Plaza Premium loses management of the Cathay Pacific lounge at Heathrow Terminal 3

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

Plaza Premium confirmed to us this week that it is no longer managing the Cathay Pacific lounge in Heathrow Terminal 3.

We had heard rumours of this from readers in the last couple of weeks, along with more worrying reports about a deterioration in food quality and service. I don’t know who has replaced Plaza Premium – Accor manages the nearby Qantas lounge so it could be them – or who initiated the move.

The Cathay Pacific First Class lounge was, by far, the best option for a British Airways Executive Gold member flying out of Heathrow Terminal 3. I reviewed it here. You’d be a mug to use BA’s Galleries First lounge, which I reviewed here. Let’s hope that the recent feedback reports are only a transitional blip.

Before anyone asks, if you have a British Airways Executive Club Silver card then I tend to recommend the Qantas lounge in Terminal 3, purely on grounds of scale. The Cathay Pacific Business lounge is smaller but quieter. Unless you are looking for a specific drink, item of food or magazine there is no logical reason to go near the American Airlines or British Airways lounges.

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

oneworld alliance partners

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

Graham Walsh says:

6 Dec6 December 08:52

OT – Used my Amex plat for the hotel hold last week in Jo’berg, got the refund today, made £11 back on the transaction. Was thinking I could have lost out in FX fees.
TonTonT3 says:

6 Dec6 December 09:13

O/T

I’d like to use Avios to book a one way from Las Vegas to Miami. BA isn’t showing me any partner availability for these days – what would be the best way of finding availability / using avios / using MR points for the best redemption? Cash prices are roughly £200…

Any help appreciated.

T
- TonTonT3 says:
  
  6 Dec6 December 09:14
  
  Doh! need more caffeine. Date I’m looking at is Thursday 7th of March 2019.
  
  Thanks.
- Alan says:
  
  6 Dec6 December 09:15
  
  Check for saver redemption availability with AA.com – if it’s there then BA should be able to book it, sometimes website doesn’t show all availability.
  - TonTonT3 says:
    
    6 Dec6 December 09:16
    
    If it’s available on AA.com how would I through BA, and what would the avios equivalent be? Are there any additional booking fees? Thanks.
    
    T
    - Alan says:
      
      6 Dec6 December 09:28
      
      Would book by phoning BAEC and asking them to check availability. Cost would be usual BA redemption chart.
Nick says:

6 Dec6 December 09:25

I still like to go to the BA First lounge at T3 to have a proper fry up with lashings of ketchup and mustard if I am there before midday. And then transfer to the CX lounge to digest and relax. .
Big Ernie McCracken says:

6 Dec6 December 09:26

O/T Just noticed that Nectar /LNER are offering half points back when using Nectar points to buy LNER vouchers. First time I have seen this for a couple of years.
- Alan says:
  
  6 Dec6 December 09:29
  
  Plus were also offering bonus points on first cash booking (which stacked nicely with Amex £10 off £40 offer!)
  - Rich says:
    
    6 Dec6 December 10:20
    
    Have you had the 500 points for this. I made a booking a couple of weeks ago. Received the base points but not the bonus.
    - Alan says:
      
      6 Dec6 December 10:28
      
      Not yet but just got off the train just now and only booked earlier in the week 🙂
    - BJ says:
      
      6 Dec6 December 11:05
      
      Usually takes just under a month to get the bonus points.
- Rob says:
  
  6 Dec6 December 09:33
  
  Oh yeah, I’ve got this too.
- Rich says:
  
  6 Dec6 December 10:19
  
  Thanks for this. I’ve been holding out (literally) years for an outsize Nectar redemption. From what I can see, there’s no maximum redemption here. I have 70k Nectar to use, so should be £350 of travel and 35k back!
  
