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Tag: Priority Pass

Katowice Trip – Camden Bar and Kitchen

I will stress here that I’ve revisited Camden Bar and Kitchen this week and have more photos of the venue, but for my first visit here, this is all that I have. I was using my new Priority Pass card where I can get £18 restaurant credit and hence my rapid visit here.

The welcome was immediate from the greeter standing at the door, although customers here aren’t taken to a table as with some other airport locations, but they are pointed in a vague direction on where to go. I found a table and it was clear that they wanted customers to order via a QR code rather than have table service, although they could go to the bar. I couldn’t access the menu as the Stansted Airport wi-fi was playing up and my mobile signal was too weak, but I had to go to the bar anyway as I needed to get my Priority Pass card validated. There was a wait of around six minutes in the queue, but the team member was helpful and polite.

To stay within the £18, I ordered a latte and an Eggs Benedict. The total came to around £17, which if I’m being honest I felt was a little steep for what was delivered. The presentation of the food didn’t look great, the ham looked a little plasticky and the Eggs Benedict didn’t appear entirely vibrant in their looks. The taste though was better, the eggs were runny so I had the oozing treat I wanted, the muffin was firm but fresh, whilst the sauce had some flavour. The ham was reasonable in terms of its taste, but the whole arrangement could have looked better. I wasn’t expecting an artwork, but JD Wetherspoons deliver it at least looking appetising. The latte was large and rich in taste, so felt a little more acceptable. Maybe though I’m being too picky and as I wasn’t paying, I wasn’t overly concerned anyway about getting value for money on this occasion.

I felt rather perched on a table by a busy customer throughway, so I decided against lingering and thought I’d risk instead trying to get into the Escape Lounge. For my two loyal blog readers, there’s a fuller post about this bar which I’ll get to soon enough…..

October 2, 2024
Gdansk Trip – Avalon at Luton Airport

This week’s arrangement at Avalon thanks to Priority Pass. I didn’t try and buy this much, but once again the staff members suggested topping up my purchases to get the maximum benefit. I’m not sure that the scheme is designed for this, but that’s what they offer and so that’s what I had. The mango and granola thing was delicious, although veering on being slightly healthy. The BLT sandwich is quite heavy on the tomatoes and the bread gets quite soggy, it’s an interesting arrangement. There are also smoothies, coffees, cakes and toasties available at the outlet, which only has around eight tables although the turnover is quite fast.

Without going off on a tangent, I find customer behaviour quite intriguing. Avalon is one of the first food outlets that is visible airside and the number of customers I’ve seen here who say something along the lines of ‘here’s a coffee place, let’s sit here’ is much higher than I might have expected (not that I’d given it much thought in advance). My customer behaviour (when not bouncing around lounge options) is to meander around, find the best value and then check Google Reviews about the matter. I don’t think that I could live my life with the amount of jeopardy of “let’s sit here” without weighing up all the alternatives. I accept that some customers are not price conscious, are tired and don’t have time to faff about, but I’ve once again digressed into irrelevance.

September 19, 2024
Gdansk Trip – Big Smoke at Luton Airport

Thanks to my new Priority Pass card, I started my time at Luton Airport with a visit to Big Smoke. After last week’s little debacle, I was seated at a more traditional table and the team member kindly found me one which was near a power point. I felt that the service was always efficient, but I suspected before they ordered food that they were going to have trouble with a customer who was seated nearby.

The chicken tenders, they’re a little expensive at nearly £10, but that keeps me under the £18 Priority Pass budget. Tender with a crispy flavour, they’re perfectly competent efforts, although I accept unlikely to send the venue into the Michelin Guide.

The beer is the Medicine Man from Big Smoke Brew Co, it was hoppy with a tropical edge, but the flavour didn’t much linger.

Anyway, to add to the excitement of my meal, the customer next to me got her meal and she then called a team member over as she wanted vinegar. Then she called them over again as she wanted salt. Then she called them over again as the chips were cold. Replacement chips in a bowl were brought over promptly. Then she called them over for vinegar for the new chips. Then she called them over saying they had left her with the original cold chips, so the team member said he’d bring another bowl. She then asked how she was expected to eat her meal half off a plate and half out of a bowl. The team member said he’d bring a plate. She said she didn’t want two plates. The team member asked what she did want. She wanted the manager. The manager came off and was initially beautifully direct about the situation, but then the customer told her to shove the meal and the manager thought she’d better be polite. The manager said she’d replace the whole meal. The meal came over. The customer called the team member over for vinegar. I left at this point, I had seen enough drama but could I just give a comment of great thanks to everyone working in the hospitality industry.

