No 1 Lounges opens its new Birmingham Airport Clubrooms lounge

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No 1 Lounges has opened its 2nd lounge at Birmingham International, by Gate 54. As we exclusively revealed back in June, the group has opened a second site to cope with demand.

Aspire has also just opened a second lounge in Birmingham which we reviewed here.

The new No 1 facility is part of the Clubrooms brand. This means that it is NOT available on Priority Pass, Lounge Club etc.

It is designed as a more exclusive space, designed in the style of a private club, with table service and a la carte dining. The lounge offers runway views. The only picture on the website is the one above, which doesn’t show much.

It will be interesting to see if Emirates decides to close its own lounge and use this instead, given its location near the Emirates gate. It must be expensive to run its own lounge for just two flights per day, seven hours apart.

You can book online here. It costs £35 per person booked in advance (£40 on the door) with inclusive champagne packages costing extra. Children under 12 are banned and there is a dress code.

Getting airport lounge access for free from a credit card

How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, here are the three options to get FREE airport lounge access via a credit or charge card:

The Platinum Card from American Express

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

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with two free Priority Pass cards, one for you and one for a supplementary cardholder. Each card admits two so a family of four gets in free. You get access to all 1,300 lounges in the Priority Pass network – search it here.

You also get access to Plaza Premium, Delta and Eurostar lounges. Our American Express Platinum review is here. You can apply here.

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 Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for the first year. It comes with a Priority Pass card loaded with two free visits to any Priority Pass lounge – see the list here.

Additional lounge visits are charged at £20. You get two more free visits for every year you keep the card.

There is no annual fee for Amex Gold in Year 1 and you get a 20,000 points sign-up bonus. Full details are in our American Express Preferred Rewards Gold review here.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard

A huge bonus, but only available to HSBC Premier clients Read our full review

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard gets you get a free LoungeKey card, allowing you access to the LoungeKey network. Guests are charged at £20 although it may be cheaper to pay £60 for a supplementary credit card for your partner.

The card has a fee of £195 and there are strict financial requirements to become a HSBC Premier customer. Full details are in my HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard review.

PS. You can find all of HfP’s UK airport lounge reviews – and we’ve been to most of them – indexed here.

Category

General

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

Benylin says:

28 Nov28 November 15:32

OT: LHR T4 parking for a week, any suggestions / discount codes anyone can share.
Flying this Saturday
- The Original Nick says:
  
  28 Nov28 November 16:58
  
  Justpark?
- Shoestring says:
  
  28 Nov28 November 17:05
  
  google and use use the [MSE airport parking] discounts
- Lady London says:
  
  28 Nov28 November 19:21
  
  Hotel park and stay packages? some work out very good and require only 1 night stay then leave car for up to two weeks – IHG has them. Didn;t Rob also do a recent-ish article on here, on parking at LHR?
rams1981 says:

28 Nov28 November 15:36

OT missing spg points on my wife’s account. Getting there. They’ve posted the 20k but not the 2k for referral. Will phone and ask and maybe someone will add it without much hasssle…
Bob says:

28 Nov28 November 19:03

OT: I recently completed the Hilton diamond challenge/have it till March 2020. Am I right in thinking that any stays between now and March 2019 won’t count towards the status being continued from March 2020?
- Peter K says:
  
  28 Nov28 November 20:08
  
  All stays in 2019 will count, from Jan 1st-31st Dec.
  It’s the stays in a calendar year that count.
  - Bob says:
    
    29 Nov29 November 10:59
    
    Thanks Peter. I appreciate your time and knowledge.
Liz says:

28 Nov28 November 19:42

OT We were the last to be fed on our recent CE trip to Tallinn and 2 of the 3 breakfast choices were gone so I ended up with only fruit and yoghurt as I didn’t want what was left. The lovely stewardess, who acknowledged us by name, was very apologetic and said it happens all the time and offered to submit a complaint for me. She confirmed as we left the plane that she had submitted it. I know this is happening all the time but am I likely to receive anything? I haven’t received anything confirming that any complaint was submitted. Not really expecting anything but wondered what others have done/received.
- Shoestring says:
  
  28 Nov28 November 19:51
  
  Judging by FT thread on service recovery, something like 2000 Avios? LH would be more.
- meta says:
  
  28 Nov28 November 20:25
  
  On my CE holiday trip to Rome in May there were no breakfast options left by the time they served me (ended up with a bit of bread and a drink). The purser said he’s going to put a note. Maybe an hour or so later got a phone call from BA to apologise and say they’re going to put 3000 Avios in my account. I have to admit I was shocked that they responded so quickly. Made me actually move some of my regular short-haul flights for 2019 to BA after 2 years on *A.
  - Shoestring says:
    
    28 Nov28 November 20:28
    
    Champagne & a crust to chew on – breakfast of champions!
    - Liz says:
      
      28 Nov28 November 20:44
      
      Love it! Here’s hoping for something anyway. Got Avios and tier points awarded on a reward flight so someone made a mistake there. This trip was paid for by Lloyd’s compensation from earlier in the year. 2 upgrade vouchers, double Avios awarded and hundreds of £££ in cash so these additional extras are all very welcome too!
- Shoestring says:
  
  28 Nov28 November 20:43
  
  @Liz – stick in an online service recovery compo complaint (& let us know how you get on)
  - Liz says:
    
    28 Nov28 November 21:01
    
    Ok just submitted! Will see what happens!
- xcalx says:
  
  29 Nov29 November 09:18
  
  2 recent experiences.
  AA SXM-MIA business seat not reclining 4000 miles instantly credited to account.
  
  IB MIA-MAD business got a few bites a couple of hours into flight, cabin manager brought insecticides for skin and seat fabric plus some lotion. Sent in complaint received 10,000 avios within 24 hours apologising that the IFE was not working.
TonTonT3 says:

29 Nov29 November 09:59

O/T

Have an upcoming trip to Johannesburg. Any recommendations on the best Priority Pass lounges there? There are quite a few and don’t know which one to focus on!

Thanks

Ton