British Airways has formally unveiled plans to overhaul all of its lounges at London Heathrow Airport (LHR), and even open a new one, which is an exciting development. As you’d expect, given the number of lounges the airline has at its Heathrow hub, this will be quite the undertaking. This follows British Airways unveiling a new global lounge design concept last year, which debuted at Miami Airport (MIA).
British Airways’ hub lounges undergoing major improvements
British Airways has announced plans to redesign all of its Heathrow lounges over the coming years, which will be one of the carrier’s largest lounge investments in history. This even includes opening a new lounge. Initially, this project will center around three things:
- An all-new lounge at the Heathrow Terminal 5C gates (there’s currently not a lounge in this concourse)
- A complete redevelopment of the Heathrow Terminal 5 arrivals lounge
- A new first class check-in experience at Heathrow Terminal 3, in partnership with American Airlines
The catch is that we’ll have to be patient. To start, let’s talk about the new British Airways Galleries Lounge at Heathrow Terminal 5C, due to open in late 2028. This is the furthest pier in Terminal 5, and it doesn’t currently have a lounge. The lounge is described as being inspired by flight and British design, with materials and finishes sourced from across the UK.
The lounge will have a light and open feel, and feature architectural elements inspired by the skies, alongside dedicated areas for dining, relaxation, work, and pre-flight shower facilities. The lounge will also have a 17-meter bar, expected to be among the longest airport lounge bars, as well as views of the apron.
Next, the airline is opening a new arrivals lounge, with refurbishment expected to start in early 2027, with an opening later that year. The lounge will boast a coffee bar and deli, larger dining areas, quiet relaxation zones, and dedicated work booths. It will also offer 59 shower suites, and shared dressing and preparation areas.
First class customers will also have access to a new Concorde arrivals experience, with private cabanas, a la carte dining areas, and elevated design.
Lastly, British Airways and American Airlines will introduce a new first class check-in experience at Heathrow Terminal 3, set to debut this winter. The dedicated facility will provide customers with a more private and stylish facility, with plenty of seating, and updated design.
Here’s how British Airways CEO Sean Doyle describes these updates:
“This investment is a major milestone in the evolution of our lounges and reflects our ambition to create a more connected and consistent customer journey. These spaces will take our lounge design concept to the next step, building on Miami and creating a distinctive British Airways look and feel across key customer touchpoints, from First Wing and our lounges to the onboard experience.”
“By showcasing the best of British design, craftsmanship and hospitality, we will deliver a more premium, seamless experience for our customers. This is the first of many developments in the pipeline, and we look forward to sharing more as we transform the customer experience in the years ahead.”
This is a huge project, and there are still lots of questions
British Airways has a big lounge footprint at London Heathrow, given that it operates out of two terminals, and has lounges with multiple sets of entry requirements. As it currently stands, British Airways has eight lounges at the airport.
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 Terminal 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 typically a double edged sword, in the sense that they require closing down existing lounges, which can be unpleasant.
The good news here is that the second lounge to open at Heathrow with the new design will be an all-new facility, so this could potentially minimize disruptions for existing customers. The idea is that once a new lounge opens, additional existing ones can be closed to be renovated. That brings up two points, though.
First of all, it sounds like this will be a very long term project. The first new lounge will open in late 2027, and the second new lounge will open in late 2028… and that leaves seven more lounges to be renovated! I imagine we’ll be well into the mid-2030s before this project is complete, just based on how long things take.
Next, there are rumors that the overall organization of existing lounges will be updated, and that could include things like the Concorde Room being moved to a new location. However, details about that haven’t yet been revealed, so we’ll have to be patient, and all we can do is speculate.
I can’t help but wonder if we could finally see British Airways materially improve the first class ground experience, to make it a little more competitive with what’s 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 improvements.
Bottom line
British Airways has formally announced plans to overhaul its lounges at London Heathrow Airport. While all lounges will eventually get a refresh, in addition to a new lounge opening, expect this to take a very long time.
The British Airways Arrivals Lounge will be the first to be updated, and we can expect that to open in late 2027. Then an all-new British Airways Galleries Lounge in Terminal 5C will open in late 2028. It remains to be seen what happens with the other seven existing lounges. They’re all expected to be updated, though the concepts could be changed materially.
What do you make of British Airways’ Heathrow lounge plans?
