Review: the British Airways lounge at Edinburgh Airport

This is my review of the British Airways lounge at Edinburgh Airport.

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

I was at Edinburgh Airport in order to review the brand new Plaza Premium lounge, coming soon. I had a bit more time than expected so I though would take a quick peek into the British Airways business class lounge too.

In recent years, BA has refurbished its Aberdeen lounge (review here), but the Edinburgh lounge has not been upgraded since British Airways took over the space from bmi back in 2012/3.

Where is the British Airways lounge at Edinburgh Airport?

The British Airways lounge is located opposite Gate 5, at the far end of the shopping precinct.  Turn left when exiting the duty free maze after security and you’ll eventually see it.

How can you get into the lounge?

The British Airways lounge at Edinburgh operates under standard BA lounge access rules.  That means you’ll get access if you are:

• a Silver or Gold Executive Club member
• travelling in Club Europe
• connecting to a long-haul Club World or First flight at Heathrow

oneworld Sapphire and Emerald members also get access, if flying on British Airways or another oneworld airline.

You cannot get in by paying or by showing any lounge access card. For that you’d need to head to the Club Aspire lounges or the brand new Edinburgh Plaza Premium lounge which we will review soon.

Inside the Edinburgh British Airways lounge

To get into the lounge all you need to do is scan your boarding pass with one of the lounge attendants.

You can then walk in, past the tragically empty magazine racks:

They really should do something about this, even if it is just printing a long banner with details of how to download magazines and newspapers digitally via Press Reader. It does not set a good first impression.

The British Airways Edinburgh lounge is triangular and fans out from the entrance. It is surprisingly big although it needs to be given the volume of flights and the number of travellers with status. On some flights to London City Airport virtually the entire flight is BA Silver or Gold!

First up is a high table and some dining tables:

and

After this is the buffet area, which is conveniently located slap bang in the middle of the lounge.

Don’t get too excited though, because the only things on offer were some sandwiches in creative flavours (no BLT, egg and mayo or tuna sandwich crowd pleasers here) and a miniscule cheese and cracker selection.

and

The drinks offering, at least, is slightly better, with self- pour wines, beers and spirits, including Aviation and Tanqueray gin, Ciroc vodka, Pimms and Red Label Johnnie Walker.

Round the corner are more empty magazine racks, albeit this time featuring copies of BA’s own High Life, which makes it look less barren:

The lounge does, at least, have a long wall of windows at its far end which overlooks the car park (no runway views sadly):

There is more seating away from the windows:

Plus a smaller room off the main space that’s been set up for people with laptops:

This is a key selling point.  Lots of space and lots of variety.  Whether you want a desk to work at, a communal eating table or sofa style seating, you are going to be OK. 

Conclusion

What lets the British Airways Edinburgh lounge down, at least mid afternoon, was the lack of hot food – or any decent food at all.  British Airways never seems to make a success of feeding people at its lounges outside London.

If you’re hungry, and you have an Amex Platinum card, I would be tempted to go to the Plaza Premium lounge instead – it is newer, nicer, and has a better food selection. It also has spectacular runway views.

If you are reading this and can access the British Airways lounge but do not have access to other lounges, the question isn’t really ‘which Edinburgh Airport lounge is best?’.  Your question will be ‘is it worth getting to the airport early to enjoy the BA lounge?’.  Food-wise, the answer is ‘No’.  Drinks-wise, I’d say yes.  Space-wise and comfort-wise, I’d say yes, although it does get busy.

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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.

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

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.

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.

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