warakorn

This is a little video tour through all five Star Alliance Business Class Lounges
at London Heathrow Terminal 2.
Because I focused on taping a comprehensive video, I didn't take too many photos.

Here is my rating:
First place - Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge
Second place - United Club
Third place - Lufthansa Senator Lounge
Fourth place - Lufthansa Business Lounge
Fifth place - Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge



The video explains my detailed rating:













Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge in T2B:

The Air Canada lounge feels airy and quiet, featues a modern calm design, and offers loads of fresh food and a suberb bar. Sleeping compartments can be found in the back.











United Club in T2B:

United Club follows in second place (silver medal).
The lounge is big and I like the decour design. Bar with a professional bartender is a plus. Plentiful food is offered, as well.
However, the lounge gets crowded by the many folks, departing on United Airlines to the United States.













Lufthansa Senator Lounge in T2A:

The Lufthansa Senator Lounge deserves a solid third place (bronze medal).
The food is delicious and is vastly superior to the offerings of some Senator Lounges on the continent. The sleeping area has an innovative design with the tree landscape. The Lounge is conveniently located in Terminal T2A, right after security.
Only drawback: the Lounge is quite small and can get crowded easily.









Lufthansa Business Lounge in T2A:

The Lufthansa Business Class earns a fourth place. It located right next to the Senator Lounge. Food choices are ok. That Lounge appears much bigger than the adjacent Senator Lounge, hence, that Lounge offers a calmer atmosphere.







Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge in T2B:

Unexpectactly, at the fifth place the Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge does not meet the benchmark set by the other lounges, esp. the United Club. It even cannot compare to the United Club.
The Lounge feels a bit stuffy and dirty. The design appears to be old and uninspiring. Apparently, eligible passenger are rather send to the Singapore Airlines Lounge rather than to the adjacent Air Canada Lounge. This leads to crowding.









Enjoy!

Please be advised that I took every precaution to not film other passengers or staff directly. I did not want create a big buzz in the lounge that's why I refrained from opening the hot food plates just to film the food.



All my trip reports on FT:

NEW: CFR Calatori Bucharest - Istanbul Halkali in F

Iberia Airbus A340-600 London - Madrid in Y

Air Caraibes Airbus A350-900 Guadeloupe - Paris in Y

Empty Finnair Airbus A350-900 Helsinki - London Heathrow in Y+ and AY Lounge Sauna

Finnair Airbus A350-900 Helsinki - Shanghai in Y+

Singapore Airlines Airbus A380-800 Singapore - New Delhi in Upper Deck Y


Asiana Boeing 747-400 Combi Tokyo - Seoul in F

Air Canada Rouge Boeing 767-300ER Montreal - Cancun in Y+

Air Canada Rouge Boeing 767-300ER Cancun - Toronto in Y

United Boeing 777-200ER Houston - Newark in C

United Boeing 777-200ER Newark - Amsterdam in C

United Boeing 777-200ER Amsterdam - Houston in Y+

United Boeing 777-200ER Singapore - Hongkong in C

British Airways Boeing 777-300ER London - Shanghai in Y

ANA Boeing 777-300ER Singapore - Tokyo in C

Swiss Boeing 777-300ER Zurich - Hong Kong in Y

TUI Airlines Nederland Boeing 787-8 Sint Maarten - Curacao in P

TUI Airlines Nederland Boeing 787-8 Curacao - Amsterdam in P

Air Canada Boeing 787-8 Toronto - London in Y

ANA Boeing 787-8 Shanghai Pudong - Tokyo Narita

United Boeing 787-9 Los Angeles - Houston in C



EuroNight Jan Kiepura Cologne - Warsaw in Sleeper Cabin

China High Speed Rail Shanghai - Xiamen in F

Caledonian Sleeper Train Inverness - London Euston in Sleeper Cabin

French TGV High Speed Train: Barcelona - Paris in F

China High Speed Rail Guangzhou - Shanghai Hongqiao in Y

Swiss Railways Lötschberg Mountain Line Bern - Brig in F

Ukraine Railways Kiev - Budapest in Sleeper Cabin

Virgin Trains West Coast London - Glasgow in F

Five Star Alliance Lounges: LHR

Four OneWorld Lounges: HKG

TBIT Star Alliance Lounge: LAX



Enjoy!

