ryan182

I will miss the CX F lounge as well, the Galleries F lounge in T5 IME is both crowded and HOT, confusingly hot as even if its not hot outside it tends to be a sweatbox in the FLounge. The buffet area in FLounge is OK but trying to order something off the menu can be an impossible task as there are never many servers walking around to order from and now with COVID who knows when we will even be able to have buffet type setups again. The CX lounge with the great leather seats and ottomans by the window, the great tables CX has with power in all their lounges are great to sit and relax in before a flight. While yes the CX lounge does have a very limited buffet section the restaurant more than makes up for that IMO. As a rule if there's an AA lounge and an OW lounge I skip the AA lounge so never tried the AA lounge in T3 but doubt that will be much of a loss, though wasn't LHR going to get a FFD setup before COVID? I would hope that if AA does move that they allow AA F pax into CCR in T5.

N830MH

Correct! I have been at entire T3. Where I fly back PHX.

birddogmax

I use it all the time. So now you know someone (referring to the T3 AA lounge).

GotCalcio4

This in and of itself proves why AA can’t simply abandon having its own dedicated lounges, including an AC, arrivals lounge, and proper FL with FL dining. There’s just no way the BA facilities as they currently exist could handle the AA volume of flights and passengers along with Flagship/Premium Checkin. At least in Tokyo, AA has moved all of its premium services agents from the old AC at NRT over to HND (while I still the city is deserving of its own AC). LHR IS, definitely, without a doubt, AA’s indisputable most important international outstation. There has to be dedicated AA facilities there in the long run, especially considering all of the recent LHR adds like PHX, SEA, and BOS. Let’s wait and see how the dust settles before jumping to conclusions.

It’s just a shame that they reopened the great new arrivals lounge with 28 showers only have it collect dust if it’s abandoned in this move. The only time I’ve enjoyed an AA/BA LHR connection was I arrived into T3 on BA and departed from there on AA headed westbound.

rossmacd

You have been lucky. I certainly have been bus departures on AA (and at least one arrival, from memory).

Albeit, I never understand the obsession some countries place on jet bridges or not. Certainly on arrival, the bus drops you much closer to arrivals(/transfers) than a jet bridge does - making it quicker/easier to exit the airport or head to your next flight.

JJeffrey

This "rumor" has been making the rounds since 2018 or 2019.

There have never been any details or timelines mentioned, seemed like a pipe dream more than anything (especially at pre-covid flight levels).

I could definitely see a temporary move from T2 to T5 as things continue to pick back up. But long term AA and BA would have major issues to work out, especially considering too that BA closed LGW and shifted everything to LHR. Not losing any sleep over this at the moment.

flying_geek

Same here - I also had bus trips to BA 747's out of T3 (LHR-MIA)

aamilesslave

The JBV is a mess with the same destination serviced by both carriers operating from different terminals. My guess is that when T5 reaches capacity that BA will move non-JBV flights (or perhaps destinations not serviced by both carriers) to T3. I don't see AA splitting operations to 2 terminals at LHR or moving out of T5 once they move there.

IflyonAA

I believe that a new lounge is being built in 5b so maybe that will be the AA terminal with pre-clearance?

BlooJoo

Why would you think there's pre-clearance? I don't think any UK airport has that.

IflyonAA

Not yet. But DHS said in 2015 that it was their intention to add LHR - this would make sense.

teemuflyer

Yes, the US is a huge market for BA, which is covered by the JBV (TATL), but the rest of world is much bigger in aggregate. Seriously doubt they would make that kind of move. And unless it is O&D traffic, who knows where someone flying from the US would be connecting to so the problem of having to connect from one terminal to another certainly would not be solved.

IflyonAA

For what it is worth, there are no open CBP job postings for London at this time.

UKtravelbear

There are around a dozen airports on a list released by DHS in March 2015 and not one has been approved let alone implemented, in the 5 years since that list was put out. Not one. You can bet if they had been approved it would have been shouted from the roof tops and implemented by now.


There was a second list of a similar number or airports released by DHS in 2016 and again not one of those airports has been approved / implemented either.


There is no new lounge being built in 5B. The most that is happening is a refresh of the BA lounge.

If LHR does get pre clearance it will be at a location that ALL airlines that want to use it will be able to use and not restricted to one or two.

Heck we don't have any official statement (that I can see) from BA-AA that they are moving to T5 in the near future.

VFR

Let's hope AA conducts some market research among frequent flyers when they do this move, given that the response here has been "but the lounges!"

I think that if AA were to get some space in T5 to build a good Flagship Lounge and FFD, the T5 lounge situation would actually be quite good. However, I don't really see them doing this unless (a) pre-clearance is constructed, which HAL currently does not seem to have a plan for, or (b) they suspect J/F customers are going to defect over the lack of T3 lounge hopping that they have come to enjoy. Otherwise, I expect T5 to grow more BA lounges.

To be honest, given BA would pay AA for lounge access for J / FF flying European short-haul, it actually might be possible for AA to make some money opening a LHR flagship lounge.