Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
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Posts: 63,804
Welcome to the BA forum surfergold, I will ask the BA Mods whether they can change the subject line to something which may help others with similar queries.
I would suggest you look at a few T5 and T3 flights to see the lounge experiences there. In the case of T3 there are a lot of options, there is a lounge guide ifor these oneworld lounges in T3 in the Dashboard, with a lot of advice. As a Sapphire on BA you can use the 4 business class level lounges there. The Dashboard is the main knowledge base of this forum and it is worth having a look around, if only to see the answers to the questions which often get asked here. . LUX is the cheap one out of T3 but I would recommend Bilbao since it's a great place to visit and often inexpensive. From T5 AGP (Málaga) and PMI (Palma) are often cheap places, personally I'd go for PMI. DUB is another option perhaps. Other secret gems close in? Stuttgart and its BMW museum, LUX but to get to Trier (coach and rail links), I've got a soft spot for DUS, HAM is another interesting place to visit. NCE is so near to the city you can walk it. GVA offers free same transport around GVA, well worth a day trip (but refreshments are pricey); and the other day trip place is LIS albeit a long day. EDI on the domestic side, along with of course NCL. There are some same day returns available at weekends, you are looking for fares that book into G fare class and there is a thread on these fares, search for "awayday".
You don't have to join BAEC - as you say you can credit to Qantas when flying BA or Iberia and that may be efficient in your circumstances (it's a complex area, the oneworld forum can help more on this). Nevertheless I would advise you to get a BAEC account since Reward Flight Savers are very good use of Avios redemptions around Europe and you may be able to pick up enough for that via Tescos / Caffè Nero, hotel stays and what not. It may even be worth buying Avios for some RFS options, and in that case an Iberia Plus account is also worth having since it's cheaper to buy Avios there, and after 90 days you can transfer Avios to and from BA.