BA experience out of Southampton
 

Being far closer than any of the Londons, was considering using BA out of Southampton in the near future for a trip. Anyone had any recent experience good or bad?

Really good experience last summer. Nice small sirport, check in was a breeze, The Spitfire Lounge was comfortable with plenty of hot food and seating options. On the return the airport was just as easy to navigate, passport control was 1 desk with a manual passport check but we were the only international arrival so it wasn't too bad. Also parking is reasonable and walkable from the terminal. On board the Cityflyer aircraft its a 2-2 config throughout and complimentary bar and catering in Traveller.... so its hard to justify the need for Club when Traveller is as good as it is. I'm booked to travel next month on BA ex SOU so hoping for more of the same.

No first Hand experience but given the size of the airport I’d have thought departure experience including security to be pretty efficient as well as arrival baggage reclaim and arrivals. It always used to be.

Given the extra legroom on an E190 and complimentary refreshmenTs in Economy as Well as Club Europe I’d say it will be far superior that a BA mainline or Euroflyer Experience from LHR or LGW.

does Gold / Silver get lounge access at southampton? I've found no definitive answer

I haven’t flown BA from SOU but have with FlyBe/KLM/Eastern/Loganair. It’s a very simple and easy airport to navigate, low stress and rarely busy. It won’t win any awards for luxury lounges, but I don’t use SOU for that.

Seems so,,,, from Southampton Airport web page "Have you got an airport lounge pass? The Spitfire Lounge is also available for use by British Airways gold and silver card holders, Priority Pass, Lounge Key and Dragon Pass cardholders"

SOU is a barely-glorified shed but the lounge is actually really nice. BACF pays according to standard access guidelines and it should be open for all their departures.

Is the SOU lounge also available if you book a BA code on a Loganair flight? e.g. SOU-GLA operated by Loganair, but available to book on BA.com with a BA code
This would be travelling as a BA Gold (no club/business cabin on these flights)

Come now, the wooden shed for international arrivals has been gone at least 20 years 😁

Last August they offered me this small cheese plate...
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4c088f3ffe.jpg

Just to add, getting to the airport by train is easy - train stops right outside the terminal, easier than driving IMHO.

Good to know all this, I decided to take advantage of the DUB-SOU-DUB route later this year for an overnight visit to check out a couple of museums.

Looking forward to checking out the airport and lounge now!

Yes, it's even better than Southend for proximity. And overall it's just a stress-free airport so long as you don't turn up too early. It is indeed a metal and concrete shed, which has had low cost sparkle and cladding to slightly hide it's nylon-static BAA heritage. The facilities are limited to basic, but essentally there. The access into Waterloo means that it probably has a stronger claim to being a London airport than Stansted. I've not seen any reports of delays getting through security, and when I used it last, a few weeks back, I was the only one going through it. There are some wacky interchanges that can theoretically be made on BA.com at SOU, thanks to all the Loganair codeshares that run through it, but unfortunately most/all are inefficient price-wise. Pity about the short runway, but there again that prevents it turning into bucket and spade hell

Absolutely love flying out of Southampton. It’s my favourite airport by far mostly because we are so close to it but I’ve never waited long in security etc. Boarding is always great and it’s so small and sleepy compared to Heathrow and Gatwick. We flew BA to Mykonos last September and it was superb. The 2-2 config was amazing and service was great onboard too. Being a small airport of course you don’t have the dining/shopping options of the London airports but I would choose Southampton everytime given the choice.

I like the big ‘Welcome to Hollywood’ …..sorry I mean ‘WELCOME TO HAMPSHIRE’ sign as you exit arrivals. :-)