I hope the new lounges have electrical outlets. The T5 lounge had a couple hundred people and half a dozen places to plug in.
“The new lounge will be inspired by flight” my goodness what a groundbreaking concept.
First of all they are like 6 to 7 years late to refurbishing their lounges. The last time i went through there J lounges at LHR, although this was 2-3 years ago, the lounge seats were in bad shape. Plus their shower suites give any county hospital a run for their money.
And now from the looks for it this will still take a few more years before their digs are at the very least on par with rest of the world.
They really need to do something about their existing lounges which are abysmal. The Galleries North lounge doesn’t even have outlets at 90% of the seats. South is barely any better. Structurally, even the Club Aspire Lounge is better.
It truly is dire when a Priority Pass lounge is the better option vs an airline’s flagship business class lounge at their hub. At least their outstation lounges are generally solid…
Great news on the C lounge and updated Arrivals lounge.
I'm guessing they will all have gender-neutral bathrooms, like the North and South Lounges in T5...
And everyone using those will shortly thereafter be heading aboard an airplane with all gender neutral lavatories.
:D
I would assume the First Class check in would include all BA FC passengers and all OneWorld Emerald's (regardless of class of service). AA's First Class will be gone by the time this is completed?
American needs to renovate and overhaul its Heathrow lounge and pull it out of 1998.
T5C desperately needs a lounge, no idea what @chris w is talking about. T5C is jam packed during peak hours without anywhere decent to sit other than Starbucks basically, and no one really wants to go to T5B, go all the way up from the basement train to the T5B lounge, then go all the way back down to T5B station to then get to T5C. The train is deep down. It's completely not convenient...
T5C desperately needs a lounge, no idea what @chris w is talking about. T5C is jam packed during peak hours without anywhere decent to sit other than Starbucks basically, and no one really wants to go to T5B, go all the way up from the basement train to the T5B lounge, then go all the way back down to T5B station to then get to T5C. The train is deep down. It's completely not convenient to wait in T5B.
And then... because of the amazing way in which LHR announces flights, you never really know when your flight is boarding. Even at T5B sometimes I'll leave the lounge, go to the gate at boarding time, then it's clear it's going to be another 15 minutes, and I'll pop back into the lounge.
A new check-in area at T3 is nice and all, but mostly useless, because unless I missed something, BA/AA did not announce that they were refurbishing their T3 lounges. So folks will continue to use the Cathay and Qantas lounges.
Customers departing 5C are instructed to go to the 5B lounge (as it's never full) and wait for boarding. They're not supposed to loiter around 5C (I've never spent more than a few minutes there).
I agree the boarding announcements are not always accurate.
I hope BA aren't prioritising a new 5C lounge because it will handle the overflow when the 5A lounges are shut for refurb. Absolutely nobody departing 5A is going to go...
Customers departing 5C are instructed to go to the 5B lounge (as it's never full) and wait for boarding. They're not supposed to loiter around 5C (I've never spent more than a few minutes there).
I agree the boarding announcements are not always accurate.
I hope BA aren't prioritising a new 5C lounge because it will handle the overflow when the 5A lounges are shut for refurb. Absolutely nobody departing 5A is going to go all the way to 5C to use a lounge and then back to 5A no matter how new it is.
5S Galleries would seem to be he most urgent - they could shut half of it at a time assuming there won't be radical changes to the layout (kitchen location etc).
OK but you come in through 5A. Who cares what the official instructions are. The train connecting A-B-C is far from convenient (walking between the terminals is sometimes faster). So I'd much rather stay in A (even with the crowded lounges) and then take the train one time to C. If I am departing from B, I'll use the B lounge.
They absolutely are prioritizing 5C so that it will handle the overflow when 5A...
OK but you come in through 5A. Who cares what the official instructions are. The train connecting A-B-C is far from convenient (walking between the terminals is sometimes faster). So I'd much rather stay in A (even with the crowded lounges) and then take the train one time to C. If I am departing from B, I'll use the B lounge.
They absolutely are prioritizing 5C so that it will handle the overflow when 5A lounges are shut. That's really the only reason to put a Concorde dining facility in 5C. Once the 5A refurb happens (Maybe by 2032? Who knows!) magically the 5C Concorde dining will close.
They have to shut the whole thing at once, I suspect. There is so much just plumbing work to do on the antiquated bathrooms and showers. I would bet the whole thing will be completely reimagined. And it wouldn't surprise me if they try and temporarily shift some flights over to T3 while that work is going on (hello new joint First check-in area at T3...).
