British Airways Plans Massive London Heathrow Lounge Changes In 2026

British Airways Plans Massive London Heathrow Lounge Changes In 2026

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A couple of days ago, British Airways formally unveiled its brand new global lounge design concept, coinciding with the oneworld carrier’s new lounge opening in Miami (MIA). The airline has done a surprisingly good job with this, and we can expect more lounges to be rolled out with this design over the coming years.

While details remain limited, perhaps the most exciting aspect of this is a project that’s expected to start next year.

British Airways’ hub lounges undergoing major renovation

Back in February 2025, British Airways announced plans to make a big investment in its lounges at London Heathrow (LHR). While details remain really limited, here’s what the airline announced at the time:

The airline’s lounges across London Heathrow Terminal 3 and 5 will be undergoing significant transformational changes commencing in 2026, as part of its global lounge redevelopment programme, with more detail to follow later this year.

“Transformational changes” is quite the promise, so it sounds like we can expect more than just some new upholstery on the lounge sofas (and goodness, hopefully those lounge bathrooms get some love). Rumor has it that we might not just see the lounge aesthetics changed, but we could even see changes to which spaces belong to which facilities, meaning there could be expansions or reductions in the sizes of the various lounges.

Could we finally see new lounge bathrooms?!

British Airways was actually going to commence a major London Heathrow lounge overhaul program back in 2020, but the pandemic caused that to be put on hold. I suppose in some ways it’s good that British Airways waited, because the carrier’s new lounge design aesthetic is actually very nice, so this will be something to look forward to.

The Concorde Room could certainly use a bit of love

Renovating eight lounges is a huge undertaking

British Airways has a huge lounge footprint at London Heathrow, given that it operates out of two terminals, and has lounges with multiple sets of entry requirements.

At London Heathrow Terminal 5, you have the Concorde Room (primarily for British Airways first class passengers), the Galleries First Lounge (primarily for oneworld Emerald members), and three Galleries Club Lounges (for business class passengers and oneworld Sapphire members), with a north lounge, a south lounge, and one in 5B. There’s also the Arrivals Lounge. Then in Terminal 3, you have the Galleries First Lounge and Galleries Club Lounge.

To state the obvious, renovations are a double edged sword — these projects can take a long time, and lead to reduced lounge capacity while the work takes place. But that’s also the only way to actually improve the lounge situation.

There are lots of rumors that British Airways may switch around how lounges are organized. So it’ll be interesting to see if we see a bit more consolidation of lounge concepts.

And since British Airways is talking about “transformational change,” I’m curious if we could actually finally see the Concorde Room elevated, to being more competitive with the first class ground experiences offered by Air France, Lufthansa, and SWISS. Admittedly British Airways has a much larger first class footprint, but still, it would be nice to see some more differentiation there.

British Airways could learn some things from its rivals

Bottom line

We know that British Airways is planning major lounge changes at London Heathrow as of 2026. Now that we’ve seen the new lounge design concept the airline is going for, I’m even more excited about this.

As of now, there are a lot more questions than answers, though we should learn more in the coming months. One thing is for sure — with eight different lounges and four different sets of entry requirements, things will be a bit messy while the work takes place. However, hopefully it’s worth it when we see the finished product.

What are you expecting from British Airways’ London Heathrow updates?

Conversations (19)
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  1. Seasoned Traveller Guest

    Rest assured that BA will constantly lag behind innovative airlines. They have sunk into a bland and unimaginative product ever since Walsh took the helm and squeezed every penny of luxury out in favour of profits for dividends. It has not improved as successive non British agents have succeeded the role.
    Just look at their A380 interpretation compared with Qatar and Emirates and EVEN the blandest of bland Qantas!! CP outshines all in T3...

    Rest assured that BA will constantly lag behind innovative airlines. They have sunk into a bland and unimaginative product ever since Walsh took the helm and squeezed every penny of luxury out in favour of profits for dividends. It has not improved as successive non British agents have succeeded the role.
    Just look at their A380 interpretation compared with Qatar and Emirates and EVEN the blandest of bland Qantas!! CP outshines all in T3 @LHR and that's where we head if flying out of there .... where F or J with BA.
    Having all lounges worldwide looking the same is wrong - that's what Marriott do with their hotels and BMW used to do with their cars - all look the same. WRONG ideology. Make each lounge superb and in keeping with its location. That way you speak luxury. However BA do not employ design consultants or listen to advice. They will carry on making wrong decision after wrong decision regrettably.....

  2. David Guest

    Wow. Slow news day with no concrete info.

  3. Ripper New Member

    The North and South BA Galleries Lounges at LHR T5 are a disgrace. Demand has been outstripping supply for years. On the few occasions I have flown out of LHR T3 on a BA C ticket, the Qantas and Cathay Pacific lounges show how bad the BA's Galleries lounges are.