I like this venue, it’s clean, comfortable and fast. It’s not really the greatest value going, but airports aren’t cheap and it seemed competently delivered. I’m very pleased with my £18 dining credit with Priority Pass every time I visit, I will eventually work through most of the menu I suspect (well, the bits that won’t involve me going over £18).

September 19, 2024
Belgrade Trip – Business Club Lounge at Belgrade Airport

With some time at the airport given my penchant for early arrivals, I thought I’d use my new Priority Pass card to pop into the airport lounge. There is a more decadent lounge next door which is operated by Air Serbia, but this is the general lounge that anyone with a lounge card type thing can get into.

The staff member at entry was polite and efficient with me, but she was having altercations with several other entrants to the lounge who asked questions. She spent most of the time talking loudly to people on the phone and I’m not sure she realised just how many lounge customers she was evidently annoying judging by their reactions when they entered. One customer already in the lounge told her to shut up, not in a way that was intended to be heard by the receptionist, but I think it cheered the soul of the lady who said it.

The bulk of the food choices were the cold meats and salad items. They were passable, but I was amused by the plastic plates provided that don’t hold the weight of more than about three slices of cucumber. I suspect this is deliberate to avoid piling up of food, there are reviews stretching back some time about this matter.

The drinks selection in the fridges. There were plenty of signs warning customers not to take anything from the lounge.

The coffee machines and the quality of the espresso was decent.

The signage said these were ham, but it transpired to be tuna which I was convinced that I wouldn’t like. However, after trying it rather than wasting it, it wasn’t entirely disagreeable.

Beer. It’s not exactly a wide selection of craft beers, but it could have been worse. It wasn’t the cleanest lounge and there was the air of despair about the whole proceedings, not helped by the lack of natural light. I suspect that at some stage in the near future that it might be wise to update and modernise this lounge.

The lounge was basic, and it’s badly reviewed by any real measure. For my purposes, this was a handy lounge with plenty of power points, snacks and drinks, so it worked well. If I had paid £25 or so for the visit, I think that I might have been rather less surprised and delighted. Anyway, after two hours of excitement of listening to the receptionist tutting at customers, it was time to board the Wizz Air express back to London Luton Airport.

September 17, 2024
Belgrade Trip – Luton Airport and My Lounge

This is only a short post (with poor quality photos), as I didn’t really mean to visit My Lounge. I used to visit this lounge a few years ago, but it has been modernised and updated now with a new ground floor reception area. I had assumed that the lounge would be fully booked, but I went and asked if they usually allowed Priority Pass walk-ins. He said that it was normally fine and so I thought I might as well pop in and wait for my flight. You find your own table here, unless you’ve pre-booked, and there weren’t many left, but I found a quiet corner out of the way. Incidentally, note the healthy banana I acquired here. There really is no end to my healthy eating.

I’ve written before about the odd situation with lounges in the UK, and it is mostly the UK, where they are less business lounges and more ‘all you can drink before your flight’ rooms. This is why, I suspect, Priority Pass has had to come to an arrangement with some dining options at the airport, as otherwise there isn’t enough capacity. I can hardly comment on what other people drink (I mean, look at the state of https://untappd.com/user/julwhite…..) but I watched several customer groups here trying to get their value for money by constantly visiting the bar and I think they achieved their aims. I opted for just one beer, not least as it was Birra Moretti, which doesn’t surprise and delight me.

This is a bit hopeless as a photo, but I hadn’t intended to spend much time here, but I was trying to show that the surroundings are comfortable and tasteful in their decoration. I’m not sure that’s evident at all from the photo, but luckily I’ve just written it, so that’ll do instead. It did feel relaxing to be fair and there were plenty of charging points dotted around, with everything feeling clean. There were plenty of staff and so empty plates and glasses were being cleared promptly.

I did like their nachos, but the food offering was highly limited here. It was effectively jacket potatoes or nachos, which is sufficient as a snack, but the usual entrance price here is £32 and that’s a punchy price point. So we get into the situation where some customers will try and get their value from the alcohol, which means the lounge has cut back in other areas to facilitate that. For someone who doesn’t drink alcohol, I’d suggest that it’s probably better value to go to one of the restaurants at the airport rather than visit the lounge.

