Geneva British Airways Lounge
 

Right on cue it does indeed seem to be open today (from Twitter):

Looks very nice. However the real test will come in the new year when all the skiiers head for the alps and Sunday evenings at GVA are absolutely heaving.

Saturdays and Sundays in ski season are always going to be hard to manage, more flights and crucially transfers that drop people off very earlier to avoid any liability for weather delays on the way to GVA. That said the seating in the new lounge does look denser so I would hope the lounge can accommodate more travellers now.

Here is the Business Traveller's story on the new lounge, largely taken the BA press release and with some nice photos. One interesting new feature is a Brewdog counter, something also present in JFK.

https://www.businesstraveller.com/bu...refurbishment/

Somewhat confusingly, the nice photo at the top of the article looks to be the LGW South Business lounge, rather than anything in Geneva.

I was able to visit the lounge this morning, despite four flights (3x BA + 1x IB) it was empty and quiet.

The lounge looks really very good - a clear improvement!

The selection of food and drinks is much better than before.

There is a whole new team, both at the welcome desk and at the service, which still has to be enrolled.

With the opening of the lounge there is unfortunately a bad BA rule change in Geneva for using Fast Track. Only passengers booked in business class will now have access to the Fast Track. I am Emerald (IB Platino) and had a BA Premium Economy - access not allowed... I asked then at the gate: Even in the highest economy booking class (Y) there is no fast track for oneworld status holders. I don't get it - Is Fast Track not a privilege of oneworld Emerald status (regardless of the operating airline)...?

Best regards from T5

This "enhancement" will be a real pain for the ski season in particular. Any reason they stopped using the fast track sticker for non club europe BP?

BA gives with one hand and takes with the other. Jokes aside Switzerland is an expensive country, presumably including what the airport charges the airlines for fast track. The bean counters clearly saw an opportunity to save a penny. All the alliance privileges have various carve outs. Who knows, perhaps part of the theoretical future saving helped justify the lounge refit...

Fast Track is not available at CDG and BRU which I use extensively. Extremely disappointing.

To my knowledge it's not a new thing. I have been on the wrong end of the policy many times during ski season. Long, long, long snake queues for security. Nothing to be done about it but turn up with enough time and wait.

Had the same at Faro airport last week, travelling in economy but BAEC Silver...... Walked up to fast track where no one was waiting, and after scanning BP told to join the normal queue.....

In my experience the only thing Gva has historically been different on has been not allowing guests; I’ve never had an issue with fast track access (ba gold) nor has my wife (silver) and the stickers stopped a year ago, the boarding pass was used from then on. If there is a policy change, then for the busy ski weekends there is the option to pay about Chf10 each time for fast track access.

I wonder if the BA lounge will yet be as good as the priority pass one!

No evidence of any rule change for me - Fast track worked as it always has today at Geneva. I was travelling economy (Avios one way, so no connections) and BA Gold.

The boarding pass on my app showed “fast track” and the paper one I was issued at check in worked for the premium security channel.

New lounge is nice, but the seating feels less dense than before so I worry that it’ll be worse than last year in peak ski season.

I had the pleasure of passing through the new GVA lounge. BA have done an excellent job for this outstation - and a very important one for premium frequent fliers for sure.

Though, it feels smaller than before - and I would agree with the poster above - that it seems there seems to be no net additional seating as the seats added are bigger. I would guess the total seat capacity is around 75, which is really not a lot for peak season, even if BA did extend the lounge fractionally. It really needs much more space!

Fasttrack worked as normal too!

Well ideally you'll be in Chamonix until the lifts close and by the time you get to GVA you do not have time for the lounge = )