If it's anything like what they did (with AA) for Soho and Chelsea at JFK, it'll be worth the wait. More airlines should have dedicated 'arrivals' lounges (post-immigration, even without onward travel) for those arriving early, wanting a refresh (shower, meal) before heading into London, etc. Aer Lingus does this at DUB as well (and they even promote it in the business class brochures). I believe Lufthansa (FRA), Swiss (ZRH), and a few others have...
If it's anything like what they did (with AA) for Soho and Chelsea at JFK, it'll be worth the wait. More airlines should have dedicated 'arrivals' lounges (post-immigration, even without onward travel) for those arriving early, wanting a refresh (shower, meal) before heading into London, etc. Aer Lingus does this at DUB as well (and they even promote it in the business class brochures). I believe Lufthansa (FRA), Swiss (ZRH), and a few others have such lounges. Great for 6AM TATL arrivals.
Ignore Chelsea / Concorde Room for the moment, because understandably that's for "real" first class.
AA needs to improve on the JPLs and needs to work with BA to do so. AA is introducing flagship dining for business class to compete with DL and UA. And BA needs to compete with DL/VS across the pond to JFK.
No real sit down dining at Greenwich (I think the tasting room doesn't really count) and even...
Ignore Chelsea / Concorde Room for the moment, because understandably that's for "real" first class.
AA needs to improve on the JPLs and needs to work with BA to do so. AA is introducing flagship dining for business class to compete with DL and UA. And BA needs to compete with DL/VS across the pond to JFK.
No real sit down dining at Greenwich (I think the tasting room doesn't really count) and even the Soho menu doesn't look nearly as good as the new flagship dining does (let alone D1 or UA Polaris) - and I say that despite really enjoying spending time in Soho.
And the best BA can do at LHR is an "action station" in the first class lounge - no table service at all in a BA First lounge. It's borderline uncompetitive at LHR given how good the Virgin Clubhouse is, but it's 100% not competitive anymore at JFK against D1/UA.
I’m with you everything you just said. 10/10. No notes. ^This guy gets it.
I’ll add, it’s gonna get really interesting at JFK once new T1/T6 open, especially when QR/CX move, opens new lounges, respectively, because that will be a whole new oneworld premium lounge era there.
If they could just start cleaning the Galleries First Lounges on a regular basis. That would be a huge improvement. Not just the buffet areas that always smell appalling, but the whole lounge. Particularly the terminal 3 lounge is bad in this aspect, but the T5 lounge is not that much less bad.
Yeah the BA Arrivals lounge has been in need of a serious refresh. The shower stalls leak a ton of water. The food/bev is also disappointing.
T5 as a whole is also not great lounge wise. Their Galleries "First" lounges are worse than many business class lounges.
It's been a big reason why I've been taking AA metal over BA flights.
And now the AA metal is nicer than BA metal. I'd rather sit in a new flagship suite versus a club suite. Club suites are beginning to show their age. And with DO&CO on both AA/BA now... sure you'll probably get better service on BA, but T3 lounges are much better than T5 (thanks Cathay/Qantas).
There is 0 need for a 5C lounge - the 5B lounge is never full.
The Galleries 5N and S lounges are in dire need of upgrading and should be the absolute first lounges to be tackled
"The lounge is described as being inspired by flight and British design..."
Inspired by "British design?"
LOL.
Sounds more like a warning.
Come again? Like half of all airline premium cabins are designed by a small group of London-based design firms. I’d also certainly take a British-designed premium product (cars, clothing, interiors/furniture) over an American one any day. The full breadth of ugly American on display right there, I see.
This kinda reminds me of Lufthansa Group announcing they will equip their fleet with high speed wifi by 2029 when AFKL does it by the end of this year. Who cares about your product being cool today when you're only gonna introduce it in a couple of years when the goalposts are gonna be at a completely different place? Allegris was also cool when it was introduced, less so when it actually got offered and tried to compete with others. Just saying.
This is great news. It’s been a handful of years since One World was my alliance of choice, so I haven’t experienced it in maybe 15 years and even then a lot of the experience felt dated. I remember the hot, humid, small, and dreary showers in the Concorde room
Nothing has changed, the showers still have that quaint, underresourced NHS feel to them.