Although the staff member on the door said that Priority Pass customers are usually accepted, I’m not entirely convinced that’s anywhere near guaranteed judging from the reviews. But, I’ll pop in again if I get chance to try and get some better photos than the random rubbish I’ve managed to get here. I was going to get them during this visit, but then I noticed that the gate for my flight had been called.

September 10, 2024
Belgrade Trip – Luton Airport and Avalon

Following on from my visit to the Big Smoke Restaurant with my Priority Pass card, I walked the short distance Avalon for a dessert and coffee. It’s a relatively small unit with around ten tables and I’m slightly surprised they haven’t put some high tables around the outside to increase capacity. Anyway, the deal here was that I got a credit of £18 to spend on food and drinks.

My plan was to get a coffee and a slice of the Big Rock cake, as that seemed sufficiently filling.

The staff member said that I wasn’t spending anywhere near the allowance and she suggested a sandwich, before then adding other items to come to exactly £18. I wasn’t going to turn this down, so I then had more food than I really needed. However, I’m telling myself that this is an opportunity to try the various Priority Pass offerings, so it didn’t seem like a bad idea. The sandwich was slightly moist from the tomato, but the ham was quite decadent and gave the whole arrangement a pleasant taste. I’m not really a dessert person, but the cookie was chocolatey and the Big Rock cake was more than enough. I took the cereal bar to Belgrade with me for a late night snack.

The service here was always helpful, not least with helping me reach the maximum spend possible. I didn’t want to take a table up for too long and take other sales away from them, but it was a clean, comfortable and relaxed area. My latte was rich in taste and that might explain why I couldn’t sleep when I got to Belgrade, I try not to drink coffee after around 10:00….. The customers here looked rather middle class shall we say (although who am I to judge….), the whole thing feels a little more upmarket with its set-up than some of the other food options.

Incidentally, those on an unlimited lounge card can also go to Nolito for an Italian meal, but I decided that I really didn’t need any more food and I didn’t want to take excessive advantage of Priority Pass as otherwise they’ll end up withdrawing offers such as these. I will though pop into Nolito when I’m next at the airport, which is only in a few days, so my two loyal blog readers won’t have long to wait.

September 10, 2024
Belgrade Trip – Luton Airport and Big Smoke Restaurant

I mentioned in my last post about my new acquisition of an unlimited Priority Pass card, so my first usage of it was at Big Smoke Restaurant. The deal is that they give you £18 to spend as a dining credit at the restaurant on anything that you want. It’s not a huge amount, so it’s not going to get any traveller a three course meal and a smorgasbord of drinks, but it’s a decent snack. The service element was a bit fiddly, but it didn’t help that I asked to sit at the bar as there were power points and I didn’t want any of my devices low on battery. This meant that they didn’t have any waiter service to take my order, which might have made the process smoother. I tried to order at the bar and I was told they needed to find a staff member from the restaurant area to pre-scan my Priority Pass card, which they did.

I then tried again to order and this was going brilliantly until they realised that had left some breakfast menus out, and I needed to order from the lunchtime menu which started at 11:00. Again, it was sorted quickly enough and everyone was helpful, although this is a slightly fiddly arrangement all round. Here’s the main menu and it’s evident how far the £18 will go, or not go as the case may be.

I went for Smoky Chicken Wings and a pint of Electric Eye. The food took 12 minutes to arrive, it was neatly presented and the chicken was tender and fell off the bone easily. I decided I’d eat the celery for some variety in my life, which was particularly healthy of me. Would it have been worth the £17.20 that it would have normally cost? Probably not to be honest, I’d have likely gone to Boots next door and got three meal deals for less money. However, the dining environment was clean and comfortable, the service was polite and I was able to charge all my devices up which ensured that I wasn’t overly stressed for the rest of the day. I’ve got a new battery pack to avoid issues, but I try and remain fully charged when about to travel somewhere new, just in case something goes a bit wrong.

For an airport location, the prices aren’t unreasonable and I merrily listened in to other customers to see if they were happy. In general, they seemed to be and given the absence of a Wetherspoons here, it’s likely one of the better pre-flight options. As for the Priority Pass, it’s a handy option for those on unlimited passes, but it’s poor value for those on limited visit pass as it’d be cheaper to just pay at the restaurant.

