Marrakech lounge?
 

Does anybody know if there is a (third party) lounge available for CE passengers at RAK?

The BA website suggest there is, but it is only available for IB flights. The dashboard on this forum suggests it is available to BA passengers.

Anybody who has travelled there recently with experience?

Yes there is. It's awful. It's near the end of the terminal on the upper level. Follow he signs and you'll be standing in front of toilets with the apron to your right. Turn left and you'll see the lounge. It's a small room with pastries and some random drinks in the fridge. I wouldn't bother and instead enjoy the view of the airfield.

See:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/21290380-post10.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...h-airport.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...k#post21971852
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...k#post21971585

It's third party and various airlines use it. So imagine a dark cupboard with a few seats and loads and loads of people. We were lucky and had a seat, most others didn't - and gave up and left. I really wouldn't bother!

Yes, there is one and it is available to BA satus/CE passengers. Once you go upstairs after security follow the signs. As others have siad, it isn't great but the departures area of the airport is probably worse so I would tend to use it. Some photos of it when I was there last May if you scroll down in this post.

It truly is dreadful. Even AA would be ashamed of it :)

Managed to get a seat, somehow out of luck. Very few drinks in the fridge. I had the last sparkling water. Alcohol had long gone, except for a few warm bottles of beer arranged on a stand to make some sort of display. After reception claiming they had no more beers to put out I put these warm bottles in the fridge only to find out they'd taken them out again to form their display. A little while later I noticed someone else had taken them to drink despite them being warm.

Some more water arrived, but the lounge was so busy that also disappeared in 5 minutes.

Boarding was just as bad. Unusually for me I was in the front of the queue to board. I was in row 1 CE. An elderly person who needed assistance up the steps boarded first and despite me being in row 1 they insisted I used the rear steps as they didn't want anyone using the front steps until the assistance passenger was on board. I did suggest that it would be best if I just waited but they insisted I used the rear steps which got very strange looks from the crew checking boarding passes at the aircraft door. To make things worse as I was walking down the aisle the front steps were now open for all and I had to fight down the aisle to row 1 where again I was asked why I'd use the rear steps when I was in row 1.

Oh dear!
Oh well, thank you for the information. We shall stay in the hotel a bit longer and I will set the family expectation level to extremely low.

I think that's your best bet. Last time I was there I stayed outside the main terminal and just gazed at the awesome Atlas mountains. Next time I'm there I plan on staying at the Aman resort and renting a jeep to drive up there and hike around a bit.

Depending on your departure time and how they are feeling on the day, Moroccan immigration officials may help you with your desire to spend as little time air-side as possible by processing all departing passengers in the most excruciatingly slow manner possible. When I went through there a couple of months back, I spent a whole hour in the queue to get through immigration on departure. The only good thing about this was that I then only had about 15 minutes in the "lounge".

Going OT for second, we did a few nights at the Aman last autumn and then headed up into the mountains for a few more nights. If you are looking for a good place to base your self for some hiking, I can recommend Kasbah du Toubkal. The Aman it ain't, but I personally found it a more rewarding experience.

I know when I was there at the beginning of April they said "they were having issues with the lounge" and didn't elaborate further. However, we got a voucher to spend at a couple of the cafe's (can't remember how much it was for) but paid for quite a bit of food and drink.

Was there yesterday. Bit grim but did have wifi and cold bottled water.

Oh yeah, wifi not working on my visit, and I mentioned above how popular the water was ;)

Thanks for the tip ^

Does anyone know if the lounge is still available? There is no mention of one on the BA lounge database.