Beven12S

Too much time on your hands?

warakorn

What do you mean?
Should I sit on the gate on a 3 hour layover between flights?

jetboys360

I love Lounge Hopping at T2 as *A Gold, must say I rated my experience as follows, based on 4 visits between 8am - 12pm, will give Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge another go.
First place - United Club
Second place - Lufthansa Senator Lounge
Third place - Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge
Fourth place - Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge
Fifth place - Lufthansa Business Lounge

warakorn

I was thinking a lot whether to give the United Club or the Maple Leaf Lounge the first place.

Pros Maple Leaf Lounge:
- The Air Canada Lounge is calmer and offers lots of comfortable sleeping chairs with views onto the tarmac. There are some sleeping pods in the back, which cut out the light.
- There seems to be a lot of personal service at the AC Lounge. Whenever I was approaching the hot food section or the bar, I was approached by staff asking me what they could prepare for me.

Cons United Club:
- US Americans tend to prefer these meaningless superficial chit-chats with fellow travellers. You hear these kind of conversations everywhere in the United Club lounge, which is somewhat annoying.

iluvcruising2

I guess you didn't take a shower? I found UA Lounge the best overall, especially when you take into account their awesome shower facilities! See my video, from 4:15 onwards.

I think the Maple Leaf lounge has like 2 shower cubicles and one of them was broken when I got there.

warakorn

Honestly, I did not check the backside (shower area) of the United Club. It looks pretty good in your video.

One big pro for the United Lounge are the bartenders - they made me a good Mosquito drink.

1P

To each their own. I think it may depend on the time of day, too.

My experience (have not sampled the SQ Silver Kris) would be dramatically different from OP's:

(1) LH Senator way ahead of the others on grounds of quality of food alone. Though not as large as the others, it is quieter and calmer
(2) United Club, though the number of lavatories is simply inadequate
(3) LH Biz, though this too can be good when the number of pax is small
(4) AC Maple Leaf, which to me seemed smaller and more crowded than the UA Club (I had wandered in there by mistake, and soon realized that this was not UA or anything like it), and with the same quality of food as UA, so was really surprised to find it placed in 1st position.

pitz

That SQ lounge, particularly all dirty glasses and the worn furniture, was shockingly bad. And what were those, what appeared to be half-full glasses of orange juice with straws sitting by the food serving area? I don't think I'd even be comfortable eating at a local all-you-can-eat buffet with that sort of upkeep, nevermind in a premium airport lounge.

That AC lounge furniture looks awful. And a row of tablets and open conference room, seriously?

The UA lounge was kind of a shocker for me. Contrast such with the sometimes worn-out, overly busy RCC's state-side, and that looked to be a very positive experience. The bartender is a nice touch.

Overall, well done video. What'd you use for shooting and editing?

stevie

Very good of the OP to share - is that what you mean

SwissBritMiss

Heathrow T2 is the only thing I miss about London, as a (semi-recent) expat When I had the time to spare, my routine was SQ for food and a glass of champagne, UA for a cocktail and a chatter with the bar staff (and if continuing SH, back to LH SEN to wait til the last call).

Sad to see the Silverkris lounge in such a state - I passed through a week after the (massively delayed) opening and it was actually quite pleasant.

TPJ

Do I see it correctly that only LH SEN Lounge has self-pour booze?

I am not sure why airlines increase costs by having manned bars. They hope people drinks less when it is not self-pour? Interesting...

enviroian

Awesome report thanks for posting!

I agree about the Singapore Lounge it does look dated and it's what no more than 3 years old? AC, LH, and UA (cough cough can't believe I'm including UA on anything) look primo. I was at the GFL in December. Believe it or not I think the UC across the hall blows it away. Yes the GFL is quieter but the offerings aren't as nice and the bar at the UC is really impressive.

Did the Senators Lounge have pretzels? ^

Was I seeing clearly at the AC lounge--4 beers on draft? NICE. I saw Guinness...what else did they have?

What bird are you on in the end-- a 789?

offerendum

Thank you, I appreciate your report^ I normally don´t fly Star Alliance and only know T5. I´m surprised by United-Club, quite modern!

diningdecadence

cobra, carling, and something canadian with a maple leaf were the other 3 when i was there in October.