Airport Lounges in London

Published 20 September 2026 · By the Guide to London editorial team · Editor: Terje Moy

A pay-on-the-door lounge at a London airport costs between about £29 and £44 a head, and buys you a seat, food, drinks and quiet for the three hours before your flight. At Gatwick, Luton and Stansted you can simply book one. At Heathrow, most of the lounges you can see on the signs are airline lounges that no amount of money will get you into.

Airport lounges come in three kinds, and confusing them is the main reason people arrive at a door and are turned away. Airline lounges belong to the airline and are for its premium cabins and frequent flyers. Independent lounges are run by contractors and sell entry to anyone. Card lounges are open to holders of a particular credit card or membership scheme and nobody else.

This page is about the second and third kinds: what they cost at each London airport, what is actually in them, and when the money is better spent elsewhere. For the layout of each terminal and how to reach it, see our guides to arriving and departing at Heathrow and to choosing between London's airports.

Gatwick sells the widest choice, and publishes the prices

Gatwick is the easiest airport in London to shop for a lounge, because it lists six of them with a starting price against each. Entry covers the three hours before your scheduled departure time and includes food, drinks and unlimited Wi-Fi.

Two adults in the cheapest North Terminal lounge cost £56, roughly what the same pair would spend on two sandwiches, two coffees and two glasses of wine in the departure hall. That is the real comparison, and it is why lounges make more sense for a long wait than a short one.

Gatwick also runs an arrivals lounge. Arrive & Refresh, in the North Terminal, starts at £109 per stay and gives you a private room, a shower, towels and breakfast. That is a lot of money unless you have landed overnight and have a meeting, in which case it is cheaper than a day-use hotel room.

Stansted's lounge is closed to most of its passengers

Of everything on this page, this is the fact most likely to save you money, and hardly any guide mentions it. The old Escape Lounge in Stansted's main terminal has closed as part of the airport's rebuilding. Its replacement, Essence by Escape Lounges, sits out by Gates 1 to 19 and is reached on the airport's transit system.

The consequence is set out plainly by the operator: passengers flying with Ryanair and easyJet cannot use it, because their gates are elsewhere, and once you have travelled to Gates 1 to 19 you cannot come back to the main terminal. Since those two airlines carry the great majority of people through Stansted, most passengers reading about a Stansted lounge cannot actually buy one.

If you are on an eligible airline, Essence costs from £28.99 pre-booked, which has to be done at least 24 hours ahead, or from £35 walking up on the day. It opens daily from 04:45 to 20:15, the food is cold rather than hot, and children under three go in free. Between May and October the operator will not take bookings for groups of more than four. Our guide to Stansted Airport and getting to London explains the terminal layout that makes all this necessary.

Luton: two lounges, near-identical prices, different closing times

Luton keeps things simple. My Lounge starts at £37.99 per person and opens 04:00 to 21:00 every day. The No1 Lounge starts at £38.00 and opens 04:00 to 20:00 every day. The prices are effectively the same, so the deciding factor is usually the closing time: an evening departure delayed past 20:00 leaves No1 customers with nowhere to sit.

Luton's early opening is genuinely useful. A great many flights from Luton leave before 07:00, which means arriving in the middle of the night, and the DART shuttle from Luton Airport Parkway runs around the clock. Our guide to Luton Airport and the DART covers that side of the journey, and our comparison of overnight transport to the London airports explains which routes run when.

Heathrow is different: most lounges are not for sale

Heathrow publishes a list of lounges in each terminal, and the striking thing is how few of them anyone can buy. Terminal 5 is effectively a British Airways estate: the Concorde Room, the First Class Lounge, the Galleries Club lounges and the Galleries Arrivals Lounge are all reserved for the airline's own passengers. Terminal 2 has Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Air Canada and United lounges. Terminal 4 has Air France, Etihad, Gulf Air, Qatar Airways and Saudia.

Terminal 3 is the most varied, with American, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Qantas and Virgin Atlantic lounges plus an American Express Centurion Lounge, which is open only to holders of the right card. Independently run lounges that sell entry do exist at Heathrow, and the airport lists them alongside the airline ones, but the price is quoted at booking rather than published as a table, so you have to check your own terminal and date.

The practical rule at Heathrow is to work out which terminal you are flying from first, because the answer changes completely between them. Our guide to the four Heathrow terminals explains which airlines use which, and it matters more here than at any other London airport.

Heathrow also runs arrivals lounges: British Airways in Terminal 5, United in Terminal 2, American in Terminal 3 and Virgin Atlantic's Revivals in Terminal 3, all opening in the morning and closing by early afternoon. They are for the airlines' own long-haul arriving passengers, not for sale to anyone who fancies a shower.