  4. Mike Peries Guest

    I had the chance to enjoy day 1 at MIA totally by accident as we expected to have use of the Admirals club but were directed to this very plush lounge consisting of several split areas including quiet area / separate dining / and stand up bar area - massive spread of cocktails and spirits / champagne’s. Massively overstaffed with attendants for every area inc toilets and showers but it was the opening day
    ...

    I had the chance to enjoy day 1 at MIA totally by accident as we expected to have use of the Admirals club but were directed to this very plush lounge consisting of several split areas including quiet area / separate dining / and stand up bar area - massive spread of cocktails and spirits / champagne’s. Massively overstaffed with attendants for every area inc toilets and showers but it was the opening day
    We spoke with the design team on the ground and they are excited with the commencement of the LHR project after 31/3/26

    A lovey experience

  5. Frederik Guest

    Still no plans for London Airways to reopen a lounge in Manchester.

  6. MilesfromBlighty Guest

    I presume they will somehow use the old pampering area next to the showers as a buffer whilst things get sorted. I do wonder about two exits from First Wing, one to CCR and one to First.

  7. Paul Reynolds Guest

    BA's First Class footprint has been reduced when most of their planes wen from 14 to 8 First seats. They should offer car service for A380 First Class passengers to Pier C where A380 flights depart. This is one amenity Air France, SWISS & Lufthansa offer BA lacks.

    1. Guy Guest

      They should build a new lounge in Pier C as originally planned.

    2. Henry Freund Guest

      I wonder if LHR would push back on this as demeans the Windsor offering

  8. 99 Luft Stanzas Guest

    The galleries first toilets are disgusting. Stank and smut - like poor public restrooms.

    Concord's bogs aren't much better but at least are cleaner

  9. Charles Guest

    Yeah the bathroom situation at T5 need a rethink. A couple times I've left the lounge to use the loo, the line was quite long.

  10. Ziggy Member

    For Oneworld Emeralds, one of the potential risks associated with these changes is that BA reorganises the lounges in such a way that the First Wing at LHR T5 leads passengers into the Concorde Room and not the Galleries First Lounge and so becomes restricted to First Class/BA Gold Guest List passengers only (+ guests(s)).

    1. Lee Guest

      First Wing would be underutilized if that were to happen. I doubt they'd do it l. (Don't forget AA CKs have Concorde Room access.)

    2. Matt Guest

      Totally agree Lee. Heathrow has just invested millions in strengthening the floor for the new Xray machines. They want payback for that so BA putting very few passengers through it is very little payback. BA pay Heathrow a premium for the First Wing.

      It is possible they could rearrange so there is a CCR where the First lounge is currently. But don’t think they will restrict First Wing.

  11. shoeguy Guest

    BA's lounges at Heathrow are institutional and unpleasant. This is welcome news.

  12. WW Guest

    Thank goodness, no more NHS / prison-cell toilets. Utterly embarrassing for 'premium' lounges.

  13. PITFlyer Guest

    Wouldn’t it be nice for BA and AA to deeply integrate their one world partners in JFk and LHR - they should be all over a 5 D/E terminals

    Love the new lounges but more seamless connections are more important

    1. Matt Guest

      That requires Heathrow to build it. Unlikely to happen in the short term given the 3rd runway is their priority infrastructure build. As part of that or after that then maybe.

  14. Abidjan Diamond

    Welcomed news, for sure. Will require a ton of patience/understanding on our part in the mean time, but worth it. Thanks Lucky.

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Ripper New Member

The North and South BA Galleries Lounges at LHR T5 are a disgrace. Demand has been outstripping supply for years. On the few occasions I have flown out of LHR T3 on a BA C ticket, the Qantas and Cathay Pacific lounges show how bad the BA's Galleries lounges are.

1
Seasoned Traveller Guest

Rest assured that BA will constantly lag behind innovative airlines. They have sunk into a bland and unimaginative product ever since Walsh took the helm and squeezed every penny of luxury out in favour of profits for dividends. It has not improved as successive non British agents have succeeded the role. Just look at their A380 interpretation compared with Qatar and Emirates and EVEN the blandest of bland Qantas!! CP outshines all in T3 @LHR and that's where we head if flying out of there .... where F or J with BA. Having all lounges worldwide looking the same is wrong - that's what Marriott do with their hotels and BMW used to do with their cars - all look the same. WRONG ideology. Make each lounge superb and in keeping with its location. That way you speak luxury. However BA do not employ design consultants or listen to advice. They will carry on making wrong decision after wrong decision regrettably.....

0
David Guest

Wow. Slow news day with no concrete info.

0
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