Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Leeds Bradford Airport is opening a super-premium lounge

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

Leeds Bradford Airport has its own idiosyncratic approach to airport lounges.  Leeds Bradford is, after all, a relatively small airport with a relatively small amount of premium traffic.  Despite this, the airport decided to open THREE airport lounges back in 2018.

They are The Yorkshire Lounge, The White Rose Lounge and The 1432 Runway Club.

We reviewed the three Leeds Bradford lounges here, and you can book yourself in for cash here.

Leeds Bradford Airport terminal

The airport runs all three lounges.  There is no place here for No 1 Lounges, Aspire or Plaza Premium.

Three lounges is clearly not enough.  Leeds Bradford has now announced a super-premium lounge – The Aero Club.

It opens in May and will be ‘adults only’.  The website is here.

As you can see, it offers “the best seat in the house (or the terminal)” with “a made-to-order menu”.  However, it clearly isn’t really premium.  You will get free prosecco, but champagne must be purchased.

How much will it cost to get into The Aero Club?  Take a look below:

Aero Club lounge at Leeds Bradford

Yes, The Aero Club will cost £50 to enter.  This is, to put it mildly, aggressive.

At Manchester, PremiAir will let you use a lounge (with ‘cooked to order’ food) and a whole private terminal, and drive you to your plane, for £95.

You won’t even pay £50 for an independent lounge at any of the London airports.  The Qantas Lounge at Heathrow Terminal 3 is £55, admittedly, but that is a totally different proposition and indeed targets a different a market.

What is even odder is that Leeds Bradford is submitting plans for a new terminal building to open in 2023.  Assuming it is approved, Aero Club will have a life of three years at most.

Clearly a trip to Yorkshire is required in May.  We will let you know what we find.


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:

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

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.

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 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.

Comments (123)

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

  • Jack says:

    OT

    I’ve booked a trip to America in the summer, tickets sold by Amex Travel. I’ve been booked onto a Virgin-marketed, Delta-operated itinerary from LHR-PDX-LAX in Main Cabin (O). Does anyone know how many VAFC tier points/miles this would be eligible for? I can’t seem to find any mention of fare class O online (except for a short line that says that its not eligible for any Delta MQMs), nor can I seem to upgrade using miles (I have asked both Virgin + Delta and they say that since it was ticketed by Amex, nothing can be changed). Thanks

    • Kai says:

      O is a Skyteam fare bucket that usually earns you nil in partners’ programs.

  • BJ says:

    OT: Tesco clubcard security issues, 600,000 new cards being issued.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-51710687

  • VJ says:

    O/T: IHG/CURVE/NSANDI still working?

  • Shoestring says:

    another chance to trot out I was at school with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Stringer – very nice guy, as it happens

    year above me, but best friends with my (now multi millionaire – found a molecule) village friend Julian and liked my bro as well (uniti he got expelled)

    TBH nearly all of us got great jobs – it was a good school for that – hence why we wanted grammar schools for our kids

    • BJ says:

      What about their Cornish pasty?

    • Brasov says:

      Shoestring, I love your Morrisons fuel deals.

      I’ve tried at 4 petrol stations.
      2 were fine, 1 tried but couldn’t do it, and 1 said that their till doesn’t allow it.

      What do you think, are all the tills set up the same across the country or are they just being awkward?

      • Shoestring says:

        all the tills can do it – but the staff never saw the plastic card before

        • tom1 says:

          I’m starting to think the rollout of ‘the button’ isn’t instant across the country.
          I went to one yesterday who showed me the screen – when they pressed Morrisons gift card and scanned it, it said ‘Manual Entry not allowed’.
          Could be user error, sure, but doesn’t seem very well controlled.

  • DaveL says:

    Bad experience on club world today. Started off with discovering at t-24 that I hadn’t been ticketed and therefore couldn’t check in. Spent over an hour on phone to BA last night but Avios at fault so couldn’t call them till this morning. Another lengthy call to avios this morning and all sorted. Not a good last day on holiday though.

    Knock on effect right at the back of the club Europe cabin with OH. Sure enough no options left when served food – curry or nothing. Fine for me, not edible for the wife.

    Arrive on time at Heathrow and now bags haven’t arrived for over an hour 10 mins. They keep apologising but nothing is turning up.

    Realise problem A is avios and not ba. What kind of avios compo can I go after for b and c? Can anyone recommend any online sources for reference?

    • Shoestring says:

      – not ticketed in time – nothing
      – no food choice in CE – 5000 Avios if you ask nicely
      – bags late/ missing – nothing but maybe a gesture

      sorry (purveyor of bad news)

    • Anna says:

      I would say Avios.com have definitely got a case to answer, I would be submitting a formal complaint.
      However, regular readers of HFP know to check they have a ticket number not just a booking reference!

      • DaveL says:

        Thanks both. Will ask BA nicely as you put it, shoestring.

        Anna – you make a good point RE avios, I think I should follow up with them too.

        As a regular reader, I knew to check that I had a ticket number – and in fact I had a ticket number, and full documentation which arrived by email and appeared entirely correct.

        I had changed the flight last week and paid the change fee. It turns out though that they reissued the paperwork with the old ticket number and new flight details, cancelled the original ticket, and failed to issue the new ticket. BA told me (after many hours on Sunday night) that the ticket number basically referred to the old, cancelled flight.

        New data point worth nothing, a ticket number does not 100% confirm your flight has been ticketed.! Probably only a danger if you are changing your flight, but good to be aware nonetheless…

        • Shoestring says:

          if you somehow roll it all into one & get treated well you might get 10000 Avios each but I think that would be a good outcome

        • Lady London says:

          Nooooooo! You have been really unlucky.

          For the hours on the phone alone I’d try to see if BA is willing to cough up some avios… don’t expect though just hope.

          And give Avios a go as well… they are normally pretty nice. Not at all sure about if they can do anything for you but for sure would mention it to them.

          Unlike you and @Anna I would have probably even forgotten to check for a ticket number and been well caught out.

  • Mark E says:

    After buying Avios through Iberia, I’ve just been told by BA that I cannot combine my Avios from IB to BA as I have a household account. That’s buried in the small print and not obvious. Bit annoyed.

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