Oakshadow

You’re fortunate in that the BA ACC flights arrive/depart T3 which is the same terminal AA uses so you won’t have to change terminals. For PP lounges in T3, there’s the No.1 and the Apsire. Both are not great. I give a slight edge to Aspire because the buffet food offering are a little better to my taste and there are more available power outlets. Some here prefer the No. 1. The Aspire is a longer walk to the AA gates. Landslide there is the Plaza Premium Arrivals lounge which as you might tell from the posts above isn’t great either.

g289t

Thank you, this is very informative and helpful! My wife will be happy to not need to change terminals in LHR. They have a longer layover on the return trip, so she'll have time to check out both lounges. Also, our daughter will be 3 years old at the time of travel. Would one of these lounges be better for a child than the other?

Oakshadow

Sorry, not an authority on that one. I vaguely remember seeing a changing room at the Aspire but that doesn’t mean the N. 1 doesn’t have one either.

Trappy

Question? I habe a US based American Express Platinum Card with Priority Pass, am flying with Ethiad in economy next week from LHR T4. Am I allowed to take a guest for FREE into a loumnge in T4? Thanks

Oakshadow

According to LoungeBuddy you can bring 2 guests for free to either the Plaza Premium or Sky Team lounges in T4. Fees for additional guests.

CatchThePigeon

Does anyone know when the LHR T5 Plaza Premium Lounge starts offering lunch rather than the buffet breakfast? Thanks.

GUWonder

Yes, the Priority Pass affiliated with the Amex includes an additional two guests IIRC. And if you join and use the Plaza Premium loyalty program, your Priority Pass use of the Plaza Premium lounges will even go toward giving you points toward future free visits using the Plaza Premium program’s points.

Monty_GER

I remember that they started changing the buffet at around 11:30 when I was there a while ago.

Abidjan

Colleague just passed thru T4 Arrivals lounge and was told they’re now charging 10 pounds to take a shower. Disappointing development.

RYX

Passed through T2 Arrivals this week and was told the same.
They said their agreement with Priority Pass was recently renegotiated.

sxc

Looks like this is reflected now on the PP pages.

drboom

I'd appreciate some advice as we transit through LHR this summer. I haven't been through LHR before and this will be a family trip as opposed to my typical business trips. I have PP through the CSR and am considering adding my wife as a secondary so she has her own PP for this trip. We'll (2 adults, 2 kids aged 10 and 11) be flying from BOS to LHR and onwards to TLV and returning the same way. Our flights from BOS to LHR and LHR to TLV are red eyes with the intent to spend an exhausted day visiting London. We're flying on AA but I think it is a BA codeshare flight that is really BA. After our overnight (arrivals), we'd very much like a shower for the 4 of us and a snack before heading into the city and maybe again before we depart for TLV. We arrive around 9am local time at LHR and depart for TLV at 2230 local time.
I believe that our AA/BA flight means that we'll arrive at T3 but I'm not positive about that nor am I clear which terminal our flight to TLV will depart from.

What are my best options for getting the 4 of us a shower and snack upon arrival?

What about in the evening before departure to TLV?

We have a shorter but long (6hrs) layover returning and it will be nice to shower and snack during that layover.

I'm willing to add my wife as a secondary so we can each take 1 kid into the lounge and we have enough lead time that if another credit card program is a batter choice, we can try to do that. I rarely fly with the family so I don't want to invest in the seconday CSR unless there is good reason to know I can get value for it on this trip getting us showers and the like.

What do you recommend? Reading through this thread, it seems like the PP T2 arrivals lounge is our best chance when we arrive but the PP app currently says that showers have a fee. With 4 of us, everything gets expensive quick if we have to pay per person.

Thanks for your experienced advice.

Comatose.Captain

If the BOS-LHR flights are BA-operated, you'll arrive at T5. TLV flights leave out of T5 as well.

The only PP lounge in T5 is the Aspire. It's frequently so crowded that it has to turn away people with a lounge membership card. (This is mostly from what I've read. For me personally, it's been a while since I tried to use the Aspire.) Showers are subject to an extra charge at the Aspire which isn't covered by your PP membership.

LHR T5 has a Plaza Premium lounge which is considerably nicer than the Aspire. It's not accessible via PP, though. An Amex Plat would get you in. If I remeber correctly, it doesn't have showers.

As an alternative, you might consider a day room at an airport hotel. Obviously, rates of LHR hotels vary. But often times, rates are *very* reasonable. Not sure how the situation is on rooms with two queens or doubles. I'm usually travelling solo when using a Heathrow hotel.

EDIT: Obv, the lounges I mentioned are departure lounges. On the inbound, you'll have BP's for an onward flight so, in principle, you could use them as arrival lounges. Takes a BP check and a security control to get into the departues area. (It takes manual intervention from a staff member to get out of the departures area in LHR--they'll escort you out.
Obviously, using an arrival lounge after transfering to another terminal is another option. I don't find these appealing, though. My choice would be a day room at an airport hotel.

shallowdrift

Arrived there 11:30 bang on the other day and it was already lunch. Quality a bit disappointing compared to other PPs I've been in recently.

shallowdrift

On an unrelated note, I was disappointed to find PP T2 arrivals had already cleared all food other than shortbread biscuits a full hour before closing on my return journey.