TheKipper

Well - its good and bad news.....

First the good news is i'm in the Galleries First Lounge at T5. We had a five minute inquiry through various bits of paper before discovering that the 'access book' has been updated and there it is. Our little black cards are included. Gold into Galleries First and Silver into Galleries club.

I'd say its SEN comparable with a different UK style, so a fair swap. Pretty good food and drinks. But not up there with the TK (ist) and BKK, SIN lounges.

And now the bad.

I had a BA ticket today as i'm connecting and was rejected access at the BMI lounge and BA lounge at MAN. Apparently BA customers can go in both. But in a quirk, they've forgotten to let BMI customers with BA tickets into BMI or BA lounges outside LHR and LGW.....

TheKipper

PS - must invest in some expensive golf jumpers or at least a tweed jacket/ blazer.

Oh yes, its everything you would expect.

I could be wrong but I think the agent at the desk typed 'unclean' into the computer when I entered.

RAPC

That's just the coding for 'Yorkshire' on the system. Oxon Flyer gets the same treatment

The quirk of bmi members not getting access to the BA lounges outside of LHR and LGW has been raised elsewhere and the BA.com FAQ does only list those lounges. It is a bit strange though, I agree.

aidanc

Posted on the other thread, but was in Galeries Club (North) and about 15 on the bmi list ahead of my. Now in the Galeries First (South) and about 10 on the list ahead of me. No problems at all getting in.

Boarding pass shows BD and FF number.

RobDBA

Did you need to show your card? (my March renewal, and replacement requested 2 weeks ago, haven't arrived yet...)

Jetstreamer

Well the only announcement I've seen is that we get access to BA lounges in LHR and LGW. I haven't seen any mention that we get into all lounges. So on this basis being turned away at MAN was correct.

Perhaps this is deliberate as at LHR and LGW BA and BD are either in different terminals or BD simply don't fly there. At places like MAN where tboth carriers operate from the same terminal they wouldn't want people lounge hopping or crowding the smaller BA lounges.

aidanc

Yes you will need your card. The "system" does not have status look up based on bmi ff number, nor will it ever I expect. Your old card and current print out might work.

RobDBA

Thanks, I'll try that. It worked last year for BMI lounges so fingers crossed BA will know BD cards are often late. Slightly nervous given the BA lounge dragon reputation and the fact it's the first lounge which lets be fair I don't really belong in! (I've only been just scraping BD gold these last two years based on exclusively Y flying, so I won't be sullying the first lounge for long don't worry!).

hugolover

Does Galleries First have food to order or just buffet?

The _Banking_Scot

Hi,

They do have food to order as well as the buffet.

Regards

TBS

Prospero

corporate-wage-slave does sterling work keeping us up to speed on the Galleries First menus (both with the self serve buffet and table service menus)

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ns-2012-a.html

TheKipper

Don't disagree but the principle that BA customers can walk into a bmi lounge on a ba ticket and I can't get into a bmi lounge with the same ticket seems a little wrong.

However, had a chat with guest relations in the lounge at LHR and they confirm this needed addressing. They were keen to get on with getting us integrated and were pleased to see bmi people starting to fly with ba.

surturminn

Anything further on this? Have a BA flight ex EDI on Monday, and would hope to get into at least our own bmi lounge....

ag51

I flew MAN-LHR last night on a BMI ticket and with a BAEC Gold Card - no access to the BA lounge, BMI lounge only (I was told at the BA lounge that I could only access a BA lounge while flying BMI if there was no BMI lounge available, so for example Heathrow Terminal 5 - didn't want to point out the slight flaw in this statement...)

So not just inconsistencies for DC members...

deliveredenergy

Any thoughts on this one?

Mrs DE and I are off to Rome tomorrow on a BAEC reward saver redemption, MAN-LHR-FCO. Blue status only now with both BA and BMI but I do have a couple of BMI lounge passes via an old BMI Amex card that expire soon. I'm guessing our chance of swapping these for a comfy seat and a cappuccino are pretty slim but would value any advice. Unless I'm missing something the BA MAN-LHR shuttles don't have a BMI codeshare number??