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Galleries Lounges Future
So here I am in the newish Iberia lounge in T4S MAD. And I once again find myself questioning how everyone else is seemingly getting it so right, but BA are not catching on.
The lounge is sleek, airy, clean, busy but not overcrowded, and has been offering a rolling selection of hot and cold dishes for the last 2 hours, including a salad station throughout. There is a stylish bar area, a restaurant and buffet area, it all reminds me of the AA new flagship lounge I visited in MIA. Another Oneworld airline setting a great standard on the ground. So I pose the question. Why are BA not following suit? Should BA amalgamate Club and First lounge and just offer a decent, large, Galleries lounge at T5? Offering a better quality food offering throughout? Will they move away from different bowls of slop and realise that food is the thing of the moment, and people want fresh, healthy, new tastes, not just the same stuff again and again. I see real real flaires of improvement; the white company tie up, some good marketing campaigns, new club service, a more personalised EC, but there is a way to go on the basics still. Not really a moan I just find it frustrating and find others views on the future of lounges interesting! |
Originally Posted by ABJ92
(Post 29872944)
Should BA amalgamate Club and First lounge and just offer a decent, large, Galleries lounge at T5? Offering a better quality food offering throughout? Will they move away from different bowls of slop and realise that food is the thing of the moment, and people want fresh, healthy, new tastes, not just the same stuff again and again.
! what makes you think making one large lounge would improve things? BA would use it to reduce the GF offering to the GC service and not do any improvements! |
I’m not disputing the sentiment of this thread, I’m all for ground product improvements. But it’s worth keeping mind IB doesn’t have an F class product any more. |
Originally Posted by Woodbinerich
(Post 29872977)
I’m not disputing the sentiment of this thread, I’m all for ground product improvements. But it’s worth keeping mind IB doesn’t have an F class product any more. |
Originally Posted by UKtravelbear
(Post 29872973)
lol
what makes you think making one large lounge would improve things? BA would use it to reduce the GF offering to the GC service and not do any improvements! The reality is BA will only make improvements when it absolutely has to compete (eg if EK could setup a base at LHR with the 3rd runway), which will also be far too late to recover loyalty anyway. I think the best we can hope for is that it doesn’t get any worse. It reminds me of an advert Iceland are running at the moment “to celebrate winning <insert funded award> we’ve frozen our prices on X”... they’re advertising (and expecting praise for) not raising their prices for a few weeks. Fly BA. It’s no worse than last week! |
Originally Posted by UKtravelbear
(Post 29872973)
lol
what makes you think making one large lounge would improve things? BA would use it to reduce the GF offering to the GC service and not do any improvements! I’m well aware that it could go the cost cutting way, but I genuinely don’t think what I see in the IB lounge is, beyond the hard product, overly expensive to maintain. It’s only a thought, both GF and GC feel very stale at the moment in comparison |
I’ll have to disagree. The beer selection and the view are great, but as far as food goes I only got dry, stale tortilla and DIY salad. No huge complaints, but I still (marginally) prefer BA’s food when it is there for the 3 main meals (the afternoon tea I find somewhat lacking) There was salmon but given how stale the tortilla was I wasn’t gonna try that. There were a decent amount of things to make a salad out of but that’s not really exceptional. I also find the tall leather seats in the south galleries lounge really nice to stay in for a while, compared to IB’s choice of seats. I’m happy flying LHR-MAD because both lounges have all I need and they’re both different from each other, but I wouldn’t dare say one is better from the other. |
I was there (Madrid) for breakfast earlier this week and the selection was dreadful. It was nowhere near the flounge offering and personally I prefer the galleries breakfast. I don’t think anyone would suggest galleries couldn’t be improved if starting again now, but it was great when T5 opened and still towards the top end of lounge offerings overall. I’d say a good refurb and opening of a lounge in T5C to reduce crowding would put the overall Heathrow proposition back where it should be. |
Originally Posted by RobDBA
(Post 29873105)
I was there (Madrid) for breakfast earlier this week and the selection was dreadful. It was nowhere near the flounge offering and personally I prefer the galleries breakfast. |
It's probably worth separating out a few factors. Firstly T4B has been recently refurbished, and with a lounge makeover, things will look sleek and contemporary (as we have seen with the new BA lounges in LGW, FCO, ABZ etc). Secondly another factor is "different to what I am used to". I had a spell of flying from T4S to LHR daily for 2 blocks of 5 days, and I have to say that on week 2 I was getting fairly fed up with it by what I saw as a lack of choice. The Iberia lounge menus are in the habit of staying the same for months on end. The T4 lounge is worse since it's just sandwiches (and not very good ones at that) for much of the day..
