Originally Posted by
scubadu
Well, for one, its ridiculously crowded for an F Lounge. I've literally never been in an F Lounge where I had trouble finding a seat, other than LHR T5 F Lounge. The furniture is pretty rundown.
Second, the food situation is just really poor. Historically, one differniator between business lounges and F lounges is an a la carte menu offering. The "a la carte" menu offering in T5 GF is just laughably, stunningly sad. Contrast the T5 GF "menu offerings" to the Qantas F Lounge offerings @ LAX (which btw isn't even a hub for them).
https://onemileatatime.com/reviews/q...st-lounge-lax/ (pictures of ala cart menu are about mid way down the page)
Honestly, for those that have experienced other OneWorld F Lounges (e.g. JAL, CX, QF) I don't really know how anyone could say, with a straight face, that the T5 GF lounge is a proper F lounge. Frankly, it's just become a business lounge that restricts access to OWEs.
Brits have often made fun of AA lounges in times past (often rightfully so), but I was recently in the MIA Flagship lounge and honestly, it blew the doors off T5 GF lounge (in food, wine, spirits, and crowding) And the Flagship Lounge is a "business class" lounge open to all OW Sapphires.
I realize this sounds harsh and I know I'll offend the usually suspects, but again, when you compare JAL, Cathay Pacific, and Qantas F lounges at each of their respective hubs, BA should be embarrassed of the T5 GF offering @ LHR.
IMHO, the only thing T5 GF really has going for it is the F Wing entrance.
Regards
P.S. I'm aware CX is currently "on the ropes" Time will tell if they recover, but pre-covid, their F lounges were very strong
of course, the qf, cx, and jl lounges you mention are the lounges those airlines use for their f pax which the Ba f lounge is not, very similarly to the qr f lounge aa opposed to al safwa.
That said, I love most qf lounges, really like many cx lounges, but find jl f lounges distinctedly underwhelming and aren’t sure what makes them better than Ba’s GF? Food is mediocre (and since you mentioned a la carte dining, that’s typically something they do not provide), they can also be packed at the wrong times (just like gf can be largely empty at the right times) and I would really never get out of my way to spend time there, and I say that as someone who absolutely loves jl (I’d say it’s my favourite ow airline without hesitation) and would in fact go out of my way to fly them.
food in gf is definitely a lot better than in GC where it has been downgraded, as for the suggestion upthread (not in your post) that gf feels decrepit in either lhr or jfk, I genuinely do not recognise that.
so totally with you on preferring the qf or even cx f lounges, though at that rate, the AF p lounge is yet much better than either but to me, it’s sort of par for the course.