Anyone Got into BA Lounges with BMI Gold Card?

TheKipper · Apr 23, 12, 6:05 am

Well, its my first BA flight tomorrow.

I was swayed and encouraged by BA's offer to bmi and have decided to give it a go on MAN - LHR - IST rtn..

I'll have a couple of hours to kill and will risk the lounge dragons. In theory they should let me in the Galleries First Lounge????

Anyone tried yet?

Interested to see what the reaction was from the lounge dragons?

Cheers

TheKipper

Flying Bat · Apr 23, 12, 6:40 am

I was refused access with BMI G.

I didn't choose the phrase lunge dragons but . . .

TheKipper · Apr 23, 12, 6:43 am

Any logic, or just ignorance of whats been agreed and published?

surturminn · Apr 23, 12, 8:52 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flying Bat

I was refused access with BMI G.

I didn't choose the phrase lunge dragons but . . .

That's a worry....have booked a few LHR flights with BA iso BD to sample the First Lounge in T5

Thought it was all sorted that access was ok?

RAPC · Apr 23, 12, 8:58 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by surturminn

That's a worry....have booked a few LHR flights with BA iso BD to sample the First Lounge in T5

Thought it was all sorted that access was ok?

I thought access with BD Gold was to the regular BA lounge, with access to the First lounge only via a BA Gold card? Should be fine from 1st May in that respect as you can status match from then. (It is however possible that the Flounge access policy is a mis-reading on my part)

TheKipper · Apr 23, 12, 9:03 am

Quote:

We’re pleased to announce that Diamond Club members can now benefit from a new partnership with British Airways.

All Diamond Club members can now earn destinations miles on BA flights taken from 20 April 2012, and we will shortly introduce the option to spend your destinations miles on BA award flights.

Diamond Club Gold and Silver members can now access the British Airways lounges at London Heathrow and London Gatwick, when flying with bmi or British Airways.
Please present your Diamond Club Gold or Silver card on arrival to gain access.

Doesn't say which ones, I would concur. But its pretty clear they intend to let us in somewhere and as of now, not 1st May post status match. Gold BA is into the Galleries First Lounge I believe, and is its intention to let us in there next week, can't see why I shouldn't try that tomorrow.

Having seen the earlier response, i've printed out above from BA website and will persist till i'm let in somewhere.

If not, then the planned YVR trip on Sunday in Club will be moving to Air Canada!

RAPC · Apr 23, 12, 9:05 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheKipper

Doesn't say which ones, I would concur. But its pretty clear they intend to let us in somewhere and as of now, not 1st May post status match. Gold BA is into the Galleries First Lounge I believe, and is its intention to let us in there next week, can't see why I shouldn't try that tomorrow.

Definitely worth a try, I agree. The lounge policy kicked in today I believe, so no doubt there will be some teething issues with regards to policy being known across all staff. No doubt now that you have some paper with you, you won't have an issue! Assuming lounge entry, do let us know how you get on.

TheKipper · Apr 23, 12, 9:17 am

I certainly will.

I shall do a compare and contrast with my favourite star lounges

Although on a separate note, I was in the TK lounge at IST last week.

Was that impressive or what!

RAPC · Apr 23, 12, 9:43 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheKipper

Although on a separate note, I was in the TK lounge at IST last week.

Was that impressive or what!

It is a cracker

You can a lounge is a good one when Mrs RAPC makes a point of wanting to get to the airport as early as possibly for a flight from IST-NRT later this year. Definitely a favourite.

The BA F Lounge is very nice indeed and (pre the stampede of us BD status matchers) pretty peaceful from past experience.

**Oxon Flyer** · Apr 23, 12, 9:47 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by RAPC

I thought access with BD Gold was to the regular BA lounge, with access to the First lounge only via a BA Gold card?

This is one of the questions where some official clarification would be welcome. FWIW, I read this as a BD Gold will have exactly the same access as a BA Gold to the LHR lounges. Though, as it actually says you can use "the BA lounges at London Heathrow", then why not try rolling up to the Concorde lounge and see if they let you in ?

Swiss Tony · Apr 23, 12, 9:52 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by RAPC

The BA F Lounge is very nice indeed and (pre the stampede of us BD status matchers) pretty peaceful from past experience.

Do remember that the BA F lounge is the Concorde Room and you have to have a BA F ticket (or another fancy card etc) to get in there so it is very quiet. BA Gold card holders get access to Galleries First and I found that very busy when I used it a while back.

RAPC · Apr 23, 12, 9:58 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swiss Tony

Do remember that the BA F lounge is the Concorde Room and you have to have a BA F ticket (or another fancy card etc) to get in there so it is very quiet. BA Gold card holders get access to Galleries First and I found that very busy when I used it a while back.

Thanks for the clarification on that as I'm not as up to speed on the terminologies as I should be. I was indeed meaning to refer to the Galleries First, rather than the Concorde Room / F Lounge. On the few occasions I have been in Galleries First it has been rather peaceful, but that is no doubt down to being there off-peak in my case.

**Prospero** · Apr 23, 12, 12:56 pm

The FAQ on ba.com has been updated as follows:

.
Gold Diamond Club members can access the Galleries First lounge, Galleries Club lounge and Arrivals lounge at London Heathrow Terminal 5. Gold Diamond Club members can also access the London Gatwick British Airways First and Club lounges as well as the London Gatwick Sofitel arrivals lounge. Please note that Gold members may take.one guest into the lounge, but.guests are not permitted in the arrivals lounges.

Silver Diamond Club members can access the Galleries Club lounge at London Heathrow Terminal 5 and the British Airways Club lounge at London Gatwick. Silver members may take.one guest into the lounge.

Please bring your membership card with you as you may be asked to present this in order to gain access to the lounge.

Although not specified, I would expect access to the Arrivals lounge is subject to the same rules for BA gold card holders, ie. arrival off a long haul flight.

LiviLion · Apr 23, 12, 1:27 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prospero

The FAQ on ba.com has been updated as follows:

.
Gold Diamond Club members can access the Galleries First lounge, Galleries Club lounge and Arrivals lounge at London Heathrow Terminal 5. Gold Diamond Club members can also access the London Gatwick British Airways First and Club lounges as well as the London Gatwick Sofitel arrivals lounge. Please note that Gold members may take.one guest into the lounge, but.guests are not permitted in the arrivals lounges.

Silver Diamond Club members can access the Galleries Club lounge at London Heathrow Terminal 5 and the British Airways Club lounge at London Gatwick. Silver members may take.one guest into the lounge.

Please bring your membership card with you as you may be asked to present this in order to gain access to the lounge.

Although not specified, I would expect access to the Arrivals lounge is subject to the same rules for BA gold card holders, ie. arrival off a long haul flight.

Thanks Prospero. I must say BA are being rather nice to us BD customers at the moment. Looking forward to a visit to GF @ LHR soon.

Stewie Mac · Apr 23, 12, 3:58 pm

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Went into t5 GC this evening with my bd *S card, no problem and a nice chat to the lounge guardian about bmi...