· Frankly, BA really should look at the competition at T3 and feel somewhat ashamed of themselves.
· The décor was tired, unexciting, dark (the low ceilings don’t help) and in need of repair in places eg an enormous dent in a toilet door.
· The staff on the desk couldn’t look more bored if they tried – thank goodness they had their mobile phones to play with or they’ve probably been asleep.
· The food offering wasn’t bad. The BA burger was pretty good. The breakfast buffet was decent. Some nice finger sandwiches were available and apparently the scones for a cream tea were good.
· White and pink Champagne was available for self-pour in the Gold Bar area, which was a bonus. Laurent-Perrier Grande Siècle wasn’t available.
· Spirit-wise I tend to stick to gin. They only had Gordons and Bombay, which are very unexciting choices these gin-fashion days.
· The magazine selection was remarkably poor – presumably BA are paid by the publishers to make them available to high-spenders. The only magazine I bothered taking was Business Traveller.
· If I had to guess and had no idea of which lounge I was actually in, I’d definitely have assumed it was a Club lounge and certainly not First. With their Concorde Room in T5, BA really need to do something about this lounge – the worst of the T3 four lounges we tried by far.

· One of our favourite lounges of the four.
· A cheerful, smiling and friendly team on the front desk.
· Airy and bright with an impressive staircase to the upper dining level of the lounge.A bar on the ground floor dedicated to gin was manned by the Tony. He couldn’t have been more helpful and friendly, guiding us through the gin cocktails menu. Loads of different gins available to sample. Tony was happy to custom-make cocktails for us too. I can definitely recommend the Tanqueray with an Aperol ice cube. It felt like nothing was too much trouble.
· We were too early to try the full-service restaurant, which starts serving at 6pm for the evening flight to SYD.
· A quick wander upstairs to see the buffet, which had a wide selection of hot and cold, salads, sweet dishes and cakes. Looked pretty good. Lots of seating available. Didn’t spot any newspapers or magazines.
· There was circular bar upstairs which served drinks other than gin. We didn’t try that.
· The shower rooms were well maintained, very clean and provided Aspar branded shampoo, shower gel, etc. A very decent shower with rainfall head.
· Tony suggested we return at 6pm for the calamari, but we just didn’t make it back.
· All-in-all, a very pleasant experience indeed and well worth a visit, especially the gin bar if that’s your thing.

· On arrival at reception we were quickly informed that the lounge would be closing in approximately two hours, which immediately made us feel terribly welcome. We kind of got the impression that we were an inconvenience.
· There are two lounges – business and first and we decided to try the first lounge.
· I tried a small bowl of chicken curry, which was fine. A pasta dish was also available.
· Small bottles of water are available (take note BA, who even in First, are obviously keen not too see their high-spending customers walk out with water).
· We decided on Moet rose and went to open a new bottle only to be intercepted by lounge staff trying to persuade us not to. We did open it and very pleasant it was too.
· The sweets (some say candy) in jars were a nice touch. And who doesn’t love a Werther’s Original?
· Theresa, a lovely, charming lady from Northern Ireland, was one of the AA lounge team and came over to chat to use about South Africa/Cape Town.
· Overall the lounge was pretty unexciting and I’m glad we had alternative. Theresa is a real asset to their team.

· We had high expectations for this one, having read positive reviews.
· We chose to sit in the First lounge, which wasn’t too busy. Excellent views of the apron but it was getting dark and started to rain.
· Very comfortable, smart and maintained, it had the feel of a good hotel.
· A snacking area was very well stocked with finger-food, soft drinks, fridges containing chilled food and drinks.
· Very decent bar selection with high-end brands.
· We went for dim sum and noodles in the club lounge. Very speedy with a feel for a Wagamama restaurant. We didn’t try the restaurant in the First lounge.
· Decided to take a shower, which were pretty busy so had to wait our turns. They provide Aesop products in the shower rooms. The water pressure from the rainfall showers was incredibly high.
· A few glasses of nice fizz later and we were ready to walk the long trek to the gate for our 21:30 BA59 flight to CPT.

Between the QF vs CX lounge I always prefer the latter as I find the former’s lighting too bright and a tad uncomfortable. CX feels “homey”.

I don’t know why BA lounge continues to exist in T3 when there are so many OW other (better) options.

I did pretty much the same hop on the way to CPT earlier this month. Despite the T5-T3 connection, in some ways I was glad we were departing T3.

I loved the QF bar and loved the serenity and class of the CX Flounge. For me though, AA was the worst. Compared to their new lounges in JFK or LAX it’s atrocious. The food was awful, it was dull and outdated and didn’t even have the redeeming factor that the BA lounge has, ie the menu

Great to have the variety of options though

And accordingly has the potential to push BA to the bottom.

I actually like the breakfast in the AA flagship lounge, it's got some nice cold options and also 250ml plastic bottles of water you can swipe for your flight.