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Review: The Gateway by easyJet lounge at London Gatwick Airport’s North Terminal

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This is our review of The Gateway by easyJet lounge in the North Terminal at Gatwick Airport.

This is part of our series of reviews of airport lounges across the UK.  You see all of the reviews here.

This lounge opened in 2014 when it was branded as My Lounge and had a hipster aesthetic, which extended to wooden cutlery and cardboard bowls. This was done to create a point of difference with No1 Lounge next door, which has the same ownership.

Review The Gateway by easyJet lounge London Gatwick Airport North Terminal

Towards the end of the pandemic, the lounge took an interesting shift. It became ‘The Gateway by easyJet’ and offers free entry to anyone on a fully flexible easyJet ticket. Other entry routes (cash, Priority Pass, DragonPass etc) remain. The second My Lounge at Gatwick South remains open under the original brand and is reviewed here.

All of the lounges at Gatwick North are in the same area, so follow the big ‘Lounges’ sign as you clear security and duty free. It is situated immediately to your left as you turn into the corridor which ends in the No1 Lounge.

The My Lounge look is best described as ‘industrial shabby chic’.  The entire lounge is glass fronted so anyone passing can see the whole space – although you would only pass the lounge if you were on the way to one of the other lounges.

The ‘shabby chic / hipster’ ethos has softened over the years. Real cutlery, real plates and real glassware are now available and a few orange cushions purchased. The street art in the games room has been replaced by a beach scene. Apart from that, little has changed since the 2014 opening.

It is a small space so it only takes a few photos to give you a full overview.

The main feature is a 15 foot long wooden table with 12 or so yellow chairs around it. This is the best place to work. Standing behind it with my back to the window, you get a view of the buffet and the dining tables:

Review The Gateway by easyJet lounge London Gatwick Airport North Terminal

Here’s a view from the buffet, looking towards the entrance:

Review The Gateway by easyJet lounge London Gatwick Airport North Terminal

Whilst there are floor to ceiling windows, there is no view as you are looking directly back at the terminal. However, these chairs and tables are attractive. Each table has a letter as a base which spells out L-O-U-N-G-E (there may have been eight originally to spell ‘My Lounge’!):

Review The Gateway by easyJet lounge London Gatwick Airport North Terminal

At the back are a couple of sofas (not pictured as they were occupied) and two private rooms. One has a large leather sofa in it:

Review The Gateway by easyJet lounge London Gatwick Airport North Terminal

It was marked ‘Reserved’ when I arrived and a family group took it later on. I am guessing it was held back for them after they booked a large number of slots.

Next door is a small room with table football:

Review The Gateway by easyJet lounge London Gatwick Airport North Terminal

Food and drink at The Gateway lounge

Food was never a strong point here although what is available isn’t actually bad at all. Your options at breakfast are either a sausage / eggs / bacon / beans buffet:

Review The Gateway by easyJet lounge London Gatwick Airport North Terminal

…. or croissants / mini muffins / fruit / yoghurt:

Review The Gateway by easyJet lounge London Gatwick Airport North Terminal

There is a pancake machine but it was broken.

I was also there as breakfast morphed into lunch. There was a choice of a salad bar:

Review The Gateway by easyJet lounge London Gatwick Airport North Terminal

…. and a mix of chicken or pasta with rice as hot items:

Review The Gateway by easyJet lounge London Gatwick Airport North Terminal

As well as the usual soft drinks and coffee machines, alchol options included a surprisingly varied selection of wine (nothing sparkling) plus standard spirits – Jim Beam, Bacardi, Famous Grouse, Beefeater etc.

One thing worth noting is that there is a major lack of plugs in the lounge. It’s all very well having huge wooden tables and leather sofas but they are not ideal for integrating electrical sockets. There are some scattered around but your options are limited.

Getting in

If you were planning to pay to visit The Gateway lounge, you should note that pricing is all over the place.

On the No1 Lounges website it is £32 (my 2015 review notes it was £16 …. lounge inflation has been steep).

Over at Holiday Extras it is £29 for two hours or £32 for three hours. However, click through to Holiday Extras via the easyJet site and you can pay £23 for two hours.

You can also get access via Priority Pass or other lounge club cards. You can pay £6 to pre-book The Gateway or the No1 Lounge next door if you want to ensure access. No1 is by far the bigger space but can be very chaotic. Even as The Gateway lounge got busier there were still plenty of seats, although it was turning away Priority Pass cardholders without reservations around 1pm.

Opening hours are currently 4am to 9pm.

Travelling from Gatwick North? Here are your lounge options….

Gatwick North Terminal has a number of premium lounges to choose from, including several independent, airline-agnostic lounges. We have reviewed them all:


Getting airport lounge access for free from a credit card

How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (January 2024)

Here are the four options to get FREE airport lounge access via a UK credit card.

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 Air Lines and Eurostar lounges.  Our American Express Platinum review is here. You can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

If you have a small business, consider American Express Business Platinum instead.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for the first year. It comes with a Priority Pass card loaded with four free visits to any Priority Pass lounge – see the list here.

Additional lounge visits are charged at £24.  You get four 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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard gets you get a free Priority Pass card, allowing you access to the Priority Pass network.  Guests are charged at £24 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.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard

A huge bonus, but only available to HSBC Premier clients Read our full review

PS. You can find all of HfP’s UK airport lounge reviews – and we’ve been to most of them – indexed here.

Comments (35)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Chris W says:

    32 pounds for a Holiday Inn-style buffet breakfast. It boggles my mind people pay this.

    Find the fanciest restaurant in the terminal and spend your money there instead.

    • johnny_c-l says:

      I imagine it is the self serve beer taps which are the main attraction and the HIX breakfast is a bonus.

  • Lady London says:

    Turned away there more than once at an absolutely dead time in the afternoon when there was, literally, no more than 1 person already in the lounge and I and another lady (separately) were offering Priority Pass when it was a MyLounge.

    The staff member was extremely supercilious and, faced with the background all visibile behind him of an entirely empty lounge (bar the 1 person at the buffet) and I’m sure they never had any airline contracts to keep places for, either… claimed the lounge was “full”.

    This on 2 separate occasions and clearly Priority Pass was what they’d been instructed to refuse.

    Didn’t worry me as No. 1 always welcomed me as a known very regular single traveller with PP even when there was a queue. I’d just felt like trying MyLounge out for a change.

    Do you think I’m going in there now it’s Easyjet? Unlikely, especially if that same staff member is still there – his lip practically curling as he got off on refusing us.

    • VSCXFAN says:

      Quite likely they have relocated to JFK with a mission to turn away Virgin Lifetime Golds from the (underwhelming) Delta Sky Club.

  • GaryC says:

    The photos here do present the space in a somewhat flattering light. I’ve used the lounge when the No.1 lounge nextdoor is “full”, and not found it a great space. Even for free with PP, I’m not sure I’d go back.

  • Ant says:

    I actually like this lounge. It’s the first one down the corridor, quick to get in and quick out. Free with PP, and breakfast is good. I don’t think the other lounges are any better.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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