Can I help you

T3 Arrivals lounge closure

From Monday, February 29, The American Airways Arrivals lounge at Heathrow T3 will close for refurbishment. The lounge is expected to be closed for ve months
Since December, eligible customers arriving on all BA operated long-haul ights into T3 were able to access the AA run Arrivals lounge.
As there are no alternatives available for BA customers to use in T3, eligible customers (both AA and BA) will be offered the T5 Arrivals lounge while the lounge is closed.
To reach T5, customers are being advised to follow signs for the Heathrow Express, where trains are free for travel between Heathrow central station (Terminals 2 and 3) and Terminal 5 with trains running every 15 minutes.
The refurbished lounge at T3 will open in summer 2016.

BA0197

So who will be the first to mention the gross inconvenience this will put on the BA Arrivals Lounge shower situation in the morning.... (4, 5, 6 hours maybe? )

Let's also get the "showers are in dire need of refurbishment" comment out of the way.


The one thing I take away from this is AA's "just do it" attitude- it's fantastic. They announced this yesterday and the renovation starts less than two weeks from that announcement. BA could never match with this speed on things like lounge refurbishment.

Ldnn1

But AA didn't decide to do it yesterday; they merely announced it yesterday.

Some might argue that it's actually better to announce things further in advance, once the decision is made to do them. Either way, I don't see the time between annonucement and action as evidence of a "just do it" attitude on AA's part.

johnaalex

When I returned from Cape Town last year I thought I would do the T3 to T5 treck to use the Arrivals Lounge. My conclusion is that it was a right pain with luggage and it is something I would not want to do again.

BerksFlyer

This is a bit annoying as I arrive at T3 on Wednesday 2nd March and was planning to use the AA arrivals lounge for a shower. IME there is rarely a long wait there. Now I will have to trudge over to T5 to face the inevitable news of a long wait in a full arrivals lounge.

I guess the refurbishment needed to be done at some point though

ukgooner

This has been discussed for ages - when BA switched long-haul to T3 last year, it was mentioned that the AA rivals lounge was closing in the new year.

Besides the AA lounge is pretty tiny so an easy project to schedule and implement. Also they don't seem to be that fussed about providing an alternative.

corporate-wage-slave

To be fair, the T5 Arrivals lounge has 94 (ninety four) showers and five baths. Yesterday they were all in working order, with no more than 4 simultanously in use at "peak" time. It can get busy there - it's a quiet week, but wait times aren't normally more than 10 minutes or so.

crazy8534

That's quite good news- much better breakfast in the T5 arrivals lounge IMHO. Just to confirm: you can use the BA lounge even if your flight is fully AA coded/operated?

Can I help you

Have AA announced where their customers have access too while their lounge is being refurbished?

Microwave

I suspect a good number of people won't bother to make the schlep to T5 and instead will just put up with the inconvenience.

Just as a point of comparison, AA's lounge at T3 has 29 showers. I've no idea whether they were all in working order, though I've never had to wait to get a shower in.

crazy8534

Sorry, CIHY, I am confused- I thought that was what you were saying. (i.e. AA metal customers arriving at T3 can use the BA arrivals lounge at T5)

Shareholder

Too bad this wasn't done last year so AA could have moved into the old AC Arrivals lounge. Getting from the T1/2/3 complex to T5 is a huge pain but few options since there are no hotels attached to these terminals that could have been used as at T4/5. Suppose there was no way to permit eligible passengers to get into the departures area to use the Admirals Club or Galleries showers.

Shareholder

AA arriving premium passengers and ExecPlatinums in any class (on AA or BA) have always been able to use either the AA T3 or BA T5 arrivals lounges depending upon at which terminal their flight arrived.

flatlander

Thanks for the heads-up, CIHY

Even if I am underwhelmed by the news.

If HBO, AA passengers should take the airside Flight Connections and land themselves through T5. Sucks if you checked bags

I think it's any Oneworld Emerald, although BA Gold and AA EP covers most of them, I'm sure.

Actually no, http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/...rivals-lounges says travel in F/CW or BA Gold while https://www.aa.com/i18n/travelInform...als_lounge.jsp says First/Business and AA EP.

However, I'm fairly sure I got into the BA arrivals lounge with my AA EP credentials after an economy flight, but I may be remembering wrong. Anyone know more, such as what it says on the front of the lounge?

denhaagflyer

What about CX pax? I think they were also allowed to use AA arrival lounge.