Lounge Review: LIN British Airways Galleries Lounge
Index to Genius1 Trip Reports
The British Airways Galleries lounge at Milan Linate was one of the first to receive the full Galleries concept around ten years ago. The photos that follow were taken over two visits to the lounge a few days apart in November 2018.
It might seem odd that BA should have such a comparatively large and well-specified lounge at a non-capital city outstation in an era where BA have closed many of their European outstation lounges, but when you realise that BA operates multiple rotations to Heathrow, London City and Stansted airports, the space seems entirely justified.
The lounge is located airside within the small terminal building at gate level, a few steps below the main shopping area. The terminal itself is pretty drab and dated, although there is evidence of refurbishment activity taking place; the whole airport is closing for three months in the summer to have its runway resurfaced, at which point I would expect further terminal refurbishment work to take place.
The entrance to the BA lounge doesn’t immediately scream luxury, but once through the sliding door and past the reception desk, the open plan rectangular space is nicely laid out, although the absence of any windows and thus any natural light or view really detracts from the otherwise pleasant space. Split into two halves by a bar and high-top table seating, the left-hand portion majors on zoned areas whilst the right-hand portion focuses on seating.
Immediately to the right of the reception area is a luggage storage space and news stand, whilst ahead and to the left is the Coffee House and buffet. For an outstation lounge, the food offering is perfectly adequate, with sandwiches, small salad pots, pizza slices, filled croissants, cakes and yogurt all available when I visited in the afternoon; fresh fruit, crisps and nuts were also available at the bar in the centre of the lounge. There were no hot food items available; this is an area where the lounge could improve.
Immediately in front of the buffet are a couple of communal dining tables, quite harshly lit by overhead lights in contrast to the rest of the rather dull lounge (partly due to many of the lamps not being on).
Several armchairs and sofas surround the tables, with individual dining tables available at the rear of the lounge adjacent to the Work and Entertainment Zone. I never understand why lounge designers opt for carpet below dining tables; it’s completely impractical, and this carpet is really showing its age, now beyond the point of simply cleaning.
TVs are available in both the Work and Entertainment Zone, and in a seating cluster near the entrance to the kitchen.
Swinging around to the other half of the lounge, banks of armchairs flank the entirety of the boundary wall, separated at intervals with patterned glass screens; these are a really effective design feature that maintain the feeling of light and space whilst introducing a parcel of privacy. It’s sad to see the overhead lights above the screens no longer functioning (or simply turned off); they would look better lit as originally intended. Incidentally, the similar screens in the lounges at Heathrow are lit internally. Most seating areas feature tables with integrated power and USB sockets, although not all that I tried worked. Wifi throughout the lounge was reasonably quick.
In contrast to many other BA lounges, the Linate lounge’s bar is a back bar rather than island bar, despite being located in the middle of the lounge. There appeared to be a shortage of real glasses when I visited, as on both occasions plastic receptacles were piled high on the bar in addition to the few red and blue glasses.
Both the waiting and reception staff were friendly, with empties being cleared between each flight departure.
Adjacent to the bar are a number of low sofas; as with many of the other furniture items in the lounge, these are bespoke to the Linate lounge and don’t feature in other Galleries lounges. A number of the fabric-upholstered armchairs are clearly showing their ten years of use; BA have recently informed me that some of the furniture in the lounge has been replaced. I haven’t seen it yet but suspect these are pieces from the recently closed Munich lounge.
There are no toilets within the lounge, with the nearest airport-operated facilities being just outside the entrance and to the left.
I hope BA take the opportunity of the three-month closure of the airport in the summer to replace the carpet, improve the lighting and undertake a targeted upgrade of the furniture in the Linate lounge, ideally with Galleries Evolution pieces. These niggles aside, BA’s Linate lounge is a pleasant enough space to pass an hour or two before a flight, and a nice example of how well the original Galleries concept has stood the test of time.