Originally Posted by
zzpitt
Haven't been on the forum in years, but I've got an upcoming international trip, and I remembered how helpful everyone here has always been!
Flying with the family to Europe next week, I'm EXP with Admirals Club access through the Citi card, my wife has no status but Admirals club access as the authorized user on my Citi card; kiddos are 7 and 9.
1) Outbound we are DFW - LHR - GVA in J (SWU cleared at time of booking for all 4 of us; DFW-LHR on AA, LHR - GVA on BA) with a 3.5 hour layover in LHR. Since we're in J, from everything I've read we'll all have access to most of the lounges in LHR, any recommendations on the "best" one for a family to set up for a couple hours? Flight gets in after the AA Arrivals Lounge is already closed so I'm thinking we'll be in either a BA lounge or another OW partner lounge, but curious what is recommended as the best stop?
2) Return we are DUB - DFW - PHL in standard economy, all on AA (not surprisingly, set up a SWU alert months ago on EF and nothing ever opened, now there aren't even 4 seats available in J) with a 3-hour layover in DFW. As an EXP traveling internationally, I know I get access to the Flagship lounge in DFW, and rules say 1 guest and that children over two years count as a guest. Are they pretty diligent on that, or are they pretty accommodating and might allow the entire family in? I don't want to spend the $/points on the kids that aren't going to eat or drink anything anyway, wasn't sure if they were sticklers or if they might just let all of us into the Flagship lounge instead of the regular Admirals.
Thanks for your help!
1) You will all have access to 3 lounges, the T5A North and South Galleries and T5B Galleries, I have always found T5B to be the quieter and the less crowded lounge to spend time in of all the Galleries in T5. But be aware that if your flight departs from T5A, the only way to get back from B->A is to walk via the tunnels, as the train is outside the sterile zone. Generally, they are all relatively the same, but would rank them personally as T5B > T5A North > T5 South. I believe DFW is still doing (at least was) trials where inbound passengers did not have to clear security again, so you could in theory be dumped directly into T5 without all the hoopla of needing to clear security again.
2) See data point here:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/37155740-post1781.html, I would call this the exception and not the rule and if told "no" to live with the fact that you are all not entitled to access. You can always gift status for a day, as the thread has also talked about, so there are cheaper ways to get around this, or just go to the AC and spend the money in the terminal/elsewhere.