bealine

Warning! Strong Jet Blast Coming Up!

Working in the lounges at LHR's Terminal 1 has been an eye-opener to me as to just how badly our regular travellers treat the staff! There are a handful of proper "ladies" and "gentlemen" who know how to remain civil, but by far the majority seem rude, arrogant and conceited! Many suffer from DYKWIA syndrome and resent being challenged for evidence of lounge entitlement - the main reason for staff sitting at the desks, perhaps?

There is no way, nohow, that staff are authorised to permit access to the Lounges if you're not entitled so get over it and move on. It is as awkward for us to refuse entry as it is for you, but the Lounges are an exclusive benefit and access needs to be controlled to maintain the levels of comfort which you would wish to enjoy:

1. If you travel First, Club or Business UK, producing your current boarding card will suffice to gain access to the appropriate lounge.

2. If you travelled inbound First or Club World on British Airways and you are travelling onwards in Economy, we are not psychic. You do really need to show the boarding card from your inbound sector and all the tut-tutting in the world while you rummage in the depths of your handbag or briefcase isn't going to change that!

3. If you're a Silver Card holder travelling economy on the old British Mediterranean routes now operated by British Midland, regardless of whether you have a BA flight number or not , this no longer gives access to the Lounge. If you're a Gold card holder in the same situation, you may gain access to the Terraces Lounge, but not First, and you may not take a guest. British Airways plc has made this decision and whether or not you or I agree with it or not, that is the situation and we have to live with it!

4. If you are want to gain access to the Lounges using the privileges afforded by your Executive Club Silver or Gold card (or One World Emerald or Sapphire tiered cards) the WE NEED TO SEE A VALID CARD! A number stored on your mobile phone, PDA or Laptop is not sufficient evidence of lounge entitlement!

Yes - I know your Boarding Card tells us what colour card you have - but anyone can put anything into the computer system and it will print out so we need firm evidence of your entitlement. At the time of writing, over 50 fraudulent attempts are made daily to access the Lounges using expired cards or cards that don't belong to the bearer!

After all, I'm pretty damned sure if I went to Wentworth Golf Club or the Belfry I wouldn't get access to either the green or the clubhouse without my membership card or an official guest invitation!

Sometimes, if we're treated civilly, we can confirm your current card status from our computer but you have to recognise that is time consuming and on a busy Thursday or Friday afternoon, Saturday morning, Sunday or Monday, is going to hold up your peers waiting in line behind you, so we may be reluctant to delve too deeply into our systems!

5. Travel in World Traveller Plus or the holding of a "Blue" Executive Club card or One World "Ruby" card do NOT give access to any lounges.

6. A request to allow more than the permitted number of "Guests" is likely to be refused for three reasons:

(i) The Lounges are seldom quiet nowadays and
(ii) If we allow it, the word gets out through blabbermouths and forums such as Flyertalk and, in a week or two, we become inundated with such requests and responses such as "you did it for my friend last week!"
(iii) Restricting the numbers given access to the Lounges retains the exclusivity and keeps them comfortable for you! We all know what the Terraces are like on a Friday evening with "standing room only" and half of the snacks finished - wouldn't it be horrible if it was like that every day?

Thank you for taking the time and trouble to read this - my rant is not aimed at the regular nice guys and gals on Flyertalk, (you know who you are), but rather the arrogant chappies who always seem to be having a pop at the front-line staff!

Scillybear

I never usually fly on Friday evenings (lucky me) and never usually take guests into the lounge on the Silver Card.

Given that "Guests are subject to capacity" do I assume that Guests are discouraged on Friday evenings ?

Is the "sorry we are full - no guests" rule actually used ??

Steady-EDI

I completely understand your frustration, bealine.

As I mentioned on the recent "tried to gain entry on hands and knees" thread, I've sometimes sat near the lounge entrance and observed the goings-on. The capacity of people to try it on, presumably fuelled by a sense of self importance or (false) entitlement, beggars belief. It's astonishing to think that the citizens of this country were once held in high esteem for our sense of honesty and fair play.

And just as you can usually tell a frequent flyer by the speed with which they stow their hand baggage and take their seat, so any frequent flyer worth his/her salt should have passport, BP(s) and relevant card(s) available in an instant, as though it were second nature.

You have my sympathy - the world is full of chancers (do you use that word down south?)

bealine

It can be used, but in reality is very seldom! In the middle of the Christmas getaway rush or in the high summer, we may invoke the rule to stop the lounges becoming dangerously overcrowded (and bear in mind, if we reject one "Silver passenger's" guest, we have to reject them all otherwise it's not fair!)

