue on the same basis after the first year.

Similar lounge access to Diner’s is available with the AmEx Preferred Rewards Gold card with the Lounge Pass card, including two lounge visits p.a., then chargeable per visit.
Ian says:

3 Oct3 October 09:36

For those who applied recently, there is a 14 day cooling off period. For anyone else, the words “no refund of annual fee” were muttered, so you’ll have to fight it out. They tried to talk me out of cancelling, despite having changed the best benefit of the card between point of application and delivery. They were also touchy when they heard it was “on the Internet” – suggesting HFP may have something to do with it!
- Rob says:
  
  3 Oct3 October 09:49
  
  Don’t look at me! I may have driven 20 sign ups at most.
  
  The average HFP post only gets about 1,000 readers on the site plus whatever percentage of the email subscribers decide to open that particular one.
  
  MSE / HotUKDeals this ain’t (unfortunately, given the money I’d make:-) )
  - Ian says:
    
    3 Oct3 October 10:23
    
    Probably 20 more sign ups than they’re used to…
craig says:

3 Oct3 October 09:49

Prettymuch the only remaining point of this card was the free lounge access. I’ve spend a lot of time trying to find ways and means and had considered this card at length – but everything else about it is useless, it’s so hard to get it accepted it makes Amex look universal.

In the end I’ve settled for a mix of discounts with respect to lounge access through Hi-Life Diners Club (£5 Clubcard Voucher gives annual smartphone membership, 2-4-1 dining at various locations, 2-4-1 entry to No.1 lounges and 20% off entry to Servisair lounges), free access through my RBS Royalties Gold account (just UK lounges if the flight booked with their service) and redeeming Avios for lounge access (3,250 Avios per person). In addition, O2 Priority Moments sometimes offer free lounge access.

Not ideal but not forking out £450/yr for Platinum Amex or £259/yr for Priority Pass.
- Rob says:
  
  3 Oct3 October 09:58
  
  You learn something new every day! It does indeed seem that, whilst not advertised, you can get Servisair / No 1 Traveller lounge passes for 3250 Avios.
  
  No use at Terminal 5 but very nifty where there is a No 1 (Servisair is a dump, generally).
  - craig says:
    
    3 Oct3 October 11:41
    
    It’s certainly not the lap of luxury that the business (or No.1) lounges are, but if it’s around £15 to get in then once you’ve used the WiFi and filled your boots on food and drinks (plus maybe a few takeouts if they charge on the plane for refreshments) then you easily have your money’s worth. 3,250 Avios for No.1 access is fab, as is 2-4-1 entry through Hi-Life.
Sarcastrix says:

3 Oct3 October 11:16

The only reason I’ll be getting it now is for the 6000 Eurobonus point signup plus it’s free for Eurobonus Gold member – make the spend, take the points and then bin it 🙂