LeisureFirst

I have been in the Terraces countless times, but I didn't spend a lot of time there on my most recent trip as I was guested into the Flounge, but I did pass through it for CW dining. It is still much noiser than the Flounge - not just with the number of pax, including it would seem the IB hoardes - but with the way the noise seems to reverberate around the place. I found the Flounge far more relaxing as well as being much more atrrractively furnished. Also the Club Lounge really offers nothing in the way of food (CW dining excepted - a whole different issue) and a dull drinks selection.

GUWonder

The Galleries Clubs at LHR T5 do get more crowded than Galleries First, but I've yet to have an instance there of the GCs being crowded to the brink of not getting a seat in the lounges such that I would head to GF after entering a GC because of a lack of seats.

Sometimes I go from the GC to the GF lounges but that is because I may be looking for different reading material or wanting a quieter corner; other times I head from GF to GC for much the same reason.

The difference in lounges at T5 is not substantial enough to encourage me to value BA Gold a lot more than BA Silver to the degree that I would deliberately sacrifice other elite status or anything else for it if that kind of situation were to arise for me.

helahela

And the same in JNB.
J lounge is bigger with more space and the food is exactly the same as in F lounge.
F lounge is always filled to the brim and the only difference is a couple of bottles of premium alcohol.

Savage25

I beg to differ about the bit when things go wrong. As a Gold, I've gotten less from BA than some non-status pax during the Jan 2010 and Dec 2010 LHR snow snafus. Both times Amex Plat came to my rescue when the BAEC Gold line did nothing but rebook my flights.

Gold is only good for the LHR GF/arrivals lounges and for op-ups (about half my longhaul flights).

firstclasslad

LHR T5 Club Galleries was packed on 17th June. We returned back to the CCR - but I like sometimes staying in Gold Galleries

LeisureFirst

Horses for courses. Clearly you travel a lot in WT or WTP. Some, on the other hand, would say Gold is only good for being able to snag 1A or 1K in advance .

Petrus

Mind you, how is it clear? Could be CW travel.

Horris

But if it was CW travel then they wouldn't need to be Gold to access the Arrivals lounge.

thegoderic

[QUOTE=rossmacd;16791833]This is the biggest difference between my BMI and BA days.

"In the good old days" when travelling on BMI, the lounges (although not great quality) where always quiet with plenty seating available.

QUOTE]

This may be related to the fact that bmi is slowly going down the pan.

continentalclub

Galleries Club Lounges do indeed seem to be getting busier, though they do appear quite capable in absorbing the hordes. North generally feels more crowded than South, though it is more open and with longer sight lines, so perhaps it's a trick of the light.

As premium loads have increased, as bmi has abandoned domestic routes and perhaps even as a result of some of the no-frills carriers quietly reducing routes and/or frequencies both to London and direct to European destinations from the regions, it's probably only to be expected that more and more frequent travellers will be using T5 and its lounges.

For example, here in the North East, we relatively recently had service from MME to LHR with bmi, and MME to LGW with bmi baby. From NCL, we had BA to LHR, BE to LGW and U2 to STN. The latter route being the first that U2 ever operated from NCL, having operated it following the GO takeover.

Since 28th March this year, the total air route options to London from the North East are BA NCL to LHR and BE NCL to LGW. Nothing else.

In recent years, U2 have canned NCL destinations such as AMS, KRK and CPH completely. BCN and NCE have gone from, in some cases, multiple dailies to not even daily. KL and AF don't sell discounted one-way tickets in any class of travel.

All of which, anecdotally, is sending passengers back to BA, as the steadily increasingly busy-ness of the NCL Terraces tends to suggest as well. That and the fact that BA is back up to six daily weekday returns NCL-LHR, most of which seem to be rammed.

So, yes, the Galleries Club Lounges are not just busier than Galleries First, they seem to be getting busier still - and if new passengers like what they see in general, then that is likely to flow on to GF in time as their loyalty (and TPs) build.

In the meantime, the standard of catering remains significantly better in GF than GC - it's a rare day to find any chicken lurking in the chicken curry at the GC buffet - and also the standards of cleanliness. GC staff, especially at South, often seem not to understand the most basic principles of housekeeping.

Having said all that, even as it stands, the Galleries Club offer, as busy, chickenless and messy as it can be, is still light years ahead of most other European airport and airline Business Class provisions, and passengers clearly like it - which can only make the lounges busier and maybe encourage them to achieve Gold....

rossmacd

Very true!! ^

Aloxford

There is some building work going on around the entrance to the Johannesburg lounge - is it being enlarged so there will be a seat for everyone in there?

BAGoldBoy

Same at SFO - the F Lounge is small and hot and the food is pathetic. I normally get sent to the J Lounge to fetch some soup for SWMBO as there isn't any in the F Lounge

heckenhocker

Here are some examples I've seen:
- LHR-ARN diverted to CPH: I was called out of the loooooong line and handed a boarding card for CPH-HEL (I was connecting in ARN)

- snow happiness at LHR December 2010: BA floating staff assisting in queue "which cabin are you travelling in, ah yes, Club. Oh and I see you are a Gold card holder, even more reason to assist you"

- at LCY a couple of weeks ago, watching delays to BA flights (not to mine). The customer service agent was actively asking Golds and Silvers to come to the front of the line for handling. Non-status pax were having to wait until the others had been dealt with.

- stupidity on my part when booking. Typed half of my surname (!!). Gold line was very helpful in adding the second part without charge (I did tell him it was my idiocy, and he was free to laugh at my incompetence )

Whether the above examples are unpublished benefits, or good fortune, I don't know.

Swanhunter

On the rare occasions I have suffered irregular ops class of service has counted for much and Gold sod all. Even GGL doesn't help that much at the time.