Champagne in LHR lounges
 

After 20 years of slurping champagne in the SQ lounge at LHR, I was appalled today to discover that they've replaced champagne in their bar with Prosecco (yuk!). So champagne-wise, they are now no better than the Senator lounge (although their other wines are better). Is this a joint *A initiative, and have AC and UA followed suit (I fear they have, as neither is famous for serving champagne in their lounges elsewhere)/

:confused:

You think the *A execs sit around and plan mandates for what member lounges should serve as a sparkling wine option??

Not executives, but yes, I do imagine that the *A lounge managers at LHR liaise with each other.

Why would they? Lounges are a business - they make money from every entry. So that also means that these lounges basically compete. Having the exact same offering wouldn't make sense, they would each try to excel at something to gain as many visitors as possible.

To be honest, I doubt that the vast majority of travellers, outside of this site, has an idea that they have a choice of lounges at LHR other than the one that their airline tries to push them towards at check-in.

For me the question would be what kind of Prosecco... I have had some amazing ones, but also, many more less-than-amazing ones. Equally I have had some mediocre champagnes.

I sometimes wonder how many people who insist on 'champagne' would actually tell the difference in a blind tasting, and how much of it is pure branding where quality of the actual wine is a secondary consideration. I constantly see other sparkling wine varieties trashed before they are even tasted on the account of being something "other" than Champagne.

Note that UA Polaris Lounge AC Signature Suites do serve Champagne in their home markets.

IIRC United does offer Champagne at the LHR bar (of course its a low price NV variety, but this IS UA). Presumably this is the SQ C lounge and the F one is offering a decent vintage.

Since the opening of T2, UA, AC, and SQ were all serving exactly the same champagne (some minor, presumably cheap brand which I've never seen anywhere else). This is why I fear they may all have dropped it for pr*s*cc* all at once.

Could also be supplier issues. In some airports/terminals there aren't (m)any options for such.

True. But the bartender in the Silver Kris lounge told me that it was a permanent change.

A permanent change until the liquor vendor wants to move a different product.

Prosecco, that's dried ham, right?:D

united club has two different sparkling wines now - one rose - and, yes, no champagne.

If I recall correctly, they share a caterer, so this would make sense. No longer my home airport, but still a pity.

LH's lounge caterer in LHR, Do & Co specifically went for a good quality prosecco from day 1. When we were given a preopening tour we clearly highlighted that this wouldn't go down well with the Flyertalk crowd, who usually look down with disdain on any sparkling wine that is not produced in France.... :D The Do & Co Manager just rolled his eyes and smiled.