Concorde Breakfast Room at T5 Arrivals Galleries
 

My wife and I are in the Concorde Breakfast room at the arrivals lounge in T5. We flew in an hour ago in CE on the 699 from Vienna.

When we showed our boarding cards to the brand new lounge dragon (really, a dragonlet, she was awfully young), she filled out an invitation for two to the Concorde Breakfast Room. We've just finished some very fine breakfasts. Since it was a CE flight, and FIRST was obviously not an option, we're a bit curious as to why we were given the invite; we're only Silvers in BAEC.

Mistake on her part? Did she see 2A/2C on our boarding cards and say to herself, "hmm, that must be FIRST?"

BTW, the lounge is filled with folks trying to get to HKG.

I doubt Gold would get you in either, hence the name. :confused::rolleyes:
Remember on BA, "Concorde" means "for F pax"; "First Lounge" means "for GC holders".

Oh, so Gary has landed. Say hello to him and put a note in the "Celebs on BA" thread. :)

Wrong terminal - he came in on Thai into T3.

Sounds like you have been lucky - hope it's good! In fact I have yet to see a seat 2C in FIRST. I would be worried if there were as it would impede my route to 1A :)

How are you in Galleries Arrivals at all? Only First, Club World and longhaul Gold members have access... :confused:

I don't get it - why did you even go to the Arrivals lounge after an ineligible CE flight (which you yourself note above is ineligible so it was no innocent mistake on your part)? :confused:

Why is the Arrivals lounge full of people trying to get TO HKG? Is that where BA 'housed' them over night after the delays? :eek:

Is the Arrivals lounge called Galleries too, as in the post title? Or is the OP actually in the Galleries, perhaps awaiting an onward connection, and not in the Arrivals lounge at all?

The arrivals lounge issues invites to the Concorde Room for breakfast, upon entry to the lounge. The GF lounge doesn't.

Note (as I found out today :( ) - breakfast in T5 arrivals lounge ends at midday!

Giving the OP the benefit of the doubt, I think if you re-read it you will see that he is saying that he believes only F pax are allowed in the Concorde Breakfast Room, and because he was on a CE flight he couldn't possibly have been in F. I don't think he is aware than CE pax (with one well-known exception) are not allowed in the Arrivals Lounge at all. The vast majority of pax and even crew do not know the lounge rules anything like as well as you, or even as well as me.

So, I think it was an innocent mistake on the OP's part to go to the Arrivals Lounge. And a stupid mistake on the part of the dragon to let him in at all, and another one to give him an invite to the Concorde Brekkie Room. Under the T5 regime, she's probably never worked in that lounge before.

It has been commented before here that it is a weakness of the Arrivals Lounge system that they just look at the BP stub and don't even check ID. I can't recall from my own visit there (only one so far) but I guess this is still the case at T5. The failure to check ID means you can pinch someone else's stub on leaving the plane. And the absence of the kind of computerized scanning used in the departure lounges leads to errors like the one reported here.

I thought this was always the case at T4/T1 too? Lounge was open until 14:00 but breakfast began to be cleared away from 12:00? When I was there for a quick coffee and Internet check at about 13:30 the other week, there were drinks/snacks out and fruit, but no real food.

At T5 the lounge desks have computers and they do indeed enter your details rather than just glance at the BP. However, no ID check as you say so you can indeed nick someone's BP if you're pikey enough and not properly eligible. An ID check wouldn't be too bothersome IMHO given you'll have recently just come through from airside with a valid passport anyway.

I'm confused :confused:... is there a Concorde Room within the T5 Arrivals lounge, or is the Arrivals lounge somehow connected to a landside section of the CR?

I'm glad you enjoyed your lucky op-up! What were the breakfasts like? Were they a great deal better than the Arrivals Lounge buffet?

I ask because I like the normal Arrivals Lounge food and found the food in the CCR disappointing. The former is good of its type (a standard 4-5-star hotel breakfast buffet) and the latter is rather basic for what I belive they call "a la carte dining".

There is a separate "Concorde Breakfast Room" within the Arrivals Lounge for F pax only (and I presume Premiers). I believe it is straight ahead of you when you enter, but I may be mis-remembering. It has table service. If the portions and service are anything like the main CCR, a hungry person is probably better off with the buffet in the main part of the Arrivals Lounge - hence my query above. But I have never been in it, having never arrived in F at T5.

And James, really! You should know it is not "Concord". You've obviously taken an "e". :D

Damn you quoted me before I corrected my typo. :mad:

Sorry it has taken me so long to catch up on the thread. Now in Mayfair and in my hotel room.

Yes, the breakfasts room was straight ahead after we came in to the arrivals lounge. This was my first time arriving in T5 with the intention of staying in London rather than transiting, so I asked the purser on my flight from Vienna about the arrivals lounge and he gave me directions. (Walk out of customs, get on the elevator to the first floor, and walk in).

I had no idea that I had in essence a "double upgrade", getting into a lounge I shouldn't have been in in the first place, and then getting into the Concorde Breakfast Room.

I'm a bit surprised that CE passengers (esp. those with BAEC status) don't get to use an arrivals lounge at all, even if they are terminating in London. Normally, I don't do this -- usually, I'm flying LHR-LAX return, often enough to be a steady Silver with Gold aspirations, and I'm in CW or F so the arrivals lounge is a given (unless I'm on one of the later flights where you get there too late.)

As for the breakfast -- it was pretty much what was on offer in the buffet, honestly, though nicely done. The buffet is very good outside.

And as for the HKG group, there was a cluster of Aussies who were planning to get to Hong Kong and had been delayed and delayed. I don't know what their status was, but four of 'em were in the breakfast room and at one point, a BA staff member came in to give them an update. It didn't look good, from what I could hear, and one of the Aussies shrugged and said "We might as well just go straight to Brisbane." This was, by the way, at about 10:00AM this morning.

I'm on the 283 home to LAX on Thursday next, seat 62A. I'll look forward to being in the proper lounge beforehand, and won't try, as a lowly Silver flying in Club, to try and weasel my way into a place above my station.