A Postcard from Portugal via The Qantas London Lounge
Index to Genius1 Trip Reports
Towards the end of September, a long weekend break to Portugal gave me the opportunity to sample both The Qantas London Lounge at Heathrow and the InterContinental Lisbon, both of which had been on my to-visit list for some time. With detailed reviews of both, this report will also include some brief narrative on two BA Club Europe flights, updated impressions of the Cathay Pacific First Class lounge at Heathrow, and a snapshot of the ANA lounge at Lisbon airport.
LHR-LIS
Departing from Terminal 3 at Heathrow is something of a rarity for me; before this trip, I’d last used the terminal in April 2017. As is the norm when departing from T3 and arriving by car, we opted to park in the T5 Long Stay car park and walk through to the adjacent T2/T3 Business car park, for the shorter minibus ride to the terminal when compared to the bus from the T2/T3 Long Stay car park.
There was no queue to receive our boarding passes at Zone D, where BA offer a partially screened First check-in area in a vague attempt at recreating the First Wing experience of T5. Fast Track security, located one level up from check-in, was moderately busy, but before too long we were airside and emerging into T3’s departure lounge, mercifully bypassing World Duty Free.
Brunch awaited in the excellent Cathay Pacific First Class lounge, located on the upper level towards Gates 1-11. I reviewed this elegantly designed lounge extensively in 2017
here, so will focus on our dining experience in this report. In the 2.5 years since I last visited, not much had changed aside from the notable growth in size of the indoor plants.
Taking seats in the Dining Room, we shared the grilled halloumi with smashed avocado on sourdough toast, before embarking on both the Chinese set (chicken congee with fried vegetable noodles and dim sum basket) and the Western set (two scrambled eggs, grilled back bacon, sautéed mushrooms, oven roasted tomato, homemade baked beans, sourdough toast and parmentier potatoes).
Each dish was well presented and of a good quality, and although portion size was on the small side, the relatively extensive menu meant it wasn’t difficult to feel satisfied. Service was prompt if not overly polished.
A couple of hours’ relaxation later and it was time for a late lunch.
Starters of hot smoked salmon rillette with fennel and orange salad and rye bread, and pan-fried chicken gyoza with Asian pickle slaw and soy dipping sauce were enjoyed alongside a mojito and glass of champagne.
Our main courses of pan fried seabream with jasmine rice, sugar snap peas and fresh lemon, and Cathay’s signature Wonton noodles in soup with Chinese style prawn and pork dumplings in chicken broth with vegetables were both excellent, the latter also served with a dim sum basket featuring BBQ pork bun, siu mai and vegetable dumpling.
Desserts of mango and coconut tapioca pudding with mango, mint and chilli salsa, and apple and blackberry crumble with crème anglaise concluded a couple of excellent lounge dining experiences.
In addition to the waiter-service Dining Room, the Cathay Pacific First Class lounge offers a small but well-stocked self-service buffet. Since my last visit, some indoor plants had been added to the shelves here, and I was pleased to note that the selection had not diminished in this time. In addition to a coffee machine and selection of delightful Jing teas, chilled still and sparkling filtered water is available from a tap. Throughout the afternoon, a couple of warm snack options were available, alongside whole fresh fruit, bread, cheese and accompaniments, and a patisserie selection.
A fridge offered an individual selection of salads, sandwiches, fruit salad, fruit juice and desserts. The lounge staff were proactive in keeping the buffet looking presentable, with empties cleared promptly throughout the lounge.
Leaving the Cathay lounge, we headed along the corridor back in the direction of the main departure lounge to the adjacent Qantas lounge. The subject of much anticipation and some construction delay, Qantas finally opened their lounge at Heathrow in late November 2017, occupying the space of the former Air Canada/SAS London Lounge (which incidentally was the first airline lounge I ever set foot in back in 2007 prior to an Air Canada flight to Calgary).
Set over two floors (one at gate level, and one above), the lounge was designed by Woods Bagot and, as with Ilse Crawford’s Cathay Pacific lounge interiors, is a great example of modern functional design combined with traditional elements. Apparently designed to ‘embody the essence of London at twilight’, the lounge features elegant Australian and British design influences, with stone, brass and walnut being the predominant materials deployed. The treatment of walls, columns, floors and ceilings is of a very high quality, whilst the lighting scheme cleverly accentuates and complements each feature.
Behind reception, a walnut wood-clad wall featuring the Qantas kangaroo shields from view the majority of the ground floor of the lounge, home to the central tended Gin Bar with small integrated self-service buffet.
Surrounding the bar, a mixture of integrated tables and bar seating is available, whilst the rest of the ground floor features both banquette and standalone table seating ensuring a variety of options are available for passengers dining in the lounge. Banquette seating incorporates power sockets at low level.
