Review: 1903 Lounge (Manchester Airport)

On my recent travel around the world, I made a pit stop in the United Kingdom before my final flight back home. I happened to be traveling Virgin Atlantic from Manchester to Atlanta, a new route for me, and decided to check out their contract lounge.

Virgin Atlantic, while having quite the number of flights from the Manchester airport, do not operate a lounge at the airport and instead rely on a contract lounge for their business class passengers.

Access

Access to the 1903 Lounge is somewhat obscure as they advertise the lounge as being a paid for entry lounge with no complimentary entry options from the usual membership options like the Priority Pass.

However, at the transfer desk when I picked up my Virgin Atlantic ticket, I was given an invitation to the lounge. So it seems like if you're traveling Upper Class on Virgin Atlantic, you get complimentary access.

If you don't happen to get an invitation, you can pre-book the lounge for as low as £47.99 which is quite expensive for only being allowed in two hours prior to your flight's departure.

On a side note, the lounge shares an entrance with the Escape Lounge, and you have to walk to the back of the Escape lounge to get to the 1903 Lounge, which can be quite bothersome. The front desk attendants for the Escape Lounge will gladly point you towards the 1903 Lounge area beyond their check-in. While I didn't get to stick around, the Escape Lounge being a Priority Pass lounge, look packed!

Food and Beverage

I have to say that for a contract lounge, they had a decent selection of food. I arrived during the morning time and breakfast was being served. There was tall the traditional British breakfast options including eggs, bacon, sausage, and a selection of cereals.

When I left during the late morning, breakfast was starting to be replaced with lunch and finger food items. Various soups and desserts were also being put out. The quality of all the food seemed very decent.

Dotted throughout the lounge were drink bars. Everything was self-service with a selection of soft drinks, beer, wine, and spirits. Along with these items on the bars were assorted candies and bar nuts. I appreciate there was more than one of these, meaning everyone wasn't fighting over one drink area.

For those who wanted more of a direct caffeine hit, a craft coffee maker and tea were available on a separate bar area. Everything was self-service, while workers strolled around collecting dishes and making sure everything was stocked up and clean. It all seemed very efficient and organized.

Seating

The marks of a great lounge are various seating options. Especially ones with a large amount of seating towards the windows. The views were great along the interior of the ramp area.

It was very busy for a Thursday morning, and it was difficult to find a good spot in the lounge. I ended up sitting in a dining room area, so I could set up my laptop and get some work done while waiting for my flight.

Atmosphere

While busy, the lounge was barely over a soft rumble. It was very easy to pop in some headphones and get some work done. With the contract lounge being mostly for Virgin Atlantic Upper Class passengers and those who paid for entry, there was a different type of crowd in the lounge. I can't put my finger on it, but without mass complimentary access like some Priority Pass lounges, everything just felt a little different.

It was also interesting to see all the wide body action going on at the Manchester airport. For someone not from the United Kingdom, the airport doesn't seem like all that major of an airport. However, they had a decent amount of wide body traffic from all around the world, including Asia and the Middle East.

And when you think about it, if you want to visit the north of the United Kingdom, Manchester seems like a way better airport to fly into than trying to get through Heathrow.

Final Thoughts

For a contract lounge, I was pleasantly surprised by the experience. It can be a little hard to find, and the fact that the lounge shares an entrance with the Escape Lounge can be a little confusing. The quality of the food was top-notch compared to other contract lounges, and the variety of seating options was on point. It's slightly disappointing that Virgin Atlantic doesn't operate one of their lounges at the airport, but this comes in a strong second place.