fransknorge

While I am by no mean judging the CCR (have been there once for 30 minutes and found it a fine lounge) or its updates, I think you are wrong here.
There has been several threads on the popularity of the BA forum on Flyertalk compared to other boards, and a conclusion every time is one of the dominant factor is that other airlines have a more heavy forum in the native language of the airline somewhere on the net.
The number of hits is a red herring for your argument as the population of FT is biased towards the english language.
When reading TR for examples, I do not think the CCR is that something the majority aspired to, compared to the CX lounges, QF, JL, EY, TG, LH FCT and AF. I am sure everybody would be happy to go there if there was their only choice or an opportunity, but I am not convinced that people aspired to be there, and I would certainly not used the number of hits on a thread to make a point there.

I am not representative in any way, of course. But I just made this morning redemption bookings for a leisure trip next year to Japan and South Korea. For such a trip I try to use products that really attracts me (it was JL F last year) either by personal experiences or by reading TR here. I did not even consider BA F in the 10 hours I spend researching options based on my Avios/*A miles available. Despite the CCR.

SFO777

"... the CCR will remain the most sought after lounge for visits...at least on FT" .
Good one. By the same logic, Economy will remain the most sought after cabin in the world.

No doubt the new furniture is a vast improvement and I look forward to seeing it in the flesh in the new year. But in the end, it's only a lounge that you spend a little time in before boarding your flight. And that's the problem... you have to board a BA plane and a not very exciting or competitive First Class product.

We'll be in London for US Thanksgiving and if it was up to me, I would indeed route myself via CDG. But for a long weekend, Mrs. SFO777 wants nonstop. So nonstop it is, but on AA not BA, even though the discounted F fare was cheaper on BA.

icegirl

Out of interest where would you rank the CCR on your list of world leading lounges and how does it differ for the better from others?


Why!?!?

Cap'n Benj

From one not very exciting or competitive choice to an even less exciting and competitive one!

Can only hope you made your decision based on schedule

corporate-wage-slave

It's no secret that part of the answer is that I know most of the CCR staff, some of whom I've known for many, many years, and have looked after me week in, week out.

I don't really have a ranked league table, probably a group of about 6 lounges that I really like to visit. I haven't been to Al Safwa yet. Apart from CCR + CCR T7 I would add Qantas MEL and SYD (especially the view), Lufthansa FRA FCT (though a bit sterile), NCL Terraces, Singapore Private Room. La Première - well, it is certainly amazing, just not very relaxing! One kind of visits it, like a temple, rather than participates.

orbitmic

In my view, you haven't missed that much. I'm not a huge fan of all Safwa.

SFO777

Indeed, neither are that exciting and rank near the bottom of my Top 20 First Class rankings. I would have gone with BA's 789 but discounted F was sold out. So my options were the AA 77W (with Wifi) or BA's old 744. Easy choice IMO.

SFO777

It's nice if you are into cavernous lounges that resemble museums.

BOStonTravels

Al Safwa is a very low energy lounge Seriously though, the food and beverages have gone steadily downhill since opening and service IMHO has also decreased. Its a shame because the physical space is quite stunning.

Dave_C

What complete and utter tosh. It’s not even close to being the best lounge at Heathrow, let alone one of the best lounges in the world. I’ve heard BA News being likened to Pravda before, however I think we have a new winner for Newspeak in this post.

A world class lounge needs to have the following attributes:

• Ground services i.e. staff assistance
• Food
• Drinks / wines / spirits
• Privacy
• Shower / bathing / hydrotherapy
• Spa services

If you were to objectively rate the Concorde Room’s services out of ten versus many many other lounges globally, I am willing to bet it would be in the bottom quartile of first class lounges.

The First Class Terminal, the AF P Lounge, The Pier, The ZRH F Lounge to name but four all objectively would score far more highly on any “fair minded analysis”.

So less of the press office spin, more facts, and no #fakenews .

Dave_C

Plus, at the very least, they should start to dust the “Cloud” sculpture on the way in, even if they aren’t going to fix it. The fact that it’s remained broken for so long is also monumentally poor.

corporate-wage-slave

Just in case anyone new to this forum gets the wrong impression, your quote above is somewhat undermined by the fact that the views I've expressed here are my own, purely as a BA customer, for which I take full personal responsibility, and are certainly not directed, let alone paid for, by the press office or any other BA/IAG organisation. It would be good to think you could accord my views with the same respect that I accord yours: you certainly make some good points elsewhere, not least since they overlap the views expressed in my post 320 above. However I rather suspect the fair minded aspect probably got lost in there somewhere.

simons1

Exactly. By the same logic if you ask readers of the Gulf News which is the most sought after lounge an they will give you a different answer.

Curious thing is....if you look online for independent opinions on the best lounges in the world BA suddenly seems to be far less less sought after.

http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.c...class-lounges/
http://www.worldairlineawards.com/Aw..._airlines.html
https://www.skyscanner.com/tips-and-...s-in-the-world
https://www.vogue.com/article/best-f...irport-lounges
http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea....-in-the-world/
http://www.mensjournal.com/travel/co...tanbul-w432852

Dave_C

Two points.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to point out that your views nearly always seem to align with the official BA position. Whether you’re paid for by them, isn’t for me to say, and people will make their individual judgements on that matter. All I’m pointing out is that your views tend to be remarkably similar - I don’t think that’s unreasonable?

Secondly, you asked for an objective analysis, so I provided some key attributes for which one could base that objective analysis from. I stand by the fact that the CCR would score near the bottom compared to many other global competitors and would barely rank in the top five at Heathrow, let alone globally.

corporate-wage-slave

For the first point, I somewhat doubt my highlighting of the poor toilet facilities in CCR is something the Media or Social Media teams would enjoy. Nor my contributions to EC261 or CRA threads which I suspect have cost BA a fair sum of money, to take 2 random examples. Your suggestion here is definitely unreasonable, because it's simply untrue: my views are my own.

Your second point, on the other hand, is certainly fair comment.