darthlemsip

I'm in there at the moment. It's busy, but not to the point of being overcrowded - can see spare seats about etc. However, the bar is struggling whenever it drops down to one barman.

Food has been ordered, but given what I've seen come out so far I'm not holding up much hope there

Aus_Mal

My ex lgw BA flight ran out of bottles after the first run. BA, you are creating a monster. (and I overheard a conversation in the lounge, no. 1 bar can't obtain champagne as cheap as BA which is why they can't offer it for free.
Well BA, sort that out...

Aus_Mal

Duplicate.

chris1979

Not sure if you got my text but looks like we missed each other again unless we spot each other on the flight.

Safe travels.

jacobitetraveller

this is the sort of comment which I suspect deters many from posting here

what you seem to have missed is that I am basically saying many out station BA lounges are thought of very well by many here

I admitted I have not been to the temp lounge at LGW and I made that very clear

MY MAIN POINT was that the poster was suggesting that out station BA lounges were not that good and not looked upon well by members here

GET A GRIP

jenecho

Watching with interest prior to my club Europe flight next week. Can't believe ba havent been in touch to mention the lounge arrangements and really annoyed that I've got three flights out of lgw during this unfortunate period. And yes champagne was one of my primary thoughts when booking. It would be my drink of choice regardless but I obviously won't be paying £8 when everything else is free. I just hope the plane is well stocked to compensate! Reports above make me very concerned they may not have anticipated the knock on effect. And the Caribbean flights have a reputation for understocking the champagne even without people being denied it in the lounge. Oh dear, poor show. Maybe I should have wondered why the Gatwick flights kept being sold cheap in club. Now I know. But surely, even if no 1 couldn't get cheap champagne BA could supply them with bottles of taittinger (or even the mini bottles of heideck monopole) to hold behind the bar for ba pax on production of premium boarding pass or executive club status cards? Would that not be a viable alternative to £8 a glass? No1/wouldn't be losing out as it would only be available to ba pax, who I very much doubt are currently paying up.

stuart_f

You've have thought... but it's not.

The standard load is something like 14-16 mini bottles. On a recent LGW-VIE my wife and I were sat in 6D/E and clearly everyone in front of us had the same idea about starting their mini-break with a glass of bubbles. By the time the trolley got to us it was empty.

jenecho

Nightmare! We're currently in row 4. Will have to keep an eye out at t-72 to try and get 1a to secure my bubbles! Our flight is one of the longer short hauls at 3.5 hours so I hope it is better stocked!

flashware

All my ex-LGW bookings have a banner at the top that mentions the current lounge arrangements:
Recent News: Change to lounge facilities at London Gatwick
The British Airways lounge is closed for building work
Read more

When you click read more an inset pops up and says:
Recent news stories

Here are all the recent new stories from British Airways from the last 90 days. We ensured the stories that are most relevant to you are at the top.

Change to lounge facilities at London Gatwick
11 December 2015

British Airways' customers are invited to use Gatwick’s No 1 Lounge from 5 January 2016 as the current British Airways lounge will be closed for building work. A new British Airways lounge will open in the South Terminal and details will be announced closer to the time of opening.

simons1

No, the poster said in his/her experience the No1 was better than many outstations. No comment was made about the outstations not being good or how they were looked on by forum users.

You jumped in to contradict that, reaching a judgement based on your experience of never actually having been in No1.

This thread is for reviews etc of the lounge. Why try and give an opinion or comparison of something you have never used?

pianotraveller

I paid my second visit to the no.1 lounge last Monday. On my first visit it was heaving, so I didn't bother to sample any of the food. Last week it was relatively empty, so I ordered the noodle soup with tofu. It took a good 15 minutes to arrive, and when it did I was quite surprised to discover it contained all of one noodle. A single noodle - admittedly the thick Udon type, but still... Maybe it was my misunderstanding, but I was expecting something like a main course portion, about three or four times the size of the one I got. Oh well, I suppose I'll head off to EAT next time for one of their noodle pots...

missdimeaner

My bolding.
This made the pedant in me laugh.
It could be argued that you got exactly that !

chris1979

this thread is turning quite 'amusing' at times.

for what it's worth, i've been in the No1 lounge twice in the last two weeks and whilst I have been critical with BA about them (the manager range me just as I had boarded a flight and wanted to thank me for the feedback, apologise and see if there was anything he could do), the lounge/s are absolutely fine so IMHO there's no need to get excited / worried / fretting / worked up about being there in advance of a trip.

I don't drink so I don't quite get the 'obsession' with the bubbles and why lack of bubbles ruins a flight - the bar offering seemed perfectly reasonable to me. Yes, the food offering is no LHR Galleries First or CCR offering (nor even the curry type offering I've seen in T5B GC) but the salads are reasonably tasty (and healthy!) and the hot food is ok - it can take a while but hey ho, that's life.

I don't want to wade / reignite the 'outstation' argument above but I have been to many many BA outstations that are in a league below the No1 lounge (HAJ is a regular one of mine) - though for the record, there are some very good outstation / third party lounges as well.

so, unless lack of bubbles is really going to ruin your whole flight and holiday, my view is to be open minded, to appreciate that it's not an ideal set up for an interim period whilst BA moves and - in both my cases - actually be borderline pleasantly surprised by the actual lounge (despite it being crowded last night with a very 'mixed clientele' that I wouldn't normally chose to hang out with).

after all, it's just a waiting room as we so often say and I suspect most of don't arrive hours and hours before an ex LGW flight (though appreciate there are long-haul flights).

as said, my 2 pence worth. Happy Saturday and Happy Flying.

t4wine

3 of us couldn't even get 3 seats together in the No 1 lounge at 12:30 this lunchtime. We left the lounge and spoke to the BA guys outside the lounge who admitted it was not good and asked us to complain to BA - any point???

Dicksbits

Don't they hold some back for the return flight? I saw it being rationed on an outbound LGW flight last year.