Avios launches generous partnership with No1 Traveller lounges (and win 18,000 Avios)

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If you don’t have airport lounge access via your flight ticket, your elite status or via a Priority Pass card from American Express Platinum, your best fall-back option is usually No1 Traveller.

The company has the largest network of premium independent lounges in the UK. I have reviewed a couple of them in the past – here is my very enthusiastic review of Gatwick North and here is what I published about the new Edinburgh lounge.

No1 Traveller is also in Heathrow Terminal 3, Birmingham and Gatwick South (photo below). All lounges include free hot food, free drinks (some premium food and drinks carries an extra charge), free newspapers and magazines and free wi-fi.

No1 Traveller has just announced a tie-up with avios.com. This allows you to buy access to their lounges at a discount and earn points in avios.com at the same time.

Full details can be found here.

If you pre-book lounge access, you will pay a flat fee of just £20 per person which saves up to £15 depending on airport. You will also receive 750 Avios points in avios.com.

If you pay on the door – which means you run the very real risk at Gatwick of the lounge being full – you get a fixed discount of £5 on the walk-in price. You will also receive 500 Avios points in avios.com.

I think this is a decent deal. Stripping out the value of the Avios takes the net cost down to around £15 and they are definitely worth that if you have a couple of hours to kill.

A new offering at Terminal 5

No1 Traveller lost the bid to run the new independent lounge at Terminal 5 to Servisair / Swissport. Instead, they launched a special ‘meal deal’ with the Gordon Ramsey Plane Food restaurant to offer a £30 two-course menu (£15 for children). The food on offer varies depending to the time of day.

You will earn 500 Avios if you pre-book a Plane Food / No1 Traveller package.

A competition

To encourage you to give the new package a try, No1 Traveller is giving away 18,000 Avios points and lounge entry for two people to five lucky winners. Everyone who books lounge entry via the special No1 Traveller / Avios website will be entered automatically.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

General

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

Ian says:

3 Jun3 June 13:18

Hi there,

Sorry for the side question, but I’ve made a rookie mistake. I have a BA Amex card and I was close to the 10k spend and I forgot about it and I’ve crossed it now. Stupid, I know!

If I cancel the last transaction and the money is refunded to the card will the amount spent reflect that and come again below the mark of 10k?

The plan was to apply for the BA Premium Plus and trigger the Companion Voucher afterwards.

Many thanks for your help.
- nick haley says:
  
  3 Jun3 June 14:18
  
  If your BA Blue card spend is £9.5k of 20k then when you convert it to a Premium Plus your spend is £9.5k of £10k. If BA Blue spend is £10k+ of £20k then when you convert it to a Premium Plus your companion ticket is automatically triggered on the date of your acceptance on to the new card.
  
  I think you think you have to be below £10k to trigger the companion ticket as a ‘true’ Premium Plus holder. Certainly in my experience, not so!
  - Ian says:
    
    3 Jun3 June 16:37
    
    Oh, I see. So, I’ll give a try then 🙂 Thanks Nick for the input!
  - AndyGWP says:
    
    4 Jun4 June 09:32
    
    After reading this site for years,I was unaware you could do this! Must pay more attention. Thanks for the tip off 🙂
flyforfun says:

3 Jun3 June 13:49

I have an easyjet flight from GTW N leaving at 6.30am on a Saturday in June. I’m staying the night before in the Bloc hotel so easy access and I’ll be checking my bag in the night before. I usually don’t sleep well the night before early flights so I expect I’ll be up at 4 and in the terminal by 4.30/4.45 at the latest.

If I can get entry for £20 (not £25 as currently showing) would that be worth it to get a hot meal? The last time I was in GTW over the summer time for this flight it was absolute chaos and I was perched on the end of a bench trying to eat a sandwich. No chance in getting into any place serving freshly cooked meals. Ended up having to buy food on the plane. Hence why I’m considering this offer – unless the lounge is just as likely to be rammed and there not worth it. I’m guessing I’m going to have to exit the lounge at 5.45 or 6 depending on the gate.
- Danny says:
  
  3 Jun3 June 17:40
  
  Just because the terminal sounds like it will be packed again doesn’t mean the lounge will be. That early you should be OK. The holiday passengers won’t generally be in there.
  
  No1 free food is more of a snack than a blast (you have to pay for that). But you can order a free hot dish which should keep you going. Basic breakfast selection is OK http://www.no1traveller.com/menus/spring-2015_2.aspx
  
  What would swing it for good value is if you were likely to neck a few glasses of something! Bit early but you never know 🙂
  - Leo says:
    
    3 Jun3 June 21:04
    
    It’s a bacon roll or croissant at most.
    - Danny says:
      
      3 Jun3 June 21:15
      
      Eggs Florentine with a twist(v)
      Poached egg with creamed spinach and potato rosti, topped with hollandaise sauce.
  - Danny says:
    
    3 Jun3 June 21:05
    
    Had a ‘terrible terminal’ moment on the weekend with the children, flying back after half-term holidays.
    
