corporate666

It's been quite a while since I landed at LHR and had enough time to use the lounges.

I'm arriving @ 10am on Wednesday flying in F and I have 3 hours until my flight to EDI. I'd like to grab a shower when I arrive at London.

Looking at the BA website, I'm not completely clear which lounges are open to me and which amenities are available where. As I understand, being an F passenger I have access to the Concorde room, the arrivals lounge and the Galleries lounge? Where do I want to go for a shower, and would I need to book anything in advance or just show up?

And is it the CCR that serves the English breakfast?

Thanks!

flibbly

You would have access to any lounge (keep hold of your F boarding card to show for this), but would have to go landside for the arrivals lounge. The three lounges in the south end of T5 (CCR, Flounge & Galleries Club) all share the same showers, whilst the North Galleries club has a few of its own. Breakfast is available in all lounges, but will be limited to a bacon sandwich in the Galleries Club lounges - the Flounge and Arrivals will have a buffet style English breakfast, whilst the CCR (or CCR dining room within Arrivals) will have the same via table service. No need to book anything.

1010101

The lounge complex has central shower facilities, and they can be quite busy at that time of morning. There were also a couple out of action when i was there a week ago.

Call You First and see if you can get a cabana in the Concorde Room. Alternatively, if you can clear immigration easily you may want to use the Arrivals lounge and the F breakfast area attached to it. There must be close to 50 shower rooms in there.

corporate666

Thanks both of you for the reply.

My connecting flight is LHR->EDI. I am a UK citizen so I imagine clearing immigration will be simple... but will there be any complications in having a checked bag?

I will call YouFirst when the open and see if any cabanas are available. Thanks for the tip.

LTN Phobia

Don't worry, no complication with having a checked bag at all. You can still go landside with checked bags with no issues.

In fact, if the transfer security is busy, going landside and clearing security can be faster so I do it quite often.

Availability of showers may be better (no waiting / shorter waiting time) at the Arrivals Lounge than at the lounge complex, so you may like to go there for the shower. As an arriving F passenger, you can use the Concorde Breakfast Room within the Arrivals Lounge. Concorde Breakfast Room is located behind the glass doors inside the Arrivals Lounge. As you enter the lounge from the reception, if you look straight ahead, you're looking at it.

A word of warning though. I urge you not to try to go to the Arrivals Lounge if your inbound flight to LHR is quite late, because you may miss conformance (you probably know this but 35 minutes at the boarding pass scan at security) to EDI. In this case, it's safer to stay airside.

Arrivals Lounge (including the Concorde Breakfast Room), F lounge and CCR airside serve English breakfast. If you are pressed for time, the best option is the buffet at the F lounge airside as it is the quickest and safest out of all the options as you remain airside, and self-service.

1010101

In that case clear immigration, shower and eat in the Arrivals lounge, head up for some fresh air to the departures level drop off point, then re-clear security/passport control and head for the lounges.

Others may have a different opinion, that's what I do every time.

vibguy

I certainly agree with this since the wait times for a shower airside can be up to two hours, no priority for First as I experienced it myself.

Genius1

There are showers in the cabanas in the Concorde Room which can be pre-booked via You First as per the advice above.

There are also standard shower rooms adjacent to the Elemis Travel Spa between the Concorde Room and Galleries First lounge (also shared with the Galleries Club South lounge above), within the Galleries Club North lounge, and over in the Galleries Club T5B lounge.

There's no need to go landside to use the Galleries Arrivals lounge, as you can use the superior Concorde Room as a connecting passenger, and either get a cabana or use the showers next door.

ftaitr

The cabanas in the CCR get a bad rap here - but they are much more spacious than any of the other showers, and the water part of the shower is actually quite good (it's the "tray" and drain which aren't great). So my first choice in your situation would be to book a CCR cabana with You First.

Another option that no-one has mentioned is that if you go airside, you can try the arrivals lounge cabanas, which have huge baths in them. I've never had to wait for one, and the staff always seem a bit reluctant to let me use them (perhaps because they take more cleaning after)!

1010101

Arrivals cabanas really? Had no idea there were any. Are they located away from the shower area or does that misery that usually mans the shower desk just try to keep them secret?

lorcancoyle

They're the bath option - but are called cabanas. Recall previous threads where people have posited that staff reluctance is due to time it takes them to sort vs. showers - so yes, they tend not to be advertised

Some details here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/13910337-post1.html