September 10, 2024
Belgrade Trip – Priority Pass

This is nothing to do with Belgrade, but it will put the next few posts into some sort of context. A few years ago, before the days of acquiring status with BA (which I’ve since lost as I haven’t been anywhere) I had a Priority Pass lounge card. It worked well as I had an offer from Accor Hotels, but I heard too many stories of not being able to get into lounges and so I decided against renewing it. However, here we are again with Accor offering a lower price and also some Accor points, so I thought I’d treat myself. It has the advantage that it includes a spend at numerous airport restaurants, including at Luton Airport where I mostly travel from at the moment. After checking that I could use multiple visits in one day, I decided to go for it and just have to hope that they don’t change the arrangements any time soon. So my two loyal blog readers will now be seeing endless posts about random lounges that I’ve found, what a treat for us all.

September 10, 2024
Priority Pass – Review

Since I haven’t written directly about my Priority Pass card, now seems an opportune time to do it. This is primarily because they appear to be getting some really negative reviews on-line in places such as Trustpilot, which to me at least seem undeserved.

I hadn’t really intended to get a Priority Pass card last year, but Accor were doing a special offer which meant that it was just over £210 a year for an unlimited pass. That gets me into lounges at most airports for free and I can take a guest in for £20 (was £15) although I haven’t bothered with that option as I’m happy to abandon travelling companions.

One defining reason that I wanted one of the cards last July was that I was flying out of Luxembourg and that’s one of my favourite lounges, so Accor messaging me whilst I was in that city was just destiny as far as I was concerned…. Incidentally, that’s been the only lounge where something went wrong, as the Priority Pass system was down and they wrote down my card number and clearly never invoiced them since it never appeared on my account.

Accessing the lounge can usually be done by downloading an App on a smartphone and showing that, although I carry my physical card as well. When someone joins the scheme they also get sent a book of where the lounges are, which is quite a substantial little tome as there are over 1,000 lounges around the world where access is possible.

Anyway, I’ve written about several of the lounges, and there have been some really good examples, such as in Katowice, Luxembourg, Malta and Vilnius to name just a few. There’s also the Grain Lounge at Gatwick Airport, which is a restaurant where lounge card holders can go.

One common complaint raised against Priority Pass is that some of the lounges, and these seem predominantly to be in the UK, are often full and have to turn away card holders. I’ve never been turned away, although I do try and visit at quieter times if I can which might have helped. My flights are usually at strange times of the day though, which helps me since sensible people prefer not to fly at 6am.

There is a way round this, and that’s to pre-book a lounge by paying a sum of £5. I’m not engaged with this at all, as although it guarantees access I don’t see that this feels like a fair way of charging customers who have already paid for the pass. Some people get a lounge pass courtesy of their bank or financial provider, and they might be willing to pay £5, but it seems expensive to me to ask people to buy a pass and then charge them another £5 every time they want to visit the lounge.

The best way of resolving this problem has been trialled in numerous US airports, and at Gatwick as I mentioned, which is to encourage restaurants to join the scheme. This works by giving the customer £15, or a broadly similar amount in a different currency, to spend at the restaurant, which takes some pressure off the lounges. I’d very much like Priority Pass to focus on expanding this part of their offering, as it would enable people feel that they are at least able to get a meal and drinks if nothing else.

My renewal comes up in around two months, and I’m not entirely sure how much it will be, as this information isn’t in my account yet. I’m on balance not going to renew, but this isn’t because I’m disappointed with the service, but solely because I’ve now got Oneworld status again and so I get lounge access this way for many of my flights.

But, back to whether the pass is a good idea or not…. There are a variety of passes available, some give a fixed number of lounge accesses for those who travel slightly less frequently, through the unlimited accesses card that I have. For anyone making even more than a handful of flights a year, I’d recommend the card, as airports can be a bit of a nightmare, and it is nice to get a little calm before the flight. Or indeed after it, as there are a few arrivals lounges which are part of the scheme.

So, I’d say that Priority Pass is actually quite a decent scheme, and that it is far better than some reviews might suggest it is. If they can give me a reasonable annual fee offer for another year, then I’d certainly be keen to sign up again. For the time I’ve had the pass though, I’m very happy with it and have certainly benefited from the peace and quiet in numerous lounges during that time.

March 29, 2019