LHR LAYOVER
As I sit here in the early morning darkness of the Concorde Room, it’s absolutely amazing to me that exactly twenty-four hours ago I was dining on prawns and chicken risotto over the Victorian Desert. In between, only three of the past twenty-four hours have been spent outside of an airplane. Generally I think of flying on a single flight from one place to another on the planet as something that should take no more than a few hours, generally no more than say - fifteen hours. Between Melbourne and London, the total distance flown via Singapore is 10,510 miles, with an aggregate flying time of about 19 ½ hours. The stop in Singapore notwithstanding, these single flights between Australia and London must surely be amongst the longest in the world.
My connecting flight to Los Angeles was to depart from Terminal 1 but it wouldn’t be leaving for another six hours. Since we’d arrived at Terminal 4, it only made sense to pay a visit to the Concorde Room. However, the receptionist working the front desk of the Concorde Room begged to differ. Indeed, she seemed to think I was crazy for not heading straight over to Terminal 1.
“My LA flight doesn’t leave for another five and a half hours.” I told her.
“Yes but you’ll want to make sure you get over there in plenty of time!” was her reply.
“How long does it take to get over to Terminal One?” I asked.
“About forty-five minutes”
“So…, I should have plenty of time.”
“Well you’ll want to make sure you leave here at least two and a half hours beforehand!”
“Right! I’ll see what I can do.”
One thing I don’t need at 6:30am is needless badgering from the lounge staff. This “The Sky is Falling!” approach to timely check-in seemed a bit over the top and certainly unwarranted given my almost six hour layover time and the fact that I was already checked in. A simple reminder that it would be a good idea to allow plenty of time to get over to Terminal 1 would have been sufficient.
As it was, I decided to go down to the Molton Brown Spa for a shower at about 9:00am, then head over to Terminal One. Despite the fairly late morning hour however, there was a 45-minute wait for showers. It was explained that the T-4 Molton Brown Spa has only four or five showers, whereas their sister spa over at T-1 has about ten showers. Thanks – I’m on my way.
It took me only about twenty-five minutes to get from Terminal 4 over to Terminal 1. The longest part was waiting for the inter-terminal bus to show up. Given circumstances similar to mine, (i.e. average traffic, average crowds, already checked in, etc) I would say that one should leave the Concorde Room at least an hour and a half in advance of the Terminal 1 departure time to safely get to the gate with time to spare.
Then again, if it’s your intention to pay a visit to BA’s Lounge Complex at Terminal 1, allow a little more time. I’ve made three visits to the T-1 First Class lounge so far, each time before noon. Unlike the Concorde Room, this lounge offers a very nice continental breakfast buffet featuring a particularly nice citrus fruit salad – one of my favorites. Also available are plenty of breads, yogurts and cereals. A menu offering the same snack items as the Concorde Room is also available. To my experience, the only thing better about the Concorde Room are the big picture windows that contribute substantially to a nicer ambience.