Well I had a lovely “BA Mainline Prime Lhr” experience yesterday. Rolled up at Terminal 3 at LHR and was through Fast Track in 20 minutes. Did a bit of light shopping and then made my way to a very quiet Cathay First lounge. Got myself a nice espresso and sat watching the planes and reading FT Weekend until noon when I poured myself a refreshing glass of Laurent-Perrier La Cuvée. A few more glasses followed and I retired to the dining room for a delightful pea and mint soup with poached egg, followed by a bowl of wonton noodles. I switched to Barbera d’Asti at this point. After lunch, more planespotting and watching the Test Match via the fast Cathay Wi-Fi. I then trundled to the gate lounge, no queue and was first to board a spotless Finnair A321. Plenty of space above row 1 for my Rimowa, backpack and duty free and no seat opponent in 1D. We pushed about 5 minutes late and soared into the cloudless English sky. The crew were delightful, first time doing the hot meal Club service so they had to work it out a bit as they went along (and I heard a *lot* of Finnish being chatted in the galley) but they did the service by the book: two trolleys came out to do the drinks round (Club went back to row 12) and then another two to do the meal. Lots of offers for top ups too - they really worked their socks off. Arrival at Faro, I was first off the aircraft, did the lift trick down to immigration where there was no queue and I walked straight to the car park to meet my father.
So the solution is clear…the optimum way to fly BA these days is to avoid their home base, visit another airline’s lounge and then board another airline’s aeroplane.