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Date set for the new Aspire lounge at Manchester Airport Terminal 2

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The new Aspire lounge in the new pier at Manchester Airport’s Terminal 2 is gearing up for opening.

The Aspire website currently shows the lounge as bookable from Saturday 30th October. Job ads for the lounge on LinkedIn are also quoting a ‘late October’ opening date, so this seems relatively firm.

Date set for the new Aspire lounge at Manchester Airport

We will try to get a full list of which airlines are currently operating from the new pier by the time the lounge opens. It should be accessible via Priority Pass.

There are two other new airport-run lounges at Terminal 2 which we have already covered. You can read our review of the Escape lounge at Manchester Airport Terminal 2 here and our review of the premium 1903 Lounge at Manchester Airport Terminal 2 here.

There will also be a Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse in due course, although the opening has been delayed until next year when flights will ramp up.


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 (27)

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

  • paul says:

    Am I in the minority that most Priority Pass lounges are just ok? Even pre covid they are just a quiet place to wait. If you are a drinker great but otherwise it’s a pretty dire experience.

  • MYSELF says:

    “Skytrax is voted for by real people” – OMG, Stopppppp, you’re too funny. Oh wow that was HILARIOUS.

    Has the news not reached HfP HQ that the awards are brought and paid for. (( “Allegedly, for legal reasons as they as an organisation are weirdly litigious over the subject))

    LH won “Best Business Airline” based on a product that at that time wasn’t even fitted, and as it’s turned out several years later STILL hasn’t been put in a single plane.

    The entire setuo has been a rolling joke amongst FFs for a number of years now.

    “Must do better” is about the only thing I can assign to this article and tbh I’m somewhat concerned this even passed editorial oversight at an organisation such as HfP

    • Mike says:

      Obviously, I have no comment about Skytrax and their methodology.

      It’s common for a lot of awards to be pay-for-play, pay to enter, buy table at awards etc. The most egregious are when the judges have a consultancy gig of improving your business in that area i.e. you employ them to make your business a great place to work and enter next year’s Best Place to Work Ever Awards which they are on the judging panel (they are on the judging panel because they created the awards, cough). This is common for some of the pressure group charities too… Go to charity, pay for their “training”, get their “plan” to make your company great for minority A, enter awards for Best place to work for minority A, get number xth for best place to work for minority A, put badge on website, how progressive you are….

      Obviously, none of that applies to Skytrax as it’s voted for by real people.

      • Nick says:

        Indeed. Or like the Skytrax ‘airline ratings’ where airlines have the ‘additional voluntary option’ of paying for reviewers to travel, and as a result know exactly which flights they’re on, so they can cherry pick their best crew (and why not throw an additional couple of crewmembers on those flights too, plus some HQ managers in crew uniform, ‘just because’…)

        But we don’t know any airlines that would stoop to those levels, do we?!

    • Rob says:

      The star ratings – which we said ourself in a recent article are, ahem, bizarre and not voted for – are totally separate from these.

  • marcw says:

    Yes. Turkish, 3* airline.

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