First time in LGW First lounge - Disappointed.
May 10, 2018, 5:52 am
#31
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Cheshire
Programs: BA, Accor, Hilton, ITA
Posts: 376
I've been to both a few times. I think the Club lounge is great at LGW but prefer the First lounge as:
- table service / food to order is pretty good: I like the BA burger before a flight
- better drink offering: nice champagne on free-pour
- quieter: always pretty quiet in my experience which at peak times is definitely not the case in the Club lounge...also, because it's predominantly GCH/OWE rather than true 'First Class' there are very few people in there for whom the lounge is a novelty or treat: so people (by and large) behave a bit more normally...whereas in Club I've been subjected a few times to the stag/hen do type groups attempting to drink the bar dry, the guy making several phone calls basically just to tell people he's "in the lounge" (yawn) etc etc., the people tutting at the mere thought of my (very quiet, well-behaved) toddler being in the lounge at all - I will get flamed for this but at least in the Flounge everyone is a frequent flyer and by and large is a bit more normal about the whole thing
- table service / food to order is pretty good: I like the BA burger before a flight
- better drink offering: nice champagne on free-pour
- quieter: always pretty quiet in my experience which at peak times is definitely not the case in the Club lounge...also, because it's predominantly GCH/OWE rather than true 'First Class' there are very few people in there for whom the lounge is a novelty or treat: so people (by and large) behave a bit more normally...whereas in Club I've been subjected a few times to the stag/hen do type groups attempting to drink the bar dry, the guy making several phone calls basically just to tell people he's "in the lounge" (yawn) etc etc., the people tutting at the mere thought of my (very quiet, well-behaved) toddler being in the lounge at all - I will get flamed for this but at least in the Flounge everyone is a frequent flyer and by and large is a bit more normal about the whole thing
May 10, 2018, 5:54 am
#32
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: GLA
Programs: BAEC: Silver. Nothing else as TopCashBack trumps all hotel programs
Posts: 801
May 10, 2018, 6:08 am
#33
Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club, easyJet and Ryanair
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: UK/Las Vegas
Programs: BA Gold (GGL/CCR)
Posts: 15,924
May 10, 2018, 6:28 am
#34
Fontaine d'honneur du Flyertalk
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Morbihan, France
Programs: Reine des Muccis de Pucci; Foreign Elitist (according to others)
Posts: 19,174
Sometimes I read this sort of stuff and think - Blimey. Don’t expect too much of heaven either.
I’m not sure that I want to be wowed in a Lounge. I want to be comfortable. I want a view. I want something passably pleasant to eat, and I want as much Champagne as I like. The views alone please me. I am sure that in some bling-bling Gulf State someone would prostrate themselves before personally slaughtering a lamb to roast at my will (providing that my husband ordered it for me). So I’m happy with the LGW Flounge as to me it is an airport lounge and not the airside of the Dorchester Hotel.
Easy to please me.
I’m not sure that I want to be wowed in a Lounge. I want to be comfortable. I want a view. I want something passably pleasant to eat, and I want as much Champagne as I like. The views alone please me. I am sure that in some bling-bling Gulf State someone would prostrate themselves before personally slaughtering a lamb to roast at my will (providing that my husband ordered it for me). So I’m happy with the LGW Flounge as to me it is an airport lounge and not the airside of the Dorchester Hotel.
Easy to please me.
May 10, 2018, 6:31 am
#35
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: LCY
Programs: BAEC Gold, HHonors Gold
Posts: 1,208
LOL! This reminds me of an article I read last week about how airport lounges, which were once for the privileged, are now cheap and down market, and to quote from the article a case of "how much can I stuff my face and drink the place dry" in a limited time...... Not my opinion but I thought the article was a funny take on the how they have evolved over the past decades.