Other situations where the rule may be invoked are during times of delay, disruption and chaos where the lounges become mobbed! Usually, though, you would be invited to "come back in half an hour or so to see if the situation has eased" unless it was obvious that things were going from bad to worse! (We have the same with Continental as Mrs Bealine has right of President's Club access, subject to rejection during busy periods. The concierges are never nasty about it, they have just said in Newark on a couple of occasions "It's very busy right now, come back in half an hour and we'll see!")

The "Lounge Dragons" as they are oft referred to by FT'ers are not as stern and severe as the pundits would have you believe! They are actually rather a nice soft-hearted bunch who believe in the old British system of "fair play for all!"

bealine

Funny that! You and I obviously think along the same lines, but many frequent flyers don't!

Smirnoff

I'm always amazed by the look of shock you get, when you walk up the Lounge Reception Staff (is that the pc term for "dragon"?) and say "Good morning, how are you?".

Having the BP and EC card ready to hand over often results in an "Thank you for having your card to hand Sir" remark.

It makes life so much easier all round, I don't know why people have to fumble around at the desk. Some people are pathetic. Is it me, or is it most often American voices you hear arguing about lounge access?

pteron

Can you give further details on how to make this happen? I ask because, despite many requests, the exec club failed to send me an updated silver card for 3 years and so I always gained access based on the ticket printout. Now that I'm a lowly blue again (curse company travel policies), I'd love to be able to get my pass to say gold on it.

bealine

Ah, Good Morning, Smirnoff! May I say what a pleasure it is to see you posting on FT once more! Whatever it was that stopped you, I hope it's all forgotten and buried in the past!

You might have guessed that I held you in high regard as one of the thorough-going "gentlemen" amongst our Frequent Flyers!

("Gentlemen" is in inverted commas as the term is so often misused nowadays! I meant it in its true sense!)

bealine

Easy! Produce an expired card at check-in or bag-drop, and the agent will invariably type "Gold" or "Silv" in the heading together with the number. Many check in agents will not challenge an expired card.

Similarly, the kiosks give you the opportunity to enter your own details and if you tell it the card is PREMIER, GOLD or SILVER, then that is what it states on the Boarding Pass! I can't say for certain, but I think the same facility exists on OLCI.

Smirnoff

Well and truly buried. Although rumour has it, he was still alive when I buried him, and might have escaped.



Can I just say that the lovely lady manning the F Inner Sanctum yesterday morning (the one who looks like a bouncer with unmanageable hair) is actually really lovely. I used to think she was really scary - she often mans the Outer Sanctum desk to the far left, protecting the way to F.

She is often heard lecturing people about wasting her time, and how dare they etc etc etc. In fact I used to avoid her. Then one day I went up to her with my BP and card, and she was so sweet, thanking me over and over for having my card ready.

See, it pays to be nice.

Skipcool3

Thanks for the posting, BEALINE, very informative.
Even as a fairly regular user of the lounges, I don't always know if my domestic ticket will let me in or not. I often travel in to london in Club Europe, break my journey and travel on a few days later. I have been denied access a couple of times when clearly I should have been allowed in.
I also travel on whichever ticket has been booked for me on domestics; sometimes this gives access, othertimes not.
I guess I had pre-conceived thoughts that BA's IT system would enable at the swipe of the boarding pass the gate agent / lounge person would get a "yes"(come in) or "no". (not today sir, your ticket cost was not high enough to secure lounge access.)
Regarding expired cards, BA rarely seem to replace cards when they have expired... my partners card is now 6 years out of date (I'm looking at it!!)

Teece

Thought I'd try the much-maligned T4 F lounge on Friday evening - no problems getting a seat, pretty quiet by all accounts!

SpeedbirdLHR

Bealine, your frustration is shared by those of us across the runway in T4. The amount of eye-rolling and 'why do you need my card?' that you get at times, makes it seem like you are asking them for a pot of gold. Unfortunately we also have to deal with large numbers of QF passengers who seem to believe they automatically have the right to be allowed in with no proof of entitlement or try to use QF lounge invitations which state 'valid in QF lounges'.

Smirnoff, I hate to make sweeping statements about particular groups of passengers, but you are right in that it is often American passengers who are most demanding, but our own Brits aren't far behind.

As for card details on the boarding pass, if not in F or J, then I will still ask for the actual card, because as has been pointed out, people claim not to have the card, but know the number and the status and many check-in agents don't bother to check. I will check if you claim not to have the card and if it's not a BA card, then call the oneworld help line, which simply means a longer wait for the person involved. It simply makes for a smoother process if the card is present, as it is a requirement.

debug

Do you have a guide behind the desk to show you what all the other one-world carrier cards look like? (To prevent someone making their own Lan Chile lookalike card etc...)

bealine

Gad! I was on the Terraces front desk yesterday, so you must have passed me!

Were you in the First Lounge at the same time as our Chairman, Martin Broughton?

I know the lady you're talking about! She is very, very nice actually and would be amongst the first to help in a crisis, trust me!