IverTheCat

Put simply, is the one world Lounge at T3 rubbish, compared to the Galleries lounge at T5?

The _Banking_Scot

Hi,

At T3 you will have several one world lounges to choose from

British airways galleries club
AA Admirals Club
CX Business lounge

The BA galleries club is on a par with T5 ( lower ceilngs) but likely to be quieter for most of the day.

Which lounge are you referring to?

Regards

TBS

jerry a. laska

As noted there are several OW member lounges in T3, including a BA lounge.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ch-lounge.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...st-lounge.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ght=t3+lounges
If you aren't flying a OW airlines you won't have access though.
See also your other threads on T3 lounges:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...l#post22586399
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ng-passes.html

Genius1

LHR T3 has the following oneworld lounges:

British Airways Galleries First
British Airways Galleries Club

Cathay Pacific First Class lounge
Cathay Pacific Business Class lounge

American Airlines Flagship lounge
American Airlines Admirals Club

Access to all lounges is as per the oneworld lounge access policy: http://www.oneworld.com/ffp/lounge-access

barca82

ISn't the Finnair lounge in Terminal 3 too? They are also in Oneworld.

layz

They don't have a lounge of their own.

littlefish

No, its fine. Most times of day I prefer GC T3 over the two T5A GC lounges, on the grounds GC T3 is normally quieter and showers are more convenient. Views are nicer too.

MarkedMan

There's a lot to fret about traveling through T3 but, IMO, the BA lounges aren't part of it at all. TBH, the addition of a fast track line for security at connections has helped a great deal anyway and if they could stop the bus trips to stands it would be just dandy for me. If I'm not looking at a trip with access to the CCR the lounges in T3 are far better IMO just because of the P&Q. This may change when they play musical chairs after opening the new new terminal, but for now I rather like being in a Galleries F lounge with 15 other people

layz

The BA experience at T3 for status holders.

Check-in:
The former first check-in area has been rebranded Club Europe when the final long haul flight moved to T5. I've never had to queue for a desk here, but for busier times they still have desks for gold only.

Security:
They seem to be enlarging the fast track area. Fast track tends to also be quick when I use it.

Public areas:
This is where T5 wins. It's not a particularly pleasant place to wait for those unlucky enough to not have lounge access. Looking forward to Star Alliance to move out to T2 to make the terminal less crowded.

Lounges:
Same design as T5 galleries but less crowded. If you fancy a change there's the CX lounge and if you want reminding how lucky we are then you can visit the AA lounge.

Boarding:
Always by bus for BA. Hopefully this will be rectified when more gates get freed up. There's priority boarding signage for the BP check, but leads into the same general seating area while waiting for the bus. They do make a priority boarding announcement for the bus but it's generally ignored. So I just normally sit until the end and board last.

Arrivals:
Bus as usual but if you're in CE you get your own bus so get to the passport queue before the rest.

Luggage retrieval is generally quick. There's an M&S just outside arrivals if you need to grab some shopping for later. The pub in the arrivals area isn't that good. There's a better landside pub in the departures area on the floor directly above the VS check in area.

I used to hate the T3 experience but now I've thought more about it, if you have status it's not too bad and will be good when Star Alliance T2 moves free up some gates.

IverTheCat

I didn't realise there were so many options for a BAEC Silver card holder travelling out of T3!

So if I buy an economy ticket on American Airlines, through BAEC Silver status, can I use either the AA or BA (or even CX) lounges at T3?

And when Stateside flying back to London, can I also use the AA (or BA) lounge at the outstation before I commence my inbound journey to LHR? The outstation in question would be DFW if that is relevant.

Thanks!

Genius1

Yes, if you're Silver flying oneworld out of T3, you can access all of the oneworld J lounges.

Flying back (assuming on AA), you'll only have access to oneworld lounges in the terminal of departure (just like at LHR where you cannot use T5 lounges if departing T3).

Which airport are you flying back from the US from?

IverTheCat

Perfect, I might do at J lounge tour at T3

Flying back from DFW...presumably can use either the AA or BA lounge there (or perhaps even the QF one as I believe they fly there)?

The _Banking_Scot

Hi IvertheCat,

At DFW you can use the BA lounge and all of the Admirals Clubs( there are several spread across the terminals)


If you have time you can try them all.

The AA locations are;

Terminal A by Gate A24
Terminal B by Gate B3-6
Terminal C by gates C19-20
Terminal D by gates D23-24 on level 5

Regards

TBS

PS at DFW the lounge for Qantas is by D21-D22 ( from 6pm) as Qantas do not have their own lounge

IverTheCat

Sounds good - thank you!

Joely

The BA lounge isn't really a BA lounge, well not in the traditional sense. Apart from the admirals clubs (typically terrible) the other lounges are in a block of shared lounges. They don't really have permanent residents and instead change ownership depending on time. So the BA lounge is only used by BA around the time of their flight. I was once in there and the flight was a couple of hours late, the lounge staff were madly trying to extend their tenancy as another airlines was due to take it over (not sure who). That said, they are still better than the admirals club in almost every way.