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When I last used the Iberia T4S lounge 4 years ago it was a zoo, Seating for 6 people used by 2 people and their luggage, the food was ok, bar pretty good, id certainly say GF is far better than GC with buffet food throughout the day, food to order off the menu as well as free pour champagne. Arriving at 3.30pm into GC for a 5pm flight to Scotland was woeful and I can only describe like the aftermath of a children’s tea party. I have to say the Newly furbished Iberia Lounge is great, seats for 1, 2 and 4 people spread out with chargers and lamps. Buffet, ice cream, mini bottles of water, changing food and Parmesan cheese. The cava as a little disappointing and there was one rank bottle of wine but I’d now go through Madrid again after this experience. |
Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
(Post 29873174)
It's probably worth separating out a few factors. Firstly T4B has been recently refurbished, and with a lounge makeover, things will look sleek and contemporary (as we have seen with the new BA lounges in LGW, FCO, ABZ etc). Secondly another factor is "different to what I am used to". I had a spell of flying from T4S to LHR daily for 2 blocks of 5 days, and I have to say that on week 2 I was getting fairly fed up with it by what I saw as a lack of choice. The Iberia lounge menus are in the habit of staying the same for months on end. The T4 lounge is worse since it's just sandwiches (and not very good ones at that) for much of the day..
I know these are not airline owned lounges, but the same applies if you use very frequently the lounges. I guess, at the end of the day what really matters is the atmosphere. A place to relax, chill, have a couple of drinks and a snack, do some work, etc. I think here, the new Velazquez lounge in T4S is spot on. Anyhow, for gourmet experiences, better to use other services. |
Originally Posted by tobsw
(Post 29873290)
Isn´t this normal/common? I´ve been travelling every week for the last 5 weeks between LHR and AMS. Premium Plaza LHR T5 always the same.... Aspire AMS, always the same... so I would regard it as "normal" even though it´s very boring..
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BA stopped using the Galleries branding for new lounge openings in 2013 with the opening of the refurbished GLA lounge.
The GLA lounge, and all new and refurbished lounges up to the FCO lounge featured the Galleries Evolution concept (an evolution of the original Galleries concept), with lounges branded simply as 'British Airways Lounge'. FCO and ABZ have heralded a new, much smarter (IMO) concept. The trend since 2013 has definitely been to combine First and Club lounges; take SIN, IAD and BOS as prime examples, with EWR before that. However, BA are still keen to differentiate at focus cities with dedicated F-only products such as Concorde Dining and Concorde Bar. Separate First lounges will still be a feature at major hubs - LGW has a separate First lounge, as will JFK once the current refurbishment is complete later this year. I don't see any future where LHR loses a separate First lounge. I would bet good money that the JNB, SFO and ORD lounges will lose a separate First lounge when they are refurbished, with the first two perhaps featuring a Concorde Bar product and the latter a Concorde Dining product. |
I think previous threads on this topic have concluded that one of the challenges that BA faces in providing a high quality lounge offering at T5 is the relative mix of (lower margin) short haul to long haul flights. In theory at least, a significantly higher proportion of IB flights at T4S are long haul.
Perhaps this could be solved by tweaking the segmentation (e.g. designating T5B as 'long haul' and introducing a Oneworld Emerald section)? |
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