johnspenceruk

Has terrible review though. Are most people wrong? Most reviwers give it a rating of "Terrible", the lowest rating possible on Trip Advisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restau...n_England.html

madfish

Not used it, but some of those reviews are from people who never even made it through the door. Not that the ones who did have been much more positive about it.

Airport lounges (including paid ones) are much more part of the holiday experience. This one suffers from being the only one in T5 at the moment. It ‘may’ get better. But saying that, I was not very impressed by the Aspire Lounge at NCL yesterday. The sausages were nice but that was about the highlight.

corporate-wage-slave

The link referenced upthread is this forum's review thread for the Aspire lounge and it is slightly more nuanced. If Aspire was being compared to most European airports it wouldn't do that badly, it's in the same ballpark as say Dublin. But the standard and expectation from airport lounges has risen quite a lot in recent years and so Aspire is certainly the worst lounge in T5. Plus it does get full at peak times.

dadio77

hope I haven't hit a raw nerve here, just a late night thought and I appreciate the replies! I get the relative cost of wasting miles + £25 though six of us will have lounge access as part of our booking so flipping it on it's head, 7 of us in T5 (or even in F&M!) would cost a lot more...

Having said that it already sounds like hard work - we may just wave at him through the window - at least that way he will have a taste of the flight to come...!

Thanks again for all the replies ^^

subject2load

Is it possible, I wonder, to somehow get to the roof of T5 and then abseil down the side of the building, directly into the lounge ......

A certain amount of effort needed (and might perhaps attract the attention of the security services) ; but could prove less complex a procedure than some of the suggestions offered so far.

navylad

Have you seen if it is possible to upgrade your European flights with either money or avios so that you would be entitled to access? Maybe I'm missing something?

TabTraveller

There really isn't any need for facetiousness.

I merely wanted to show that is is possible to be airside with two seperate boarding passes having met conformance on both. No one is going to contact security and even if they did then you haven't broken any rule, law or contract.

Obviously you'd be nuts to do so unless there was a bloody good reason why you had to be in the BA GC lounge rather than at the F&M bar or the Aspire Lounge.

I guess if one had a substantial layover but not quite long enough to justify a trip out of the airport (say 4-5h), plenty of avios knocking around, the ability to use the e-gates and perhaps a group of friends or family already in GC (but no ability to guest) then I might just see that someone would do it.

A couple of meals, somewhere quiet to sit/work and access to an open bar for 4-5h could well be worth £25 plus 8k avios plus 30mins of faffing around.

subject2load

@TabTraveller - no hard feelings, please be assured there was no personal malice intended in my light-hearted post, not even remotely. I was simply bemused by suggestions (and not specifically your own) of booking tickets only to then cancel them.

Your third paragraph ("Obviously you'd be nuts to do so ....") pretty much says it all - and I'm with you 100% on that ^

TabTraveller

No worries - apologies for my misreading

florens

I am quite happy that they don't sell lounge access (yet?!), as I find the lounges very busy already.

Dambus

Given the admirable clarity of the OP’s thread title and original question I think we own him/her clarity in return.

Could all responses either be “No”* or some concrete suggestion of how to “effectively” purchase lounge access?

* For those who think i) it’s impossible ii) it should be impossible or iii) the world will end if the seemingly impossible somehow became possible.

TabTraveller

Without wishing to be blunt, this has been answered above. By way of precis for you:

"No, you cannot directly buy lounge access to GC but you can buy lounge access to Aspire in T5. One could indirectly buy GC access by purchasing a one way CE ticket and going through security twice to ensure conformance has been met. Most agreed this was, however, a stupid idea. Some noted that spending your money in the terminal might be better than paying to access a lounge."

Johnnieboy

Dressing up as a mouse might swing it?