May 10, 2018, 6:36 am
#36
Join Date: Sep 2013
Programs: BAEC Gold, EK Skywards (enhanced Blue !), Oman Air Sindbad Gold
Posts: 6,399
I don’t know what newspapers (circa 1980 ?) you’ve been reading ..... or whom you’ve been listening to. But sounds like you might want to get out & about around the world a little more ! Especially to the Gulf
May 10, 2018, 6:37 am
#37
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: LCY
Programs: BAEC Gold, HHonors Gold
Posts: 1,208
Really? Well cart me off to rehab then. I managed a couple of castelnaus on the early flight out of Zurich and no food apart from almonds because my SPML wasn't loaded. I went straight to work afterwards, no worse for wear for it but I that was a first for me
May 10, 2018, 6:54 am
#38
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Cheshire
Programs: BA, Accor, Hilton, ITA
Posts: 376
May 10, 2018, 7:02 am
#40
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: GLA
Programs: BAEC: Silver. Nothing else as TopCashBack trumps all hotel programs
Posts: 801
Really? Didn't know you could do that
EDIT: I thought it said British AIRWAYS lounges. .
I think the article mostly is referring to "pay to use lounges" which are, on the whole awful. And just a money making scam like speedy boarding on Ryan Air. (What is the point when 80% of the plane is a speedy boarder?) And they stand in line at the gate for a plane that I can see on Flight radar is still over an hour away from landing!
Last edited by cupsandsaucers; May 10, 2018 at 7:09 am
May 10, 2018, 7:16 am
#41
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Cheshire
Programs: BA, Accor, Hilton, ITA
Posts: 376
Interesting. Although it says in the article. "British airport lounges are similarly heavily subscribed, thanks to services that allow flyers to pay for lounge access."
Really? Didn't know you could do that
EDIT: I thought it said British AIRWAYS lounges. .
I think the article mostly is referring to "pay to use lounges" which are, on the whole awful. And just a money making scam like speedy boarding on Ryan Air. (What is the point when 80% of the plane is a speedy boarder?) And they stand in line at the gate for a plane that I can see on Flight radar is still over an hour away from landing!
Really? Didn't know you could do that
EDIT: I thought it said British AIRWAYS lounges. .
I think the article mostly is referring to "pay to use lounges" which are, on the whole awful. And just a money making scam like speedy boarding on Ryan Air. (What is the point when 80% of the plane is a speedy boarder?) And they stand in line at the gate for a plane that I can see on Flight radar is still over an hour away from landing!
The comments are quite funny I think! A lot of praise for the T5 First and Concorde Lounges. And actually the comment about the 'regular' Club Lounges at T5 I agree with. Especially North Terraces which is so small and rammed from my recollection, although since last December I'm always in the First lounge now. Actually the 'B' Gates Lounge I've often found relaxing and less crammed.
I'm surprised no one mentioned the Cathay First Class Lounge in Hong Hong. In my mind a very memorable visit, and I think the best Lounge I've ever visited.
May 10, 2018, 7:24 am
#42
Fontaine d'honneur du Flyertalk
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Morbihan, France
Programs: Reine des Muccis de Pucci; Foreign Elitist (according to others)
Posts: 19,174
Frankly, I have no intention of going near the Gulf unless it is to change aircraft the day that I exchange Ying Yang for Whizz Bang. Will you, Darling, be there waiting for me like a Stranger in Paradise? I believe that such places attract the likes of Phil the Flyer and I'm far too young to have my head turned and will need a Champion to protect me.
May 10, 2018, 7:26 am
#43
Fontaine d'honneur du Flyertalk
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Morbihan, France
Programs: Reine des Muccis de Pucci; Foreign Elitist (according to others)
Posts: 19,174
May 10, 2018, 7:27 am
#44
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Kazakhstan
Programs: BA Gold, AirAstana Silver (much use as chocolate teapot)
Posts: 867
I'm on holiday...so yes. And after spending 28 days at a time in a "gulag" in a former soviet republic in central asia in the middle of nowhere with crap food & tight controls,I have no concerns with it either on my breaks!
Last edited by DorsetKnob; May 10, 2018 at 7:38 am
May 10, 2018, 7:41 am
#45
Join Date: Sep 2013
Programs: BAEC Gold, EK Skywards (enhanced Blue !), Oman Air Sindbad Gold
Posts: 6,399
@ PUCCI GALORE - I’m really not quite sure how best to respond !
But let me confirm that I would certainly welcome the opportunity (should you ever be so gracious as to accord it to me) to convince you that visiting the dark side is a far more pleasant experience than you seem to imagine it might be.
By way of added reassurance / encouragement, you will be delighted to hear that within the Gulf it is no longer necessary to dodge camels on the runway when boarding aircraft. Well ...... at least, not if you’re in F class (as I know you would be of course).