Whilst the lounge is open all day from 08:00-20:30, the ground floor part of the lounge is only open for brunch (09:30-12:00) and dinner (18:00-20:30) to coincide with Qantas flight departure times. Although tables are laid to restaurant standards, the waiter service menu, inspired by Neil Perry’s Rockpool restaurants, is very limited, with just four hot options to choose from.
We sampled both the chicken pie with filo top, parsley and capers alongside the famous salt and pepper squid with green chilli dipping sauce and aioli; both were small plates, and neither ranked as highly as Cathay’s offering. Service by the Sofitel-trained staff was prompt and friendly.
Champagne is only available on request to Qantas First passengers, Chairman’s Lounge and Platinum One members, who also have a couple of premium wine options to choose from and the benefit of reserved dining tables adjacent to the windows. For the rest of us, Australian sparkling wine and a more interior-focused view is available.
One does have to remember that, as with The Qantas Hong Kong Lounge, this is a shared business and first class facility – business class passengers will no doubt be delighted at the waiter service offering, although first class passengers may be left feeling slightly miffed if expecting a service comparable to the Qantas First lounges in Sydney, Melbourne, Los Angeles and Singapore. I assume the lack of space available in T3, together with near-adjacent first class lounges being offered by fellow oneworld airlines Cathay Pacific and BA, meant Qantas didn’t opt for their own dedicated First lounge, even if the BA Galleries First lounge comes nowhere near the standard of The Qantas London Lounge.
The upper floor of the lounge is accessed via an impressive sweeping central staircase, although its position on the ground floor is somewhat awkward, requiring all passengers to walk through a small portion of the dining area.
Emerging onto the upper level, passengers are greeted by a tended semi-circular marble-clad cocktail bar with feature chandelier above, either side of which is a symmetrical seating cluster of sofas, armchairs and occasional tables. This aspect of the lounge features the only natural light and views from unfortunately high and small windows, a constraint of the early 1990s building in which the lounge is situated.
Working around to the right, a mix of armchair seating flanks a walkway through to the rear of the lounge, which ends in a large space comprised of a self-service buffet complemented by both high and low communal and individual dining tables.
Confusingly, two overhead signs point passengers in completely the wrong direction for the washrooms and showers – downwards or straight on, rather than to the left.
High-backed sofas at the far end of the lounge offer a semi-private retreat, although their proximity to the buffet means that noise can easily carry. These sofas can also end up being used for overflow dining space from the buffet area in a lounge that often gets busy in the couple of hours preceding Qantas flight departure times.
Adjacent to this seating area, two private window-less VIP rooms are available, one of which is set up as a children’s playroom when not required by VIPs. That the designers chose not to install a permanent playroom seems to be something of an oversight.
Back towards the cocktail bar, additional armchair seating flanks the opposite walkway, with a couple of seating nooks off to the left either side of the lift creating some variety of design. The majority of the seating on the upper floor does not have easy access to power sockets (there are none integrated into tables, for example), although wall sockets are available at regular intervals and are designed for passenger use. Wifi is available, although I find Heathrow’s own wifi service to often be better than that provided by airlines.
Showers and washrooms are situated to the left of the cocktail bar, the latter being individual unisex rooms, and all featuring Aurora Spa products.
Qantas have done a sterling job with the design and functionality of the space available to them for their lounge at Heathrow. The slightly awkward configuration of the lower level and lack of natural light or views are unfortunate results of the building’s configuration, but the stylish design of the space more than makes up for this. Coupled with the adjacent Cathay Pacific lounges, the addition of the Qantas lounge elevates the lounge scene at Heathrow, and results in Terminal 3 offering an excellent departures experience for the premium oneworld flyer. As I write this report in mid-May 2020, T3 (together with T4) had sadly been temporarily closed as a result of the dramatically reduced passenger demand arising from the Coronavirus pandemic. Whilst there are some signs of recovery on the horizon, these two terminals (and their lounges) are likely to stay closed for some months to come.
Our flight to Lisbon aboard G-EUUA (my second time onboard BA’s first A320-232, delivered in 2002) was entirely unremarkable, with the menu being the same as that which I had experienced travelling to Madrid the previous month; BA’s Club Europe menus on services from Heathrow rotate every two weeks. I had enjoyed the British roast chicken with runner beans, garden peas, potato risotto and thyme jus so much on that occasion that I opted for the same meal on this flight – you can see the menu and a photo of this meal in my BA A350 report
here. Unlike on the A350, a welcome bar service was offered prior to dinner.
Arriving into Lisbon, whilst there was no immigration queue, the taxi queue was the longest I’d ever experienced; once we were eventually in a taxi and on our way to the InterContinental, the driver informed us there’d been some weather earlier in the day that had resulted in a number of delayed flights and consequently an unusual number of passengers arriving at the same time.