Vgravity

I'd be interested to see what people think the value of a BA lounge visit it in £s, and what the cost is likely to be to BA?

I'm talking the average here where you maybe rock up for 45 to 90 minutes - not extremes like rushing in to grab a coffee when you're cutting it fine, or spending a full day in there between connections.

Maybe we should split out by Terraces, Galleries, Galleries First and CCR!

tomparskate

Personally I tend to have 4/5 alcoholic drinks in the Club Lounges and normally take a copy of the Business’s traveller and a packet of crisps for the plane.

Business Traveller - £4.50
Crisps - 80p
Few drinks £15
Maybe a Banana - 50p

I also normally use the lounge to charge an appliance and find the WiFi handy ( No major cost)

I would say I value the visits around £30 but probably cost BA MAYBE £15?

bhbloke

As a traveller that doesn't touch alcohol I'm a real cheap date for BA.

Crisps 80p (although now Sweet Chilli are disappearing this cost will also disappear)
Coke/Fanta £1 (perhaps 2 small cans if I'm thirsty.)
Snack £3 (sandwich or a small plate of pasta/curry)

TyneTraveller

NWIFlyer

Simply adding up the cost of the food is too simplistic. BA's lounge expense will include staffing, rental cost per square foot and maintenance among other things. Those cost centres are very likely to dwarf the food and beverage.

So whilst we can value our own lounge experience because none of that concerns us, it's actually a very pertinent calculation for the airline. It also explains why so many outstations are closing in favour of third party provision.

SteveF

And remove the value of nicked stuff that isn't consumed in the lounge?

DrBenO

Almost impossible to value other than on an individual visit basis, based on two recent Lounge trips:

Top end: 3 hours with Mrs DrBenO in T5 CCR prior to an afternoon holiday LH F flight; Spa visit each, a 3 course lunch + cheese each, brace of G&Ts, bottle of LPGS, half a bottle of Pinot Noir (wine cost based on a particular visit's choice will vary hugely), couple of glasses of dessert wine and a couple of Espresso Martinis = a reasonable amount of value.

Bottom end: 12 minutes in T3 GF with my boss prior to an early departure for a day trip out and back to Lyon; One double espresso and a glass of Sparkling water.

Plus every single possible variation in between!

zanderblue

Cost to BA has got to be £5, how can it be any different? This is the value they place on removal of lounge access for silvers in ABZ.

rapidex

4 hours with Jamier45 cost about £400 value priceless

T8191

Our Lounge visits vary significantly, from 30 mins to maybe 4 hours if we’ve been unlucky with connections. We hardly ever have a ‘full meal’, and drink very little (usually), so we cost BA (and indeed AA ) very little. Maybe £10 each at the very worst case?

However the value of comfortable seating in a relatively quiet and civilised environment is, to us, priceless!

That doesn’t really answer any of the OP’s questions, does it?

Vgravity

This is a good point. Given that 'pay for entry' lounges average charge is between £20 and £35, I'd hazard a guess for a modest lounge the true cost of use is around £15 a passenger. However, I've spoken to BA and VS HQ staff, and the cost of a passenger using a London lounge on long haul is more like £50.

Incremental cost per passenger is a lot lower, but the true cost would take into account fixed costs, which will be high at an airport.

My guess is that I value a lounge visit at about £10 for short haul, £20 for long haul where I arrive much earlier, but the true cost to BA is probably double that.

T8191

Sounds sensible to me but, as already said, the infrastructure and staff costs will be significant on a per-passenger basis.

The value of status cannot be underestimated!

orbitmic

I really do not think that there is something as an average, nor that a pound value is necessarily something based on either costs or consumption.

In terms of value, for instance, for me probably the main thing is to get a bit of a quiet space to work before a flight or wait a bit more comfortably between two flights. Often my consumption will be measured as two glasses of sparkling water or an espresso! Of course I could often find quiet space for free by looking around the airport's public parts (and sometimes do) but the lounge saves me the searching and uncertainty as to what I can find where. Other times, I'll have a full meal, a cocktail and a face treatment.

In terms of costs, as NWIFlyer rightly this is not so much about consumption (though I know some FTers pride themselves in downing much of a bottle of JB Blue which strikes me as expensive self-punishment, but hey, everyone to their own! ) but space is a premium expense in airport terminals and staff costs are expensive too. By contrast, some people mention taking Business Traveller and the likes, which whilst potentially having value for customers cost BA nothing. In fact, if you are travelling CW or F and were going to read it anyway, this is arguably a negative cost (saving) for BA as it is cheaper for them to keep them in lounge than to need to take and transport more of them on planes and the same goes for all papers.

Lucanesque

Blimey - that consumption deserves a round of applause I'd not be able to board the plane after that nowadays

orbitmic

Not from the cardiologist I suspect!