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There are no British Airways Lounges in the North Terminal but Virgin Atlantic has a super Clubhouse in Gatwick North Terminal and this is the very best lounge in this Terminal.
If you are flying on British Airways, you will be flying out of Gatwick’s South Terminal. We have reviewed the best airport lounges at Gatwick South.
Airport Lounges are a great place to relax while you wait for the flight. Inside an airport lounge, you can avoid the manic crowds and usually enjoy free food and drink, which are included in the price of the airport lounge entry.
Get Lounge Access Free
Airport lounges are not exclusively for business travelers or prestige passengers of airlines. There are airport lounges at Gatwick Airport, which Economy travelers can enter for a small price or for free with a Priority or lounge pass. Adults and children are usually welcome so you can all escape to a calmer space.
The British Airways lounges are the best lounges at Gatwick Airport South Terminal. They make traveling out of this otherwise shabby terminal much more enjoyable.
At North Terminal, if you don’t have access to the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse, there are also 3 lounges that you can access with your Priority Pass.
You can access these three Priority Pass Gatwick North Lounges for free with the free (in the first year) American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card which comes with two Lounge Club passes that can be immediately used to get into these lounges to enjoy free drinks (including alcohol) and food.
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How To Get Unlimited Airport Lounge Access
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The Priority Pass lounges you will find at Gatwick North Terminal are the Aspire Lounge, My Lounge, and the No 1 Lounge, and the best of these lounges are outlined in more detail below.
We also reveal the secret to getting the best deal at luxury hotels, once you get to your destination so that you not only fly but also stay in style.
1. Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse London Gatwick
Virgin Atlantic has a lovely and fairly new Clubhouse airport lounge at Gatwick North terminal. It is the best airline lounge in London Gatwick North, but it can only be accessed by Virgin passengers.
Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse lounges can be accessed by Virgin Atlantic Upper-Class passengers, as well as Flying Club Gold members. Passengers with elite status from partners and other associated airlines may have access, as well, when traveling on Virgin Atlantic. This includes Delta’s Gold, Platinum, and Diamond Medallion members, Virgin Australia’s Velocity Gold and Platinum members, and Singapore Airlines’ exclusive PPS and Solitaire PPS members, although access does vary based on the specific location.
The new Clubhouse lounge has large windows with views across the runway, a large central bar and a partnership with East London cocktail bar White Lyan means a selection of delicious and rather special cocktails are on offer.
The menu is standard Virgin’s Clubhouse food in the sit-down restaurant area with an excellent and large menu and a “deli” buffet consisting of yogurts, cereals, bread, cheeses, and smoked fish in the morning. There is also a woodland-themed play area for children.
The spa area offers free treatments, and if you manage to snag a short appointment, and is worth a try.
The Clubhouse also has outposts in LAX, Newark, JFK, San Francisco, Boston, Washington, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, and Gatwick. These lounges are fun, well designed, and offer better food than the BA Galleries lounges.
2. No 1 Lounge Gatwick North
No1 Gatwick is, in my opinion, the best of the three Priority Pass lounge options at Gatwick’s North Terminal. If you don’t hold a Priority Pass, it also comes in as the most pricy.
This lounge is found by continuing to the end of the “lounge corridor” – you can’t miss it! Inside, you can enjoy plenty of seating options. I prefer the boxy seats by the window so I can watch the sky and planes, but there are plenty of larger booth sofas, a cafe-style seating area with sit-up seats and higher tables, some quieter zones with softer low sofas, a business area with computers and even a couple of swing seats hanging from the ceiling. You will also find an almost unlimited selection of magazines in the lounge.
The lounge is large and airy and has expansive views across the runways at Gatwick, which is lovely to look out over. The other lounges in Gatwick North face onto airport roads.
This is the only lounge that supplies plentiful a la carte hot food options and a selection of cold food options. There is a large choice of salads, bread, soups, and desserts in the main area offered as a buffet, plus a complimentary hot a la carte option.
After 11:00 am, dishes include vegetarian spinach and ricotta pasta shell, which is small, cheesy, and tasty. There is a superfood salad mezze with quinoa which is basically a salad with a pitta-type bread, again small but tasty. There is a Lemon Chicken tagine which is a small curry dish, again very tasty plus, there is a Caesar salad, a cheese plate, and a cream tea option with scones, clotted cream, and jam.
