Priority Pass - refused admission to lounges

I am not sure if this is the correct forum to post this, but here goes!

On our P&O fly cruise on 23 September from Manchester to Venice , my wife and I who's are both Priority Pass holders, were refused entry to the exec lounges at Manchester Airport because "they had too many pre bookings".

This is the first time this has happy as we have used the Passes extensively in various countries.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Never happened to me, but I have never flown from Manchester :)

Lounge access is subject to availability always, of course, but one would think they would manage their pre-sales to cater for expected walk-up demand, which they should be able to predict reasonably well.

Whose lounge, as a matter of interest?

We are with Airport Angel. Different company, same principal, and I have to say that we have never been refused admission to any lounge in the scheme.

Having said that, in January 2013, we did find that the lounge in Santiago de Chile was so full that there were no seats, and that it was so crowded with people standing that there was much more room outside, but they still booked us in.

Whatever, it definitely counted against our annual free visits allowance, even though we left after just a few minutes. So, whilst we did not go over our annual free visits limit, we did not know this at the time and I guess we would have actually preferred to have been turned away rather than have it count as a visit on our account.

Never happened to me, but I have never flown from Manchester :)

 

Lounge access is subject to availability always, of course, but one would think they would manage their pre-sales to cater for expected walk-up demand, which they should be able to predict reasonably well.

 

Whose lounge, as a matter of interest?

It was both the Aspire and the Escape Lounges

I looked up Manchester lounges - the pre-bookable ones through the airport website are Escape (I think run by the airport). There are Servisair lounges in T1 (Aspire) and T2 (Styal) open to PP, so they may better options, but no choice in T3.

Edit: posted at same time, I see you tried the Servisair. Of course they can be pre-booked either direct or as part of a package, as well. Good to know thanks.

I use Priority Pass for times when I'm not flying a premium cabin and I can tell you this happens a lot at Manchester airport, although so far I've always been allowed in even when they've said it was full.

I've just replied to your thread about Fast Track, so you'll see that I'm a regular out of MAN.

A recent example of the lounge being "full" is when I flew from T2 on the 7th September. I went straight to the Styal Lounge (Servisair) because I don't like the Escape Lounge and knew it would probably be full anyway.

There was a sign up at the desk saying 'Lounge Full to Capacity'. I wasn't having that, so I just asked very nicely if they could squeeze me in as I had some work to do and the main concourse was like a zoo. They were very nice and did let me in - probably because I was travelling alone?

I've never had a problem anywhere else, only Manchester. I've been using the airport regularly for nearly 30 years and I'm sorry to say but it's turned into a horrible airport during the past decade.

There are other views of course. We recently passed through Manchester Airport and used the Escape Lounge, as we were flying first class. I have to say that the people there were delightful and the lounge could hardly have been better. Comfortable, quiet and with a delicious and plentiful breakfast. Personally, I think Manchester airport is about the best airport we have in England. :)