What is lounge hopping?
It’s simply when you get to a large airport that has multiple airline lounges, that you have access to, and moving between them trying out all the different facilities before you fly.
Where can I do this?
It tends to be at the larger airports where either one airline has multiple lounges, or one airline alliance has lots of small lounges with different airlines. Here’s some examples:
Hong Kong International Airport (HKG)
The home of Cathay Pacific. I think Cathay Pacific have some of the best lounges in the world and naturally at their home airport they have multiple lounges. If you’re lucky enough to have lounge access then you can visit more than one lounge during your trip, to get different views and different types of seating.
London Heathrow Terminal 5 (LHR)
The home of British Airways. Just like Cathay Pacific, British Airways have multiple lounges in their Terminal 5 facility to deal with the sheer numbers of people. There are North and South business class lounges at each end of the main terminal building, and an additional lounge at the B gates satellite building. On top of that they have a First-Class lounge (for BA Exec Club Gold members) at the south end of the terminal, and a lounge called the Concorde Room for those actually flying in First and Gold Guest List members. If you were flying in First, you could in theory visit 5 BA lounges in one trip, not that I would ever leave the Concorde lounge if I had access, it is very nice!
There are also 2 paid for lounges at T5, Club Aspire and Plaza Premium, so in theory there are a total of 7 lounges that it’s possible to visit.
London Heathrow Terminal 3 (LHR)
London Heathrow Terminal 3, the home of all the other One World alliance airlines, including some British Airways flights. As this terminal is a little older and smaller in design, each One World alliance airline has its own lounge here, to deal with capacity most of them allow any One World passenger to enter. So, if you’re on a One World flight from Terminal 3 you have the choice of:
- American Airlines
- British Airways
- Cathay Pacific
- Qantas
All of these lounges have a policy of allowing any One World customer who is flying on a One World airline flight to enter. This is where lounge hopping becomes really good fun, each lounge has its own unique facilities, food and drink offerings, and views of the airfield.
Note that at extremely busy times some lounges might stop you from hopping by asking you to go to your own airline’s lounge, but in 20 years of flying, this has only ever happened to me once.
Is there a limit to how many lounges I can visit?
In short, no. The only limit you have is how much time you’re allowed to spend in a lounge, some airlines restrict you to 3 or 4 hours, whereas others don’t seem to care. At busy times one lounge might become full and refuse you entry as they are at capacity, but if that happens just go and pick a different lounge.
Bottom line
Do some research into what lounges are available at your airport terminal before you fly, check the access eligibility for yourself and if there are multiple lounges you can try, have some fun and go lounge hopping!
