A passenger at Edinburgh Airport claims staff told him a lounge was 'full' - despite him noticing empty seats.
Steve Calveley was flying from the capital on Tuesday and opted to arrive at the airport early to avoid a long wait at security.
With time to kill he decided to relax at Aspire Lounge, but was left furious after being turned away, despite seeing 'plenty of free tables available'
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Normally, Steve has access to the lounge as part of his bank account deal but this time he claims he was curtly told he couldn’t go in by staff.
Steve said: “I turned up and there was a notice on the door and there was a notice on the door saying the lounge was full. When I looked into the lounge it was about three quarters empty.
“I asked the woman behind the desk if the lounge was full, she asked if I was a card holder, I told her yes and she said ‘in that case, yes it is full unless you’re travelling business class.’ I told her I wasn’t and she said ‘well it’s closed then.’
“This isn’t the first time this has happened at Edinburgh airport, especially at the Aspire Lounge. They do have a habit of doing that. They said the same reason last time, that it was full when it wasn’t.
“There was no apology, no nothing. Just very short, sharp answers. Very curt, very straight to the point. Almost rude.
“I think it’s because they’re now charging, I believe it’s £22.50 for people to use the lounge. I think if they can take money from people paying at the door, they will do that rather than let people who have the cards in.
“It’s really annoying because what they’re doing is they’re denying ordinary passengers entry to the lounge in favour of people travelling business class or the people who are willing to pay to use it.”
A spokesperson for Aspire Lounges said: "As travel has recovered quickly, we have seen unprecedented demand for lounges. Unfortunately at certain times this means restricting access to guests who haven't pre-booked or who are not eligible to enter as part of their airline ticket at times when we have, or are due to have a large volume of guests in the facility.
"We continue to put measures in place to welcome as many guests as possible, whilst maintaining a comfortable environment for all our guests to enjoy before their flight."
