Review of the extended Skylife lounge at London Southend Airport

This is our review of the new, expanded Skylife lounge at London Southend Airport.

Back in 2016 Rob had a pleasant day out at London Southend Airport including a visit to the small Skylife lounge.  Since then the lounge has been fully refurbished and hugely expanded and reader Olivier was so kind and sent us pictures of it. 

The entrance is the same as before with an added door on the right for the entrance to the new area.  This is an old 2016 picture so ignore the £20.95 price (it is now £22.95 if you pay cash).  The capital ‘L’ in ‘Life’ has also now been dropped!

When Olivier visited the lounge in February, the old lounge area was not in use.  One of the employees told him this part would be refurbished later this year once they understood what worked with the new area and what didn’t.

The new area is huge compared to the old lounge, with a large number of sitting areas, many of them featuring comfortable sofas.  There is also a large dining area with tables and chairs.

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Olivier was very positive about the setting, the design, the decoration and the furniture used.

The food on the buffet was only pastries and fruit in the mid-afternoon, but they also have a machine to make your own pancakes and one to make your own hot dog.

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There was a good selection of alcohol including draught beer.

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Conclusion

All in all the improvements are very positive and the Skylife lounge at London Southend Airport now appears to be competitive with independent lounges at similar sized airports.  When Olivier visited the lounge on a Wednesday afternoon there was only one other couple there.  Even if it did get busier there would always be enough seating.

You can get into the lounge using Priority Pass.  You can buy one here or you receive two (which admit four people between them) with The Platinum Card from American Express.

It is not a Lounge Club member unfortunately, so if you have two free lounge access passes from your American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card you will need to use them somewhere else.

You can find out more about the lounge on the airport website here.

This article is part of our series of reviews of airport lounges across the UK. You see all of the reviews here.

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.