UK airport lounge reviewers wanted

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• ankomonkey says:

  27 Apr27 April 11:13

  Here’s my review of Gatwick South No 1 Lounge: Still unable to access this lounge without paying the extra £5 or whatever it is to reserve my spot. Since I only ever use Gatwick for flights with the family (during school holidays), this would cost £20 for the 4 of us. I have Priority Pass to cover the formal entry cost, and do not rate No1 enough – based on visiting BHX, MAN – to pay an extra £20 for the privilege when Grain Store gives me a food credit.

  The smugness of the Gatwick South No1 door staff/dragons really winds me up to the point that I’m starting to despise the company. It’s always the ‘looked down upon as I didn’t reserve their super-popular, super-exclusive offering so I should turn back and join the plebs’ attitude that pi$$es me off. They offer fish finger sandwiches for f**k’s sake. I loathe them and their offering with a passion.

  • Rob says:

    27 Apr27 April 11:22

    Aspire lounge opens in 8 weeks, problem solved.

    • ankomonkey says:

      27 Apr27 April 19:31

      Thanks. Will be happy to take my business there.

  • Lady London says:

    27 Apr27 April 13:34

    Gatwick North No. 1 Lounge seems to be playing these games a lot less than Gatwick South No.1. Gatwick North has reverted to buffet as they said they got too many complaints when they enforced you handing over your menu for one hot dish brought to you.

    The hot dishes were mostly very nicely flavoured and considerably nicer than what’s now on the buffet. The problem was they were spectacularly mean in sizing them. They were never much bigger than a large canape (this as a hot main course type item) and reduced over time to postage stamp size. That was the nature of the complaint – the mean portions. Buffet far worse now. Breakfast just about ok rest not really.

• Ken Snowdon says:

  27 Apr27 April 13:02

  So Rob gets paid for running HFP and he’s asking for free content. Did I get that right?

  • Jonny says:

    27 Apr27 April 13:05

    Think so! Surprised there is no offer of compensation.

    • Rob says:

      27 Apr27 April 13:28

      As I said, we are happy to stump up for admission.

      People are generally happy to contribute if they have benefited from the site.

      It is literally a 10 minute job to take a few photos and write a few paragraphs into an email. The slow bit is editing etc which Anika does.

      Do note when Rhys worked as an intern last year we offered £500 / week for the role, whereas 90% of media companies would have offered nothing or train fare. We are not cheapskates.

      • Anne says:

        27 Apr27 April 22:38

        I wrote a lounge review in 2017 for HfP when Rob previously put a call out (Manchester T2 Escape Plus – my finest and only work of journalism is still on the site if I look hard enough!).

        Given how much I’ve learned from Rob and the comments here over the years I was happy to do it and didn’t expect anything in return. In fact we were flying to Boston with Virgin on a brilliant upper class deal that I never would have know about without this site.

        As it turned out I wrote the review on the return flight when I couldn’t sleep. It probably took me an hour or so in total but trying to reflect the HfP house style did at least keep me entertained and helped pass the time! Would very happily do it again but none of my travel plans this year will be of any assistance.

  • Craig says:

    27 Apr27 April 16:02

    I for one would be more than happy to help if I was heading to an airport where a review is needed. I wouldn’t see it necessarily as helping Rob, more paying back to the community as a whole.

    • Russ says:

      27 Apr27 April 17:14

      Not keen myself but I note from Rob’s comment as ‘Raffles’ on Flyertalk that he was loosing £10 per amex subscription. Rob, if you set up a voluntary pay ‘thingy’ somewhere on the website, happy to bung the odd tenner. Of course it would be nice if you accepted amex 😉

      • CV3V says:

        27 Apr27 April 19:56

        where on Flyertalk did you read that? would be interested to read it.

        • Rob says:

          27 Apr27 April 20:35

          No, that’s not what I said.

      • Russ says:

        27 Apr27 April 20:51

        Is right, sorry Rob I read that wrong. The thought still counts if you want to put a donation link somewhere by the way.

• Douglas Woods says:

  27 Apr27 April 19:21

  What? There’s a lounge at Tees Valley?

• Adam says:

  27 Apr27 April 22:10

  I’d love to provide an updated review of Aspire Liverpool….. I flew out of Liverpool a week ago during the school holidays, and it was in a word awful!!!

  It was busy, and noisy and there were empty plates and glasses everywhere. The other gusts of the lounge clearly wanted everyone to hear there conversations, including such discussions as….

  “£30 each, that a bargain, i’ve already drunk at least £45 worth of drinks already, and i’ve stashed at least 5 pack of crisps for the flight…..” and so it went on!!!

  Clearly this group of gueasts had demolished all food and snack options as the counters were bare!! save a few crumbs of chease and some rather stale crackers.

  Coupled with the guests being noisy the staff were also pretty loud (maybe to be heard over the din), but worse they were over familiar.

  There did not appear to be any sort of dress code being enforced whatsoever, I wont go into some of the sights, but needless to say, it did not help me relax.

  Finally, the wine selection seemed to consist of a house red or house white…. that was it.

  Almost worse than all of the above, the lounge itself is like sitting in a goldfish bowl, every single passenger walking through the concourse walks past the lounge looking in, there is zero privacy.

  Maybe I visited at the wrong time, but all in all, not a relaxing experience and certainly one I hope not to repeat any time soon.

• Alexey says:

  28 Apr28 April 09:06

  Hi Rob ,
  I have been reading this site for a while, and it have been very useful to save me at least I would say about 500-1000gbp per year , with hotel promos or iberia offers , etc.
  I am running myself photography travelogue as I call it , completely for myself and uncommercial without any banners etc or any other monetisation, you can see it via link , so if you think any photographs from my travelogue would benefit HFP , I happy for you to use them on uncommercial basis , maybe just attribution or link to source somewhere,
  I hope HFP will continue to be go to source for any objective information about miles , points , promotions.

  Thanks
  Alexey

  • Rob says:

    28 Apr28 April 11:20

    Thanks Alexey.

• PETER BULLOCK says:

  29 Apr29 April 15:47

  UK Airport Lounges Reviews Wanted – how about further afield? Have you thought of asking raders to submit their reviews of some oversea lounges you have not visited, or may be have no wish to visit! We use Paphos regularly and would be happy to submit an offering. Thoroughly enjoy the reviews, thank you!

  • Rob says:

    29 Apr29 April 15:52

    The thing is … with just three articles per day, we are very focused on running articles which appeal to the most readers possible. If a lounge is news-worthy we will do it (I’d be happy to cover the new BA lounge in Rome for example) but general ones like Paphos don’t really justify it. We don’t review most of the lounges we visit ourselves unless it is part of a full trip report.

• Keith L says:

  29 Apr29 April 15:51

  What’s the point of this when you can just put xxxxx lounge review into Google and you’ll get a review already.

• Mark says:

  4 May4 May 09:14

  If you had the choice of the Club Aspire LGW (N) or paying the £5 fee for No1 Lounge LGW (N) which would you go for??

  • Rob says:

    4 May4 May 09:30

    No 1 is the nicer facility in terms of light and views, but what are you after? No 1 is generally as rammed, if not more so, than outside in terms of people per square foot, Aspire is quieter. We have reviewed both.

    • Mark says:

      4 May4 May 10:02

      Thanks for your response, Rob. I’m flying to Basel with U2 on Wednesday morning so my aim is to have a couple of coffee’s and something to eat. As I prefer a heartier breakfast and from your review I thought I would be better suited to the Club Aspire? Would you agree?

      • Rob says:

        4 May4 May 10:36

        I am not there enough to comment to be honest.

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