Virgin Atlantic takes back its lounges, here's what changes for American Express Platinum holders
This is certainly news that will not please the vast majority of travelers in Italy, and beyond, Virgin Atlantic a [...]
Virgin Atlantic
SFO
This is certainly news that will not please the vast majority of Italian travelers, and more, Virgin Atlantic 2 years later "takes back" its lounges, which had been operated by Plaza Premium since 2021 and revert to exclusive use by Virgin Atlantic passengers and, briefly, a small number of Skyteam passengers.
Virgin Atlantic's Clubhouses
In this article:
The British company's lounges are among the most beautiful and richest around, we had crowned the one in London as the best in the world in our special ranking in 2021. The one in London's Terminal 3 was also the only one left out of the agreement with Plaza Premium in 2021.
The choice was in times of low traveler inflow a winning decision. By putting its lounges under management, Virgin reduced costs, thus amortizing the rental fee and Plaza Premium was the ideal partner since it is one of the best in the world in this field. And so all lounges in the U.S. for the past two years have been maintained by PP on behalf of Virgin, now that traffic has returned to pre-pandemic levels, however, these lounges are returning exclusively open to VS passengers.
The lounges in question are:
- Boston (BOS)
- New York (JFK)
- Newark (EWR)
- San Francisco (SFO)
- Washington (IAD)
Clubhouse access new rules
Management will still be handled by Plaza premium, but the lounges will no longer be part of the network, which means that American Express Platinum holders will lose the ability to access these lounges:
- The Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse New York (JFK) no longer offers access to Plaza Premium guests
- As of February 28, 2023, the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouses in San Francisco (SFO) and Washington (IAD) will no longer offer access to Plaza Premium guests.
- Clubhouses in Boston (BOS) and Newark (EWR) at the moment will instead remain part of the Plaza Premium network
Plaza Premium, operates a very large network in the world, but not in the U.S. where before this change it operated only seven lounges in the U.S. Instead it now has only two lounges of its own, in Dallas (DFW) and Orlando (MCO) in addition to the two that remain with Virgin.
Final Reflection
When I was in December at JFK before I took off on board. Of KLM's new premium economy I went straight to this lounge, and I had a hard time getting in because it was really full. Not only did I have status with KLM, but I also held Amex Platinum and eventually got in just because of the status, while other patrons with Amex were being bounced.
Clubhouses are not huge and being very good in terms of lounge quality and food proposal have attracted a lot of cardholders, a situation that was fine in times of lean cows, but now the situation had become untenable here was the decision to return to pre-pandemic rules again.
T4 at JFK has the Centurion Lounge. and several of Delta's SkyClubs, but despite this the most desired lounge has always been Virgin's, and this must have displeased the British airline's premium passengers irritated by the crowding and the fallout on cleanliness, available space, and service in general.
Last but not least in a few months Virgin Atlantic will join Skyteam And this could lead to, at least away from London, to opening the doors to elite passengers flying into these airports. We will see.
