AADFW

I was there in T5 a few weeks ago and was shocked by the conditions. It's entirely different now versus pre-pandemic. Even the Concorde Room, once considered an industry leader, was showing obvious signs of age and neglect.

IAN-UK

I'm not sure how increasing the size of the lounge would do much to solve the problem the OP is complaining about. Maybe you feel more space, more tables, would create a better chance of finding a a cleared table among the sea of messed up ones.

More staff, better motivated staff and proactive management seem to be the ways forward.

rugby23

Isn�t the real point of GF to remind fare-paying F passengers how bad it could be as they trudge through from the first wing to the CCR?

Begrudgingly ordering from a choice of reclaimed and reconstituted meats whilst keeping a half eye on your laptop charging from an unplugged lamp socket across the room doesn�t seem so bad compared to eating directly from the slop bucket after a fight the last available clean chair.

makin'miles

Maybe time to remove the sleep pods and replace them with seating.

Galleries Club in B is also consistently under-used. Sure it�s a notch below Galleries First, but I do wonder if earlier gate announcements (and perhaps proactive messaging at check-in) would reduce the demand somewhat.

chriswiles

And they are all packed. Amazed how many people are in the BA lounges in 2023. Does everyone have silver or higher status now? Last time I stepped out of South it was more pleasant being in T5 than the lounge.

chriswiles

As does (or did) BGI. Was a strange terminal though. Basically a tiny F lounge in their office block in a separate building. You were then driven to the plane....after everyone else had boarded. That was a little odd as the plane was almost ready to leave, so no time to enjoy an on-board welcome drink (although you were given one).

Oxon Flyer

What's the reportable offence here ?

xenole

Nothing much would really tempt me to utilise Galleries B for any extended period of time to be honest. Pretty generic in my opinion (others believing it to be a super-duper lounge), so each to their own.

They need a lot more seating for solo travellers in GF. Too many bits set up for groups, that if occupied by 1 or 2 people, generally put others off sitting there. Much like the average person won't freely choose to sit between 2 people on a plane.


I would assume the lack of cleaning, detriment lying around and the rodents being attracted to this?

flybymonkey

Dirty premises

https://www.food.gov.uk/contact/cons...-hygiene-issue

bisonrav

Good luck with that one. It's a temporarily uncleared table, not a festering pit of filth.

Oxon Flyer

Setting aside the "totally appalling" faux-outrage for a moment, it's totally fine for someone in the lounge to keep a dirty plate on the table in front of them for an hour, but as soon as they leave the plate becomes a reportable 'dirty premises' situation ?

chris87

BA hasn�t really made any serious investment in its LHR lounges in 15 years, and the catering/clearing function is outsourced (at rock bottom prices) to a company that specialises in prison catering. Hardly surprising that the result is not exactly overwhelming�

That said, the combination of Galleries F and the F wing work for me. The overall offering is (usually) a very painless security screen, followed by a passable place to spend an hour or so before a flight.

Do I think it provides great value when I�m on a �7k flex CW ticket? Absolutely not. But I also massively appreciate the fact that I can get in when I�m on a �60 ET ticket.

Let�s face it: it�s never going to get to get better for so long as economy SH pax have a way in via status. And I don�t think that�s something that most of us would want to give up.

chriswiles

I agree. I don't get it either. And 1/3 of the lounge is blocked off (the part I used to use with my laptop) for refurbishment (is it open yet?). The food in T5B is poor, too. They had a curry when I was in there last time and no rice. Was pitiful seeing people trying to scrape the remains of the rice from the hot tub!

It's also a lot busier or was last time I was in. I think people used to love it as it was quiet.....but then came here and told everyone to go as it was so quiet. Go figure.

dougzz

I get your point, but that �7K CW ticket wouldn�t get you in to GF would it? That�s the odd thing about GF, it�s entirely a status lounge.

chris87

I think the fact that it�s a status lounge is exactly my point. Or at least part of my point.

My point is that the combination of (1) OW Emerald offering F lounge access; and (2) the particular features of the market served by LHR/BA mean that there are a disproportionately high number of economy/business pax on SH flights who are entitled to an �F� lounge. And the reality is that each of those pax - on average - is probably on a ticket that cost a couple of hundred quid at most.

That is a stark contrast to places like - for example - the Soho lounge in NY (also OW Emerald, but no AA short haul status pax) or the AY Platinum Wing (in the non-Schengen section, so mainly long haul pax). To take another example, the Cathay F lounges in HK are of course open to all OW Emeralds irrespective of destination, but then you don�t tend to find many �60 economy fares on full service carriers in Asia�

It�s why I always find straight comparisons of the Flounge to other OW Emerald lounges to be flawed. The thing to look at is the profile of the average passenger who will in fact access the lounge. And I doubt there is any other OW Emerald lounge where the average yield per visit per pax is as low as the Flounge.

I may be wrong. But that�s always how I�ve seen / rationalised it.