wildace

Hello amazingly helpful friends!

I am fairly new to FT.

Next month I have a BA flight outbound from LHR Terminal 5... a long-haul intra-EU flight. As I have noticed, BA's flights no longer include a snack. It's my first BA flight so even though I signed up for BA's rewards program, I don't have any Avios status, and being from Canada it's not like I would fly BA often enough to gain status!

Since it's an evening flight (approx 19:30 departure) of which I arrive at my destination about 3.5 hours later, I was wondering about food / lounge options.

Should I grab a meal to eat at a resto in the terminal OR is there a lounge to pay to access that will have free food and alcohol within? If a meal is going to be like £10-20 and a lounge pass like £30, I might as well pay for the lounge pass and get extra alcohol.

Pumplekin

There are two non-BA lounges at Terminal 5.

You have the Aspire Lounge (Aspire Lounge and Spa: Paid for lounge in LHR T5 - Information, photographs, reviews) and the Plaza Premium lounge (T5 New Plaza Premium Airside Lounge).

I've never been to either, but these threads (and other people that have) should help you figure out what you want to do.

madfish

Misco60

LHR T5 is very well-served by restaurants, and you'll be able to have a good meal (with alcohol, if you wish) for less than the price of entry to a mediocre lounge.

If you think you'll be hungry on the flight you could also get a very good sandwich, crisps (chips), drink and dessert for around £8 from Pret or Eat and take them with you. There is no guarantee that the buy-on-board trolley will have what you want - or anything at all - by the time it gets to you.

flatlander

At that departure time and assuming a more Northern European eating schedule rather than an Iberian one, I suggest going to one of the sit-down restaurants and eating there. Pilots Bar & Kitchen, Huxley's, Wagamama, The Crown Rivers (Wetherspoons pub), or Gordon Ramsay's Plane Food (somewhat smaller portions at higher prices than the others). Then bring water, a snack, and other drinks you might like for the flight.

If you want to get tea or coffee to bring with you, get a bag too and put the drink (with lid!) in it in case you get a bus gate since officially hot drinks aren't allowed on the bus

corporate-wage-slave

Yes. I think the options are

1) Use one of the very many restaurants in T5, the ones that get good write ups here are Pilots, Giraffe, Wagamama. Yesterday evening I went past the Wetherspoons Crown Rivers and despite all the extra room they were recently given, it was still packed, and I noticed that some of them were the domestic commuters. So they must be doing something right. Their menus are online on the Heathrow website.

2) There are some restaurants landside before going to airside, Carluccios gets good reviews,

3) The picnic bags prepared notably by Plane Food and Fortnums & Masons (though other places do them too). A search on here will throw up some past experiences. You're looking at £10 - £15

4) The rather cheaper meal deals available from WH Smith and above all Boots, the latter seems more recommended.

5) I often grab some relatively expensive takeaway sushi from Itsu, it's also popular with cabin crew if their hotel isn't likely to be catering when they get to it. Pret and Starbucks are also there.

6) If you can avoid liquids and yogurts (etc) then you can also get a bag of goodies from Arrivals Marks and Spencer before going airside.

7) I seem to recall S2L suggesting you make up your own sandwich Tupperware box (and that's likely to get envious stares, it has to be said), it would certainly be the best value option.

8) Buy on Board, which contrary to some people's experiences isn't always a risk, there's usually a reasonable selection available.

9) The Third party lounges already mentioned above (though I suspect this isn't going to be good value). Plaza Premium genuinely is at least as good as Galleries Club overall.

10) Get a POUG or AUP (see Dashboard) to upgrade to Club Europe, and thus get lounge / food options.

11) The obvious BA FT option: go on a mad Tier Point run immediately, get 600 TPs for Silver, then binge to Galleries Club before passing Go.

Seraglio

sunshinebob

There is the plaza lounge which offers free entry if you have an Amex Platinum card.

Reviewed HERE by Raffles..

1010101

You can get an excellent lunchbox to take on board from the Gordon Ramsay restaurant in T5. Comes in a cooler bag and you can choose from a few different options, all much better than anything from the lounges. It's a while since I've had one but i think the price is about £15.

Ldnn1

I've until recently avoided WH Smith like the plague, but thanks to Wuntu have been trying out their meal deal at LTN and discovered it includes the kosher sandwiches/wraps, a few of which - but not all - are actually rather better than their ordinary selection (much like some of the KSMLs our dear KARFA is becoming fond of in CE ). Do the T5 WH Smiths have these at LHR too? For £3.99 including drink and a good range of snacks (e.g. Eat Natural bars), it's decent value.

KARFA

Ha, I am only doing it to get some photos of special meals for various bands and times of day for the CE thread. I have already changed one for tomorrow and one for Sunday to KSML

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KARFA

Interesting, how many times have you heard that on your BA flights this year? I have done 130+ short haul and domestic BA flights this year and I don't recall hearing it? I am not saying it doesn't happen, just trying to understand whether it is frequently said and a common problem.

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mikeyfly

I'd never pay for a lounge unless it was going to be a very long layover without access. You'd get a decent feed and a drink in Wagamama's for less than the £30+