Anybody’s guess I suppose - but suspect you are correct.

I would go even further and say that I wouldn’t be too surprised if lounges remain closed for the rest of this year. They are, after all, about as low down the priority list as you could imagine, certainly when compared to profit-making businesses, whether at airports or around the country, at risk of total collapse and whose owners will understandably soon be ‘begging’ the authorities to be allowed to re-open.

Once there is (to use a word seen elsewhere !) a ‘meaningful’ return of air travel, it would make sense to minimise close contact points between travellers whilst at the airport. Perhaps the initial low demand may itself prove a sort of self-regulation ; or perhaps lounge access may be limited by number ..... much like the policy often used by some third party lounge operators.

I'm currently in Dubai where we are now on our way out of lockdown and are following the same route as many other countries which have handled this in such a way as no to cause mass deaths and prolonged economic pain (ignoring the lack of tourists!).

Measures sensible countries are taking for bars/restaurants/cafes would all seem to be apply to an airport lounge. Some are possible but others are going to be difficult and give a very different experience.

e.g. easy to operate at 30% of capacity with 2m spacing between tables with each table sanitized between guests. More difficult will be to operate a model with all touch points removed e.g. no buffets, no free pour alcohol, no access to fridges with soft drinks / water etc.

Everything here must be table service and served on disposable plates / plastic knives and forks, you aren't allowed to approach the bar etc. The cost of staffing such a model in the galleries lounges at LHR would never wash its face even in the good times. I can however see the CCR room reopening and being viable under system, trips in First may suddenly become highly sought after for those with essential business travel needs!

Hmm ..... a couple of thousand pounds or so extra fare, for the benefit of a couple of hours or so in an airport lounge / waiting-room :confused:

Perhaps you’re not serious .... but if so ..... you’ll have to excuse my scepticism. I’m inclined to think that even those on (previously) generous expense accounts might have a problem with that ; not least those employed by corporates who could well find themselves tightening the travel budget in the wake of months of lost revenue / profits.

C-suite spending shareholder cash would balance being able to work vs. staying in terminal.

Our travel budget was set pre CV-19 and has gone unused for months.

Not saying this would apply to all sectors but if I was BA I would be marketing lounge access available to ticked First class ticket holders as a benefit rather than reconfiguring the Galleries lounges to let a small % of CW customers in and hiring extra staff to serve them individually.

It's likely that it will be reappropriated.

I've checked a number of future bookings on MMB and what I see sort of makes sense. I suspect that seeing as there will be low passenger numbers for some time, that BA will have one lounge open in each location. That lounge being also the one that's more suited to table and bar service, without self serve anything.

I have silver (was to be Gold end June but hey ho!!) and have numerous club bookings that also include CE domestic and all show CCR ex LHR. My bookings ex LGW all show the F lounge.

Maybe this is not a glitch and maybe it's the way forward temporarily. It actually makes lots of sense, all things considered.

Well, apart from just a very small number of stations, there has only ever been one lounge available anyway. But I certainly see the logic of your fundamental point.

The very idea of people being happy to touch or handle bottles / utensils / drinks machines / toasters etc etc, previously touched by hundreds of others, is pretty much unthinkable in the current climate ; and for that reason it’s hard to imagine self-serve lounge facilities being safely restored for a long time.

When I said one lounge open I was only referring to LHR and LGW, as in one in LGW South and one in T5.

Lounges at T5
 

Like many others I now see my lounge access as CCR in my booking, despite not travelling in F or being a CCR cardholder, is this a suggestion of which lounges will be reopened later in 2020 with reduced passenger demand (Galleries T5B is also listed)

Hypothetically (and I know this is like poking the wasps' nest with a cattle prod) Could all premium (Bronze and up, Club, First) checkin and security be moved to the First wing, with only South security being open for everyone else, effectively shutting off the north end of T5A?

CCR showing as the lounge for non-F/CCR cardholder travel is more than likely an MMB error.

Currently, North Security is closed completely (with the exception of connections) and all passengers are consolidated into South Security. Fast Track is not operating here (there is simply no need with so few passengers). In time, as demand increases, I would expect North Security to re-open when required. The First Wing will probably be one of the last elements to reopen.

With not a day passing by without Alex Cruz thinking about cost cutting, what is the betting that service commences slightly later than is reasonable. BA must be saving a kings ransom in airport fees from fast track / Gold Wing being closed, lounges closed, minimal food and beverage on board. I have no idea about a daily cost of running all of those areas, but keeping them closed as long as possible after flying resumes more normally may well be high on the wish list for Alex Cruz.

If this is the fear, and I'm not saying it isn't unfounded or unrealistic, then will lounges ever open again?

If that's the fear in a lounge, what about the airport terminals in general and the planes.... I think once you've determined you'll be stuck in a small tube with a load of people for several hours, that's higher risk than anything likely in a lounge (especially if you pop to wash your hands as needed, easier in the lounge than on the plane...)

Of course they will. The buffets may be replaced with pre-packaged items or may be serviced rather than self-serve (for a limited time), but other than that there's no difference between a lounge and a restaurant or pub - the latter two of which are scheduled for phased re-opening from July in the UK.

Not so sure about that ! I reckon I have spent more time waiting to use the washrooms (due to their totally inadequate and ill-conceived set-up), on busy days at the F lounge at T5, often purely to wash my hands, than queueing to visit the loo when actually flying in premium cabins.

But the wider point in my previous post was that lounges are not an essential part of the air travel process - whereas navigating your way through an airport terminal and then on to an aircraft self-evidently is.

if there are ways to minimise contact with surfaces used by others in close proximity, then that would be a welcome change going forward. And for that reason, the traditional arrangement within a self-serve lounge environment is just the sort of thing that could be changed ..... and that change might - stress, might - involve a prolonged period (stretching beyond 2020) of suspension of such facilities.