Purchase Airport Lounge Passes In-App Directly Through LoungeBuddy!

I remember when LoungeBuddy was just a beta baby startup  with vivid dreams of becoming a useful travel app providing travelers with information on Airport Lounges. Well, boy has this baby flourished!   I rely on LoungeBuddy whenever I travel and I cherish it!.  Also,  I can’t remember an app with a more responsive team – there are serious humans behind that app!

Today I received an email and viewed two press releases – and I’m thrilled to report that there’s a whole slew of positive developments for LoungeBuddy!  I have to say, it couldn’t happen to a nicer app!

1.  LoungeBuddy has integrated with the travel website Concur, enabling it to offer more and more specialized travel-related services.

2. LoungeBuddy has released an update for it’s app, LoungeBuddy 2.0, which includes, according to LoungeBuddy:

• A beautiful and completely redesigned UI for trip management
• Support for multi-leg itineraries on multiple carriers
• The ability to save and edit existing trips
• Full integration with Concur – giving 25 million business travelers the ability to sync their itineraries with LoungeBuddy
• Expanded coverage to more than 1,900 lounges in over 550 airports worldwide
• Hundreds of new access methods with credit cards and elite statuses

Photo: Tnooz.com

3.   Perhaps the most exciting announcement is that, beginning today in 14 UK airports, including all major London airports, (and soon, the world!), you can instantly purchase lounge access passes directly from the LoungeBuddy app on your smartphone!  I asked Brent Griffith, LoungeBuddy’s VP of Marketing, if he could tell us how this will work.  He answered:

I can definitely provide more insight into how we’ll be charging for lounge access. A LoungeBuddy member will be able to book their lounge visit directly within the LoungeBuddy App (we handle the transaction on our side charging the customers credit card) and then we pass the booking confirmation information on to our lounge partner. Our LoungeBuddy members simply show their booking confirmation screen to the lounge agent at the front, the agent matches the members booking confirmation ID to the one we sent the front desk and within a few seconds can admit the traveler to the lounge. The information exchange happens behind the scenes and in real-time, so that when the traveler walks up to the lounge their waiting time is minimized as much as possible.

Mr Griffith further stated that “most of the time LoungeBuddy’s in-App prices should never be more than the current walk-up rate prices.”  I also asked whether LoungeBuddy planned on offering special deals and promotions.  He responded that LoungeBuddy was looking into this and that “we’re working with a number of our lounge partners to test those out.”

All I can say is the future looks very bright for LoungeBuddy!

LoungeBuddy, here’s a question for you – It looks like I’ll have about 8 hours stuck at  Malpensa Airport on a day in January.   It’s probably too much of a pain to head to Milan, so, short of spending all of the time in lounges, is there any place to go near the airport to kill some time?  Failing that, where can I take a nap and shower?