I'll dare you to go into the BA forum and say that :p

:D

The problem with the LGW lounge is that they are trying to be too clever. Yes, it is nice to have a decent selection of wines, but the food consisted of 3 small trays of sandwiches, that were being devoured more quickly than they could be refilled (vultures on the MLE flight...), plus a salad bar that was about as appetising as the one in Pizza Hut. I saw someone had some crisps and by the time I got to the counter, all they had left was mini Cheddars and Twiglets

How I longed for some soup or Wingnuts...

Indeed - I found the F lounge at LGW really fairly cramped and the food selection wasn't that different to the more spacious business lounge. Last time I was there it was a morning flight so I had a (rather nice) mushroom & bacon roll then went to the business lounge to relax (no seats free in the F one, just tables).

I don't know whether a look of utter disdain is something that the BA lounge entry staff have to practise as part of their training, but I've had quite a few recently, and the one I got at Gatwick last Thursday morning on presentation of my DC Gold card should have won a prize of some kind. It reminded me of that bit in one of the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy books where Ford Prefect tries to settle "a drinks bill the size of a small defence budget" somewhere half way across the galaxy with an American Express card.

She said she had never even heard of bmi Diamond Club, and that if the card was valid anywhere then it certainly wasn't valid in the BA First lounge. I politely said that I believed it was and indicated that I wasn't going to give up, and after a conference with her colleagues, several telephone calls, taking time to let in some other guests and generally seeming to make every effort to ensure that I wouldn't have time to go in the lounge without missing my flight, I was grudgingly admitted. This was probably the worst experience I've had so far of trying to gain admittance to a BA lounge with my DC card, but it's not atypical.

Email BA customer relations, with the date and time you tried to access the lounge (along with names if you know them). We can be sure that this isn't the impression that BA wants to give bmi customers (or they'd not have been so generous to begin with), it's probably a training issue.

Even though it'll only affect a small number of people it's a good idea these issues are addressed as it shows potential communication issues between management and staff.

I don't really mind too much, and I may have slightly over-dramatised it in my post above! As long as they eventually let me in I can live with the general confusion. For me it's only another month (plus however long they take to process the match), and by the end of the year it will be all over, so if they haven't bothered to train the staff properly since the takeover then they're unlikely to do so now.

Really I find it astonishing that BA is allowing DC cards to be used in lounges at all anymore given that we have all had plenty of time to complete a match. Those of us deliberately delaying our match to get an extra year of Gold are lucky to be getting any recognition at all in the meantime, and accepting the cards in some of the lounges is just having our cake and eating it. Nevertheless it's slightly irritating when they don't know their own rules, and I find it surprising that people whose job is simply to make a yes / no decision on the basis of a set of rules are so often unable to get it right. As many on this board know, it was much the same in the old days trying to use a DC card in *A lounges half way round the world!

Am I the only person still trying to access BA lounges with a DC Gold card? I'm still waiting for my match to be processed (ten days and counting after the promised date) and in the past few weeks I've done this several times.

Ever since they started officially accepting these cards, the staff at the BA lounges in Terminals 3 and 5 have consistently told me my card was no use, although every time I've eventually persuaded them that they're wrong. However, until recently I've never had any problems in the former BD lounges in Terminal 1. Twice recently, though, I've been told that they are no longer accepting DC cards in these lounges. Again, they've relented and let me in eventually, but it seems to be getting harder every time, and last time I got "well I'll let you in this time" as if they were doing me a favour.

Conversely, I've never had had a problem in Belfast, where the officially published rules were that DC cards would be valid only on (now non-existent) BD operated flights.

Tomorrow (unless they process my match in the meantime) I'll be trying again in T1, so we'll see what happens...

Did you get the email yesterday from 'Flybmi'? I think it was sent by mistake as we've already been told all that's contained within it, but it does point out you can use BA and bmi (one of many signs it was an old message) lounges in LHR and LGW until the end of the year.

Yes I got that email too and wondered if it was more just a reminder given 31st Dec is fast-approaching?

Strangely I didn't get that, even though I usually get all DC e-mails.

Anyway, I got an e-mail from BA late last night saying I'd been upgraded to Gold and it was printed on my boarding pass today, so I got into the lounge without having to brandish the DC card.

I’ve stuck to using my bmi gold card to get into the Heathrow BA lounges - First of course in T3 and 5 - and have had no problems at all. My card’s going to have to be retired on 1 January though.

bmifly