Originally Posted by
milehighwonder
I was hoping to find an airport lounge we could hang out in for a few hours rest before catching the train when it starts at 630am. It would be great if I could find a lounge at ATH, and even better if I could use the same access to get into a lounge at LHR in either Terminal 3 or 5, as we will be at LHR for 8 hrs and transiting from terminal 3 to 5. I don't have any airline status to speak of, but I am definitly open to signing up for another card, or just paying for the access flat out.
Specificly Im wondering:
- Is it possible to go into a lounge after arriving at ATH from LHR, or would we have to be flying again for this to even be possible?
- Are there any lounges that could be used at LHR T3 or T5 AND at ATH?
- How much should it cost to catch a cab at 2am into the city, and would it be safe to do so? If we did that, any thoughts on what to do around 3am when we got there besides check into a hotel and sleep? At what time could we expect things in Athens to start opening up on a Friday?
- Any other ideas for a side trip at that time of night and how to get there? I'm thinking maybe we take a cab to a train station that is still running and catch a middle of the night train to be somewhere awesome by breakfast?
I'd second (or is it third) the Sofitel. In Europe there is strict segregation of arriving and departing passengers, so you won't be able to even enter the departure zones at ATH without a boarding pass for a flight from there that day. All the lounges are the wrong side of boarding pass control for you.
I'm confused about your flight from LHR. Unless you're connecting again somewhere betweeen London and Athens, the BA overnight from LHR T5 arrives Athens at 03:10, and the Aegean overnight from LHR T2 arrives at 04:00. I've caught both very many times. How do you get to arrive at 01:00?
Currently T5 has no lounges accessible to economy class travellers without FF status(though this is changing).
You are not stuck with waiting until the rail service starts at 06:30 as the city operates all-night express buses to the centre and to the port at Piraeus.
http://www.oasa.gr/content.php?id=airlines&lang=en