Priority Pass, LoungeKey and the card schemes

Many travellers reach a lounge through a membership scheme rather than a ticket. Stansted's Essence accepts Priority Pass, LoungeKey and DragonPass, but insists that holders pre-book through the relevant portal rather than turning up. Gatwick's and Luton's lounges generally take the same schemes, although which lounges participate changes, and a lounge that is full will refuse members before it refuses paying customers.

Two things worth knowing before you rely on a card. First, membership usually covers you and not your family, and guests are charged at a rate set by the lounge. Second, the schemes' own apps list lounges that may have closed, changed operator or moved terminal, which is exactly what happened at Stansted. Check the airport's own page as well as the scheme's.

What you actually get, and what you do not

A standard paid lounge in London gives you a comfortable seat, a self-service buffet, soft drinks, tea and coffee, beer and wine, newspapers, power sockets and Wi-Fi. Premium spirits usually cost extra. Showers exist only in some lounges, and mostly in the arrivals ones. Very few London lounges have quiet rooms, and none of them can be counted on for sleep.

Lounges are cashless, which is normal across London's airports; what that means for a visitor carrying an overseas card is set out in our guide to money in London. They also have rules. Stansted's operator reserves the right to refuse entry for inappropriate dress or behaviour, and says no refund follows. Alcohol is served but not unlimited in any meaningful sense, and staff will stop serving.

Every London terminal already has free Wi-Fi beyond the lounge door, so that alone is no reason to pay; getting online in London covers the wider picture.

Children in lounges

Children are welcome in most London airport lounges, and under-threes are usually free, as at Stansted. Gatwick's Plaza Premium in the North Terminal has a dedicated children's area, which is the closest thing to a family lounge in London.

Whether it is worth paying is a different question. Both Heathrow and Gatwick run free play areas beyond security, in every Heathrow terminal and in each of Gatwick's two departure lounges. For a family of four, a lounge at £38 each with children charged at or near the adult rate is a serious sum, and a play space will usually hold a small child better than a room full of seated adults. Departing with small children is covered step by step in our guide for families flying out of London.

Fast Track: the cheaper thing people actually want

Much of the time, what a traveller wants is not three hours in an armchair but twenty fewer minutes in a queue. That is a separate and far cheaper product. Gatwick sells Fast Track at security from £6, and an express lane at passport control for arrivals at £15. At Heathrow the equivalent is pre-booked Fast Track, which also comes with a Heathrow Express Premier+ ticket, which our comparison of the Heathrow Express and the Elizabeth line explains.

If your flight is in two hours and you only want to skip the queue, £6 at Gatwick does more than £40. If you have four hours because you self-transferred from another airport, the lounge wins. Our guide to moving between London's airports explains why those long gaps happen.

When a lounge is worth it, and when it is not

One last piece of arithmetic that catches people out. The three hours a lounge includes are measured from your scheduled departure, not from when you arrive. Get to the airport four hours early and the first hour is spent outside the lounge, or costs extra. If you are planning a long wait because of a night arrival, an airport hotel may serve you better than a lounge; there is a separate guide to sleeping at a London airport. And if the wait exists because you are picking up duty free, our guide to UK customs allowances is worth reading before you buy.

Frequently asked questions

Can anyone pay to use an airport lounge in London?

At Gatwick, Luton and Stansted, yes, subject to space and to the airline restrictions at Stansted. At Heathrow most lounges belong to airlines and cannot be bought into at any price, although independently run lounges do exist in some terminals and quote a price at booking.

How much does an airport lounge cost at a London airport?

Expect roughly £28 to £44 per adult in September 2026. Gatwick's Plaza Express starts at £28 and Clubrooms at £44; Stansted's Essence is from £28.99 booked ahead or £35 on the day; Luton's two lounges both start at about £38. The figure moves with the date, so look at the airport's own booking page before you plan around it.

How long can I stay in an airport lounge?

Gatwick and Stansted both include the three hours before your scheduled departure time. That is counted from the flight time rather than from your arrival, so getting to the airport very early does not buy you more lounge time.

Is there a lounge at Stansted for Ryanair and easyJet passengers?

No. The main terminal lounge has closed, and its replacement sits by Gates 1 to 19, which Ryanair and easyJet do not use. The operator states that passengers with those airlines cannot access the space, and that the journey to those gates cannot be reversed.

Do children pay for airport lounges in London?

Usually yes, though infants under three are free at Stansted and most lounges have a lower children's rate. Before paying, remember that Heathrow's Stay & Play areas and Gatwick's Kids Zones are free and open to everyone after security.

Sources

• London Gatwick - Airport lounges (checked September 2026)
• London Gatwick - Fast Track security (checked September 2026)
• London Stansted Airport - Essence by Escape Lounges (checked September 2026)
• London Luton Airport - Executive lounges (checked September 2026)
• Heathrow - Lounges and hotels (checked September 2026)
• Heathrow - Travelling with children (checked September 2026)
• London Gatwick - Travelling with children (checked September 2026)