After walking through an endless number of corridors I found myself at the transfer center, where I boarded a bus bound for terminal 5. While I usually do everything I can to avoid a connection involving a terminal transfer at Heathrow, I was quite excited to see the infamous terminal 5 firsthand. Terminal transfer bus…
Continue reading: Weekend in Paris: British Airways First Class Lounge London, British Airways Club Europe London to Paris
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I've been through the F lounge probably 30-40 times over the past year and never saw it without food in the buffet / self serve area. Maybe its just the times I've gone through, but they have been pretty spread out.
I think you just missed that area of the lounge. Doesn't seem like you got it by the pictures.
I do hope there are photos to go along with Lucky's next "moron" entry of buying an RER ticket and then walking all over central Paris looking for his hotel. 🙂
@ Troy -- Interesting. Truth be told I wasn't especially hungry so wasn't seeking out food, though I didn't see it. Maybe I just missed it.
@ ArizonaGuy -- You betcha!
A) you did actually have access to the Concorde Room based on your inbound AA F stub.
B) there's a massive food buffet in the 'kitchen' area. The spread changes through breakfast, lunch and dinner. Plenty of pics of it online if you do a search. Just feel the above review is really quite harsh on the lounge, which is actually fantastic if explored properly...
@Lewis - Concorde Room is only available if your outbound or inbound is BA F.
Agree with your comment and Troy's about the food in the First lounge - it's actually very good, even the food offering in the business lounge at T5 is very impressive compared to what some other airlines offer.
Maybe the BA lounge person was just being nice, or was misinformed, but I was admitted without question to the BA Concorde room based on my AA F boarding card during my last transit over LHR. Perhaps I was just lucky.
Ben--
Does one get access to the BA F Lounge in T5 solely based on having been inbound in AA F? Or did your OW status have something to do with it? Or did being outbound in C on BA factor into the access?
@ jmd001 -- Yes, I had access solely based on arriving in first class on a OneWorld airline and having a connecting OneWorld flight. In the meantime I'm Executive Platinum, which would get me access anyway as a OneWorld Emerald.
@Marshall Jackson
You were very lucky. Unless something has very recently changed, Concorde Room is only for passengers flying BA F (including connecting from BA F to a OW airline departing from the same terminal in any class), CCR Cardholders and BA Premiers.
The problem with the BA First lounge is that it essentially has the same access rules as an LH Senator lounge (frequent fliers and those flying first class on partners) but is branded to be something much nicer. Perhaps a good example of the importance of managing expectations?
@ gba -- That's a very good point. Nobody thinks of the Senator lounge as a first class lounge, because there's no "first class" in the name.British Airways' "first class lounge," on the other hand, not so much...
For a 40 minute flight I'm surprised they provide food like that. That is basically the flight time from PHX-LAS. Seems like the FAs have enough trouble just dealing with the drinks.
Nice pretzel roll. (I just gotta figure out how to make those.)
We recently flew SFO-LHR-CDG on a BA F award, so were able to use the Concorde Lounge. It's a true first class lounge, including complimentary dinner entrees ordered off a menu :-).
@Euan, that is incorrect. I have a copy of the internal BA lounge access guidelines and it specifyically says AA F and ongoing BA in yvor j has ccr access.
@euan, i take that back as looks like my document has been superceded. Ignore me!
AA F inbound BP does not grant access to the Concorde Room. The CCR is not a oneworld lounge. BA provide the Galleries First to cater to the oneworld rules for Emeralds and partner airlines' F passengers.
The First Refectory is reached by going left after you enter the lounge then left immediately again. (you can see it on the left as you go up the escalator from the shopping area). There's a very decent selection of food there and frankly the lounge is one of the best anywhere.
You also completely missed the champagne room, the huge selection of newspapers, etc. in the lounge.
I agree you did no justice to it. You definitely need to go back --- a bit less travel weary!
A few more trips to London, a few more flights on BA, and you'll be saying "shed-jewel" and "lovely" and "fancy" and....