Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Which British Airways European routes do not offer lounge access?

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

On Saturday we ran a review of the ANA lounge at Porto airport.  This is notable because – whilst it is the only lounge at Porto – British Airways refuses to pay for Club Europe or status passengers to use it.

(If you read HfP by email, you didn’t receive this review because I felt it was a bit of a niche topic to drop into 10,000 inboxes.  You can read the article here.)

Courtesy of Flyertalk, I have a list of all British Airways short-haul destinations which do not offer lounge access.  This is a great bit of crowd sourcing work from the FT community. Keep this list in mind next time you book a trip and are considering whether to upgrade to Club Europe or not.

These airports have no lounge at all so you can’t blame BA for not letting you in:

Bergen, Flesland Airport BGO

Biarritz-Anglet-Bayonne BIQ

Corfu / Ioannis Kapodistrias International Airport CFU

Chania International Airport CHQ

Chambery-Savoie CMF

Bergerac-Roumaniere EGC

Friedrichshafen FDH

Fuerteventura FUE

Grenoble-Isere GNB

Frederico Garcia Lorca GRX

Innsbruck INN (EDIT: a Priority Pass lounge opened 12/17)

Skiathos Island National JSI

Santorini JTR

Kos KGS

Kalamata KLX

Limoges LIG

Menorca MAH

San Javier MJV

Nantes Atlantique NTE

Asturias OVD

Pula PUY

Rotterdam RTM

Quimper-Cornouaille UIP

These airports have a lounge but BA refuses to pay for it:

You can use a Priority Pass instead at these airports:

Lanzarote ACE

Cagliari/Elmas CAG

Catania/Fontanarossa CTA

Madeira FNC

Heraklion International Nikos Kazantzakis HER

Humberside HUY

Ibiza IBZ

Mykonos JMK

John Paul II International Krakow-Balice KRK

Montpelier MPL

Olbia/Costa Smeralda OLB

Francisco de Sa Carneiro, Porto OPO

Palermo/Punta Raisi PMO (landside)

Thessaloniki Macedonia International SKG (as of 1st July 2017)

Split SPU

Sevilla SVQ

Rhodes – Diagoras International RHU

Tallinn TLL

These airport lounges only accepts cash and not Priority Pass / Lounge Club:

Brindisi/Casale BDS

Bordeaux-Merignac BOD

Bodrum – Milas Bodrum International BJV

Bari/Palese International BRI

Dalaman International DLM

London City Airport LCY (in the Private Jet Terminal)

Paphos International PFO

Stavanger, Sola SVG

These airports have lounges run by other airlines which BA cannot access:

Keflavik International KEF

Please bear in mind that this is crowd sourced list and 100% accuracy is not guaranteed – but it should be close enough.


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:

Nectar American Express

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

American Express Platinum card Amex

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 card

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.)

Comments (125)

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

  • Xmenlongshot says:

    The BA check-in staff at Innsbruck mentioned back in Jan that a lounge for customers was being built. Not sure whether this has progressed at all

    • IanMacK says:

      I hope its soon ! Family ski trip in Feb 18 is in and out of Innsbruck (due to shorter train journey than from Zur)

  • James Watson says:

    Add Rhodes to the list that has alternative lounges but BA hasno arrangement, thank goodness for Priority Pass!

  • EvilDoctorK says:

    Priority Pass no good to you in Cagliari – I believe there is a Meridiana Lounge somewhere, but it doesn’t take PP .. pity BA don’t pay , especially given Meridiana’s relationship with Qatar and Avios !

  • Angmo says:

    SZG Saltzberg does not have a lounge either – or at least it didnt three / four years ago.

  • Scott Evans says:

    Mykonos now accepts Priority Pass and when I was here in June there was actually had a lady in the check in area promoting the pass, trying to get people to sign up.

    The lounge is upstairs in amongst the official airport office. Very strange to be walking those corridors with no one else around. Pleasant little lounge though.

  • Sandgrounder says:

    Oslo. If your ticket/status doesn’t get you access, your PP is no good, 300Kr entry. This is still a good deal compared to the prices in the airport though.

  • Frenzie says:

    I believe Mykonos airport does accept Priority Pass.

  • Rich says:

    Flying from Heathrow T3 next week in Club World. What is best lounge to use? Not flown from t3 before..!

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