businesstraveller

A few questions in the BA arrivals lounge facilities at T5:

1. Are towels and toiletries supplied in the showers?
2. Noting that the lounge seems to be uber busy around 7-9am, what is it typically like at 11am?
3. I read that dining for F class arriving passengers is via the Concorde room. Is this actually the case and if so do you need to go back through security?

opalfruit

1. Yes.
2. It starts to thin out around 11:30ish, by 12 it is usually pretty quiet. At 8-9am, you'll probably have a 10-15min wait for a shower.
3. There is a First Breakfast section of the arrivals lounge where F passengers have at-table service.

paulwuk

Yes

Quiet, but I never think it's realy busy even 7-9. Never had to wait for a shower, never had problems sitting for breakfast.

There is a seperate dining room, I believe it's basically a waiter served buffet.

F passengers can theoretically get a bath instead of a shower too.

Justonemore

Yes towels and toiletries are supplied, in my experience mid morning is fine - actually very pleasant at 11am.

The dining facilities for arriving F passengers is actually the Concorde Dining Room which is within the arrivals lounge and nothing to do with the actual CCR past security - the name is slightly confusing.

I actually prefer the buffet in the main lounge to the Concorde dining room, which IMHO has a bit of a cafeteria feel. Plus I'd rather get food myself as opposed to waiting to have good served. Overall the arrivals lounge is a positive experience.

Land-of-Miles

F Passengers and CCR cardholders get access to the Concorde Dining Room within the Arrivals lounge. The breakfast selection there is essentially the same as that in the departures CCR with more patchy service (e.g. it took 10 minutes for anyone to come in and acknowledge us when we arrived on Sunday). Even the English Breakfast is a bit different to the buffet (e.g. eggs cooked to order).

F passengers also have access to the infinity bath cabanas. These are MUCH nicer than the regular shower pods which are poky and VERY poorly ventilated. The drawback is that the bath cabanas do not have a separate shower so don't work as well if you are in a rush. The bath cabanas are not really promoted at all and I haven't found it hard to get one. All come with toiletries and towels, the bath cabanas have more towels and could work shared as a couple if you don't mind bathing together.

The main lounge gets busy earlier and becomes quieter later, it is rare in my experience that the Arrivals CCR Dining is really busy.

HIDDY

The CCR arrivals breakfast room is a far nicer experience with waiter service and wider food choice.....at least it was the last time I was there.

Land-of-Miles

It still has a wider choice of food essentially the entire CCR in departures breakfast menu.

mayodave

I got fed up of waiting for service in that F section and went and helped myself to all the freshly laid out bacon and sausages when I was there in August

Beano HK

+1 but don't forget the black pudding

LondonElite

Just what a growing boy needs after an overnight flight!

ClubClassCowboy

Are they really an F only option - I'm sure I've used them when travelling in Club?

They ARE much nicer than the showers - you can have a proper splash around in the bath without worrying about flooding the place

Land-of-Miles

I think the official position is that "priority is given to F customers". I have only used them coming off F Flights. The staff seem very reluctant to even acknowledge their existence (I assume because a lot more cleaning work is required than just the quick spray and cloth rub down of the showers). I have found even coming of F Flight I have to be really assertively insistent that I have a bath cabana.

I am not sure what the score is for CCR cardholders vis a vis the bath cabanas either but it can be enough of a struggle to get the lounge dragons to give me a CCR dining access card

Poxball

Gotta love BA and its marketing board on here.

"Infinity bath" is actually a ..... Bath
"Cabana" is actually ..... Room

As in "bathroom".

Bigger, 2 sets of towels, no gurgling and crucially no shower either.

Unless you really want a bath, then put up with gurgling.

And yes you do need to do a bit of a Basil Fawlty to explain you want a bath not a shower even when you use the word "bath".

Poxball

Plus the water pour is what one might describe as laughable as it comes from the shower head which is not fixed so flies all over the place (apart from 8 feet high and fixed to a wall)

Land-of-Miles

The infinity bath is rather unusual and is an infinity bath. Those who have used them will know this. There is no overflow the water can be continually run and drops over the edge of the bath continually into a decking area in surround all sides of the bath. It is in some ways like an infinity swimming pool but far smaller.

The water pour is from a waterfall tap head and is supplemented by a shower head (water flow switchable between the 2 modes like many hotel or cheap home bath shower combos).

For those who haven't yet tried these and who are eligible I really recommend it if you have a fair bit of spare time.

There are a couple of seats in the bath area too and IIRC a bidet as in the CCR toilets.

I think this picture illustrates best:-



As you can see from that image the tap is very like the taps on the hand basins in the main CCR cabanas but with an added shower head.