If you visit the No 1 Lounge in Gatwick North for breakfast, the made-to-order food options are Eggs Benedict or Florentine, beans on toast, and toast on its own.
The “all-day” menu offers bacon rolls or fish finger sandwiches.
There is a large selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, but no cans of Coke or bottles of water. Everything comes out of a tap and is virtually flat. This is the one feature I don’t like about this lounge.
In terms of positives, the bathrooms are luxurious, and there is also a Spa.
3. Aspire Gatwick Airport Lounge
This lounge sits between the other two Gatwick Priority Pass lounges in size, luxury, food and drink offering, and also price (if you don’t have a Priority Pass).
You reach this lounge by traveling down a few levels in the lift that also takes you to the British Airways lounge in Gatwick’s North Terminal.
I like the fact that this lounge is more intimate than the No 1 Traveller Lounge. More boutique, if you will, so it feels less hectic and busy than the No. 1 Traveller above. You also get cans of Coke and sparkling water out of bottles in this lounge (hurrah!). However the magazine and food selection is limited, and there are no views from this lounge, so it comes in as my third choice when flying out of Gatwick’s North Terminal.
There is only soup as a hot food choice. Otherwise, there are plenty of biscuits, olives, nuts, and pastries to choose from. There is also a huge selection of drinks, all self-service, wines, spirits, beers, Britvic, soda water, etc., plus plenty of newspapers and magazines.
What it doesn’t have is the complimentary hot food menu of the No 1 Lounge, quite the selection of magazines, or a kids’ cinema room.
For me, the best seat in the Aspire lounge is the window seat at the far end which has more privacy whilst still being able to see the departure screen. If you miss fizzy coke and sparkling water, which are sorely lacking in the No1 Lounge, the Aspire Lounge is certainly worth a try.
4. My Lounge Gatwick North
My Lounge is the most recently opened lounge and is located at the start of the “lounge corridor”. Again you can’t miss the Starbucks look and the floor-to-ceiling glass windows that lead into this lounge.
The lounge itself is smaller than the other two and has no hot food. Even the cold food is rather limited to biscuits and basic snacks, but there is a huge variety of drinks. This lounge would always be my third choice.
It has a wooden floor and walls, and as you enter, there is a counter to your right with numerous coffee machines and fridges containing snacks and canned drinks. The vibe is funky, with coffee shop music playing in the background, loads of seating, sofas, benches, and big tables. To the left, there are 2 communal computers, and the view is of the outside but over buildings rather than of the planes like in the No.1 Traveller Lounges.
This lounge provides limited hot food – porridge (with a selection of toppings) in the morning and vegetable chili in the afternoon, but not the open buffet of salads, cakes, etc, like the No1 Traveller lounge. But My Lounge does still offer refuge from the stress of the main shopping hall.
My Lounge comes in at a definite third when choosing which PriorityPass airport lounge to use in Gatwick’s North Terminal simply because even though it is the newest with a fun atmosphere. If two No1 Traveller lounges get pre-booked, it is your only option.
Interestingly, this lounge is free if you have a Priority Pass or similar, but if you are traveling without any airport lounge pass whatsoever, you can still access My Lounge at just £18 GBP pp (or £16 GBP if you pre-book) Just turn up and pay at the door. This is a fairly low price for a pay-at-the-door lounge and compares favorably to the No1 Traveller Lounges, which you must pre-book and which costs £25 GBP per person booked in advance. That said, there is a lack of food that might make you think that this lounge is probably not worth the price tag. You could just go to Costa after all and spend £18 GBP on a drink and a sandwich.
So we come to the question of which lounge is best in Gatwick North Terminal? It would have to be the Virgin Clubhouse followed by the No 1 Traveller lounge for the view, the selection of food, salads set out, hot meal choices, and a more extensive selection of magazines. If you have a Priority Pass, the No 1 Lounge is the better offering even without the choice of drinks, but the competitive price of the Aspire, or if you are booking unrelated to a lounge pass, makes the Aspire an excellent choice too.
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