I have flown out from Belfast three times in recent months, and I’ll admit to having low expectations when I learned it as an Aspire lounge based on my previous experiences with Aspire.
Location, hours and entry
The lounge is located airside by Gate 4 and Starbucks. British Airways uses Gate 4, and you can board directly onto the airbridge from the lounge, which I really love.
Aer Lingus, KLM, Loganair, Eastern Airways and British Airways all use the Aspire Lounge. They also accept Priority Pass and Dragon Pass members. Pre-booking is available. Only once did I see the lounge busy out of my three visits.
Here are the opening hours:
The Lounge and facilities
First impressions were good. On all of my visits, the staff were friendly and helpful when you entered the lounge. Boarding for BA is announced as it is direct from the lounge.
The lounge has been recently renovated and looks modern and classy. As you enter there is plenty of comfortable starting before you come into the main dining area. There are also great views of the whole airfield and beyond to Belfast’s docks and their cranes named Samson and Goliath. These floor-to-ceiling windows flood the lounge with natural light, making it seem spacious and airy. You can also see your aircraft parked up at the gate if you are flying BA.
In the middle of the lounge is the food and drink area with plenty of dining tables and some high bar seats as well.
At the back of the lounge is another seating area with some private booths, which are perfect for work. There were plenty of sockets for charging around the lounge and the wifi was fine too. There was even a glass booth for making phone calls which I wish all lounges would have.
Departure boards were spread throughout the lounge so you could see them from most areas.
PressReader is available at this lounge, which gives access to a selection of newspapers and magazines online.
There are no showers in the lounge.
Food and drink
In the middle of the lounge is a buffet with alcohol as well. This was a nicely laid-out area with flowers on one of the islands.
I was impressed with the food that was available. In the morning, there was a full English with scrambled eggs, beans, bacon, sausages, tomatoes and hash browns as well as porridge. Plus there were cold options like cereal, yoghurt, fruit and pastries. In the afternoon/early evening, they had a veggie and chicken Thai curry, potatoes and naan bread (a bit odd with a Thai curry), soup and rolls, afternoon tea with scones, clotted cream and cake plus cold meat, cheese and salads. I liked that there were some snack foods as well such as crisps, fruit and yoghurts too. The food was also nicely presented in the main.
There was a wide selection of alcohol too. There were three varieties of Jack Daniels, two gins, three rums and even brandy, tequila and Kahlua. There was no free fizz, but there were two whites, two reds and a rose wine.
If you wanted a soft drink or coffee, there was a bean-to-cup coffee machine with flavoured syrups next to it, which I thought was a nice touch. They also had non-dairy milk available.
The only disappointment was that the juices were from a machine, so not exactly fresh, although I did like that they had still and sparkling water on tap as well as flavoured ice tea too. There was also a soda machine for fizzy drinks.
I was very surprised to see this tip on iPad, though. Please don’t tell me the US tipping culture is spreading (although I wish something like this was available for porters in hotels!)
Conclusion
This is a large, spacious lounge with a good selection of food and drinks. I loved the natural light and views of the airfield with the docks behind. It is great if you are departing from Gate 4 as you can board directly from the lounge, which takes you straight into the jetbridge. This is definitely a great model for how Aspire lounges should be.
You can find more details on the link on the official page here.