    No lounge as I’m not paying £15 each for them to drink a Coke & get silly. (Nice lounge there, btw, I have used it courtesy Amex a few times – possibly best airport in Europe in terms of usability and the lounge ain’t too shabby).
    
    So in the terminal I had to buy a few drinks at the equivalent of WHSmith.
    
    The 500ml mineral water was exactly the same price as 500ml Lowenbrau! Yet I had to drive home so no can do.
    
    Very painful.
    
    Especially on repeat purchases.
  - Danny says:
    
    3 Jun3 June 21:26
    
    BTW you will never get any disapproval these days from the barstaff if you grab a couple of quick early ones.
    
    They’re all from Eastern Europe.
    
    Pig killing 5am. Carry the bits for sausages, joints & cuts. Wash the work down with copious wine & schnapps.
    
    He who drinks early, lives long. You go up the respect ladder with a crafty early one or two.
    - sandgrounder says:
      
      3 Jun3 June 21:34
      
      Any other racial stereotypes you would like to share? As a man with a Latvian OH whose family are 50% teetotal I have to disagree with your analysis! 🙂
      - Danny says:
        
        3 Jun3 June 21:46
        
        I guess if OP (FFF) were heading for a business mtg on the wrong side of noon I might not recommend it 🙂
        
        OTOH nothing wrong with a snifter before the yardarm has a chance to cast a shadow if you have a long day ahead of you.
        
        Get some sleep on the plane & some use out of the lounge!
James67 says:

3 Jun3 June 14:25

OT: ETIHAD GUEST DEVALUATION EFFECTIVE 8TH JULY. Miles required for redemptions on flights under 6000 miles increasing but decreasing on flights over 6000 miles. Miles required for upgrades also increasing. Fees being introduced. My sense or forebodding about the proliferation of offers has come to pass, now feeling duped that I pplied for the cc. I believe part of this motivated by their efforts to appeal to USA travellers in light of the growing openskies dispute.
- Jason says:
  
  3 Jun3 June 15:58
  
  Same here 🙁
  - Jason says:
    
    3 Jun3 June 16:29
    
    Just had a look at the mileage calculator
    Lon-Sydney is 281,608 guest miles for business, if that’s one way, what was it before if it’s gone down!!!!!
    - James67 says:
      
      3 Jun3 June 17:00
      
      AUH-SYD should remain same in J, increase in F, and decrease 25% in Y. LHR-AUH will remain same in Y but increase in both J and F if I read it correctly. I was unaware that calculator was changed already, will need to have a look later. I was confused by effective date. it clearly states existing bookings are unaffected by changes but it is unclear whether the changes apply to all travel after 8th Juy for bookings made from today, or if the changes apply only to bookings made from 8th July. Upgrades were overpriced before when compared to straight redemptions, looks like the will now become almost nonsencical like BA.
      - Jason says:
        
        3 Jun3 June 17:47
        
        lon – Syd in F seems to have increased from 354k to 431k, J the same.
        Lon – AUH doesn’t seem to have changed in business or F.
      - Jason says:
        
        3 Jun3 June 18:00
        
        Lon -AUH
        131k in J
        171k in F
        
        Approx 50% increase 🙁
  - James67 says:
    
    3 Jun3 June 16:50
    
    Whatever you do, don’t book a breaking deal with a view to an upgrade as they will no longer be eligible.
    - Tom H says:
      
      3 Jun3 June 16:56
      
      That is gutting having been through all the hassle to get the points and sign up bonus from MBNA / Etihad Guest sorted and now they devalue. So what is the going rate for a one way biz to AUH?
Rob says:

3 Jun3 June 17:34

Fixed. I copied the one from the press release and assumed it would price correctly, fool that I am!
Kinkell says:

3 Jun3 June 18:06

Can you get into the lounge with the Amex Gold Lounge Pass or just the Servisair Air lounge
Or are they one and the same at LGW. N. Is the LP the same as
the PP? For those inthe know, which do you recommend for a very lengthy wait between an EYZ flight from far north connecting with a BA flight ? ( lost silver status a few months ago…..so no lounge access, !)
Chelseafi says:

9 Jun9 June 22:36

We are a family of four travelling out on Fri 24th July,I have my new amex gold card that gives me two free lounge passes and then £15 each. Can anyone tell me if I can pre book, I would like to use the no1 lounge It will be around 9am. Any advice appreciated
- Rob says:
  
  10 Jun10 June 08:28
  
  You can pre-book free visits but they charge £5 each for the privilege. Not sure if they would charge the £5 for a £15 extra guest.
  
  If you are using Gatwick North, remember that there is also the new My Lounge next to No 1. This is not as posh (it is ‘scruffy chic’, review coming next week) but you will get in. I was there at 10am on Monday and it wasn’t full by any means. It doesn’t have a cinema (!) and the food is served in paper bowls with wooden cutlery! If you were happy to have this as a fall back then you wouldn’t need to pay the £5 to pre-book.
  - Chelseafi says:
    
    10 Jun10 June 17:42
    
    Thank you for the advice yes I am using north. I look forward to your review. I can then decide what I want to then do