KerryMLC

I travelled with a colleague today who has experienced both BA and Virgin. His opinion of the Virgin lounge is that it was "impressive", and conversely, of the BA Galleries lounge, that it was "not much better than what you could get in Watford Gap services".

That is probably a little harsh, but it's interesting that the lounge for the same product (and often the same or higher fares) is so much worse (I certainly don't think anyone would argue with this).

Arguably, the FLounge is more comparable to the Virgin Clubhouse. And AA are soon to be providing access to their Flagship lounges to customers travelling international (I.e. Long-haul) Business. Is it not time that BA did likewise - surely it is good business, and would have the positive side effect of reducing crowds in the Galleries lounges.

DorsetKnob

How would it reduce the crowds? You'd get more people in a smaller place surely?

stu1985

Well it would reduce the amount of folk in GC but then boot them all into GF. No thanks!

orbitmic

Certainly not.

Foltan

It'd probably be better the other way around, if they improved the offering (food mainly) in the Club Lounges, at least at LHR.

The T5B lounge is a perfectly pleasant place to relax before a flight but the food certainly doesn't align with a Club airfare that could be many thousands of pounds.

rossmacd

Em....no.....I don't think your proposal is well thought through.

BA0197

I think that you and I, not even to mention the bean counters at BA, have very different ideas about what good business would be.

BA isn't a charity and if this were to happen, I'm sure we would see a rise in CW prices. A few other points:

1. The AAdmiral's clubs are not on the same level as Galleries Club at all - not even close. AA's flagship lounge is just about on par with GC so far as I'm concerned. BA also offer a 'spa' while AA does not. I think it's more about AA catching up with the soft product to match BA.
2. Wouldn't that just make the GF lounge (one in Terminal 5) even more crowded?
3. I actually think, comparatively speaking BA's J class lounges are very good (especially at booze) and perhaps the only thing that could be improved on is the food, realistically, when compared to other comparable airlines (LH/ AF/ AA/ UA/ DL). BA certainly do start to fall behind when one looks east however.

jcm9000

Get gold, problemo solved.

Otherwise, naw. Although i have always wondered, if you let everyone in to either and standardised the booze, how many would go to GC just because it is one floor higher, and therefore must be better?

Calum

Hell no

Kungpo

BA have significantly larger numbers passing through their lounges compared to Virgin; whilst GC isn't great, I think having CW visitors in GF would vastly diminish the experience in an already fairly busy lounge.

Flip42

Sure, that's because the offering in the Flagship Lounges is approximately comparable to GC at LHR.

golfmad

I'm with the others. Terrible idea (spoken as a LTG of course)

The bit in bold is a considerable understatement.

Ldnn1

The quality of the Clubhouse is a crucial selling point for Virgin to help it counter the inherent advantage BA has in terms of network and FF base. By extension, BA doesn't (yet) need to offer a Clubhouse-quality lounge for CW.

Your question does raise another interesting one though: what percentage of GC lounge guests are there as CW pax rather than (a) Silver/OWS holders/guests or (b) CE pax?

I know there have been previous threads on number of status-holders generally but not sure I've seen an answer to the GC question specifically.

quakered

if you are talking about T5 then surely the Galleries First lounge has the same floor area as the Club lounge. Both seem very similar to me and both MUCH nicer than wondering around the shopping mall that is T5 whilst waiting for your flight. I accept Galleries First has bigger seats, more booze and food but if you are not fully committed to drunkenness or gluttony the differences are small. Both these lounges are in reality just for the use of frequent flyers. Anyone flying First will be in the Concorde Room.

KARFA

I think the floor area of GC(S) is actually bigger than the GF - and also that doesn't take in to account GC(N) or T5B GC. The total floor area of GC lounges in T5 is therefore much larger than the GF.