A couple of months ago four British Airways lounges joined Priority Pass. We hadn’t covered this development at the time, but wanted to highlight these new lounge options especially seeing as Priority Pass appears to have now added a fifth British Airways lounge – sort of.
The original four British Airways lounges that joined Priority Pass in June 2022 were:
- EWR – Newark Liberty International, Terminal B – open 5am-11:30am daily (cardholders don’t have access outside of these times)
- SFO – San Francisco International, International Terminal A – open 8am-2pm daily (cardholders don’t have access outside of these times)
- SEA – Seattle, South Satellite – open 5am-10am daily (cardholders don’t have access outside of these times)
- IAD – Dulles International Washington D.C., Concourse B – open 6am-2pm daily (cardholders don’t have access outside of these times)
The fifth new lounge is:
- BWI – Baltimore/Washington International Concourse E – open 5am-4pm daily
The addition of the lounge at Newark Liberty was particularly useful because there aren’t any other Priority Pass lounges at EWR, so travelers with Priority Pass will now at least have one option provided they’re visiting before 11:30am. Having said that, the fact that it’s the sole Priority Pass lounge means it’ll likely get overcrowded when it’s open in the mornings and could struggle with capacity restrictions.
For SFO, SEA and IAD, the terminals/satellites/concourses that the BA lounges are in were already served by other Priority Pass lounges. The addition of the BA lounges will therefore hopefully go some way to alleviating the pressure in those other lounges. However, note the opening hours that Priority Pass cardholders are eligible for entry because it’s different to the standard opening hours for the lounges. For example, the BA lounge at SEA is normally open from 2pm-7:30pm daily. As you can see in the list above, they’re opening the lounge up for Priority Pass customers in the morning (5am-10am) rather than during their regular afternoon/early evening operating hours.
The addition of the British Airways lounge at BWI is a little confusing on the surface because it doesn’t appear to specifically be a British Airways lounge. Instead, it’s called the Chesapeake Club Lounge although it does ordinarily serve BA travelers.
Seeing as four of the BA lounges have been available in Priority Pass since June 2022, have any of you had a chance to visit them during recent travel? If so, how were the food and beverage offerings – was it as good as BA’s standard offerings in the lounge, or do Priority Pass guests receive reduced service?
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
How recent is the BWI development?
It is always a nice gift to have the lounges before a flight in some cases.
IAD. I believe BA used to be a priority pass lounge. It has a lot of space & a decent location, but I was never a fan. Their staff are the epitome of lounge dragons and they also have few offerings. It’s closer to escalators and that much easier for a visit, esp if your gates are not nearby. However, If you like food, Turkish is vastly superior in that they have food & it’s great as far as US lounges go. It’s modest compared to international lounges, of course. The biggest trouble with Turkish is it’s a bit farther and they regularly turn away people due to capacity constraints or just in preference to star gold or people actually flying Turkish in business class. It’s always sad to make the hike and get rejected. Not sure if they still allow on arrival but I didn’t used to have a problem being admitted for this. Side complaint – I’m not sure why any priority pass would deny if they can get you in the door. Although it’s “free”, it seems likely the amount of money the lounge makes off priority pass is tied to volume. Fortunately, Turkish usually has time windows they’ll recommend. Alaska/virgin has gates that aren’t terribly far so that’s when I liked going to Turkish the most
Please make BOS PP so Qsuite passengers can be spared from the dungeon that is the basement AF lounge.
I’ve enjoyed a lot of great stays at various PP lounges around the world, but it’s such a crap shoot these days. There is just no consistency to the program and the minute we discover and exploit the best possibilities, they disappear. Either there are capacity restraints, extremely limited hours for PP members or options are simply shut down as was the case for many restaurants which were previously available in the program. Too many times, I’ve walked the long concourse, only to discover that the PP opportunity I had planned on wasn’t going to happen. Airport lounges and restaurants are supposed to refresh you, not aggravate and disappoint you. Still, it’s often better than nothing and the few exemplary experiences are worth noting.
Recently visited the IAD BA lounge and it is fantastic. They are currently doing a hybrid of food delivery via electronic ordering; ordered a burger that came out excellent. My wife did a pasta entre and it was also great. Best lounge food I have had in a while.
That’s good to know – glad to hear that they’re providing a good quality offering.
But did you visit during BA hours or PP hours? When I was there during PP hours the selection was very slim.