  Vouchers are valid for 12 months, on *advance LNER fares only*, and partial credit is retained.
- BJ says:
  
  6 Dec6 December 10:49
  
  Thanks for thid, just checked and I got it too 🙂 However, I’m a bit confused, when I click ‘get voucher code’ I don’t get any code for 50% back, it just takes me to an LNER nectar redemption page. Do I need a code or do I simply redeem points for the vouchers from this page within the offer period to get the points refund?
  - Rich says:
    
    6 Dec6 December 10:55
    
    The offer page doesn’t have any requirements to enter a code or anything like that. Last time I did something similar (eBay, a few years ago) it was the same thing. Automatic 50% back (as long as you have the offer showing in your account).
    - BJ says:
      
      6 Dec6 December 11:09
      
      Thanks, I’ll opt for £150 I think as I have some at the moment.
- Rich says:
  
  6 Dec6 December 11:50
  
  Well, I’ve gone all-in for 72k/ £360.
  
  The vouchers came through and actually have a slightly longer expiry date. 31 Jan 2020 (as displayed on the Nectar website), or 1 Feb 2020 (shown on the LNER website once I’d credited them.
  
  No timescale given for the 50% back, but I’m going to diarise 28 days after the closing date, 19 Dec.
  - Alan says:
    
    6 Dec6 December 11:59
    
    Nice one – don’t have enough trips planned to justify but seems like a good deal.
- Shoestring says:
  
  6 Dec6 December 15:16
  
  You can’t buy season tickets online?
  - VJ says:
    
    6 Dec6 December 15:20
    
    You can buy season ticket online, with converted voucher is the question.
  - Shoestring says:
    
    6 Dec6 December 15:41
    
    Thanks! I mean that. You just saved me about £125.
    
    Why? Because I was under the impression you could only buy season ticket @station. My son turns 16 whilst we are away for Xmas hols. You can buy a child’s season ticket (journey to school) for max 3 months after their 16th birthday, provided you buy it before they turn 16. It’s half the adult price.
    
    Was racking my brains trying to think of somebody who would take his photocard & my money to the station to do it for me on 1st January – big ask 🙂
    
    Online it is!
  - Shoestring says:
    
    6 Dec6 December 15:43
    
    Correction – 4 months max!
Craig says:

6 Dec6 December 09:29

OT: Test.
- Rob says:
  
  6 Dec6 December 09:36
  
  I deleted the other two Craig! The site now runs with a 30 second cache. This means that pages are only updated every 30 seconds and the server – instead of recreating each page from scratch for every visitor – creates it and then, for the next 29 seconds, serves the same thing. It then recreates it, at which point it will pick up new comments. It reduces server drain during peak periods and is why we are now running on page load times of under 1 second for the first time ever (despite the slow-loading Google ads).
- Craig says:
  
  6 Dec6 December 09:38
  
  Feel free to delete this completely Rob, I was having trouble posting comments. I think I know what was stopping it now?
Craig says:

6 Dec6 December 09:33

Sorry for the multiple replies, the abbreviation of a certain flashback site seems to be blocked.

Does anyone know of any Hilton booking options for earning Avios etc?
David Ward says:

6 Dec6 December 09:42

I noticed a few small changes in the CX Business Class lounge last week – they won’t make you coffee from the bar anymore etc – but all minor in the grand scheme of things.
Liz says:

6 Dec6 December 10:01

OT Has anyone in Scotland used the Amex offer for Magestic Wine £100 get £25 back. T&C say excludes Scotland but the link for participating shops includes Scotland. Do I need to ring Amex to clarify it – not sure that will help tho!
- Jill (Kinkell) says:
  
  6 Dec6 December 10:26
  
  No Liz. Not tried . Saw the ‘excludes Scotland’ .Didnt investigate further.dDo update if you phone Amex
  - EwanG says:
    
    6 Dec6 December 10:47
    
    It’s a code to quote, and the Majestic staff (and website) are very clued up on the alcohol pricing and promotion legislation (other retailers have been more flexible) and I’m sure it won’t work!
    I did consider stopping by a Majestic en route to MAN to buy a couple of cases last time the offer it was on!
    - Liz says:
      
      6 Dec6 December 12:07
      
      Called Amex and despite the misleading T&Cs Scotland is excluded – stupid drinks laws!