Update: See this post for a full, updated review of the recently renovated Concorde Room.
Continue reading: A380 Extravaganza: British Airways Concorde Room London Heathrow
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Sorry to hear about your crap experience in the CR. When I was there in November, I had decent service with food brought out to me (I sat in the terrace) cordially by a waitress along with champagne. Really enjoyed the Terrace space as like you said, its bright and airy with high ceilings. The food, well lets just say its England and you can't really expect much. Give it another shot in due course and see if the experience is improved!
From what I've read on other TR's about the Concorde Room, the experiences there seem to vary. File it under "Hit or Miss" (as opposed to the TQ and LH lounges in Bangkok and Frankfurst, respectively, which are consistently great). It might have been more enjoyable for you had it been less crowded and had better service.
Sad. Seems that the the adjective people are using the most for BA premium service all around is "decent". Weren't they once a great and fairly cutting edge airline?
Sorry you had such a crappy experience. I really enjoyed my time there when I went. Like Ed above I had some food brought to my seat (I actually sat at one of the barstool/tables just outside the eating area) and service was good. The massage was crap though. I hate those chairs personally.
I spent 5 hours there last July and had a great experience. Everyone was friendly and we received drink service on the terrace. Restaurant service was great too. But I do not remember it being as crowded as in your photos, so that may be a factor.
I was in the CCR last week though only had about 30-45 min in the lounge, and it was equally disappointing for me too. Everything just seemed so-so and it was pretty packed. It certainly could not compare to the LH F and SQ F/TPR lounges. I was also on LHR-SEA and the only positive of the BA experience was that I was the only F pax on that segment. 🙂
Do you need a dark sweater and light collared shirt to enter? It looks that way haha
@ Craig -- LOL!
@ M -- In some lounges local calls are free, though I've never seen a lounge with free international calls.
Lucky you are so lucky to fly the oneworld livery. I heard the oneworld livery aircraft of British Airways are great
Service is hit or miss in my experience - your server sounds like the one I had in the concord room arrivals lounge and having worked as a service I can cut some slack but was disappointed. also surprised by the crowd - was that weather related?
The burgers unfortunately do need to be cooked well as it is their law in the UK although have found a few good ones in the city (Barbacoa and Bryon)
For satellite flights I generally go to that lounge as it is always empty in my experience or maybe just the Philly flight time? just buy food/etc in main terminal as it is a satellite food desert save a Boots takeaway
The how busy is security sign needs no scale, it's to tell you how busy one is compared to the other (so you can make the shorter queue, ostensibly).
I was in the Concorde room today and found the service to be rather indifferent. Not as bad as your experience, but I didn't feel consistently welcomed.
The law regarding how well to cook beef may be related to their repeated experiences with "mad cow disease" (bovine encephalitis if I remember correctly).
Jack
Actually, the "how busy is security" indicator is still quite useful even without scale. As there are two security checkpoints some distance away from each other, so can just choose the less busy one. It's really a good feature for airports with several security entrances you can choose from.
We lived in England for 3 years. Generally they grind the meat too finely, it's machine shaped (ie not hand pattied) and overcooked. Meatballs are similar. I always advise Americans to skip the burgers in the uk.
Ben, When I was there I made international phone call from the CCR... it was free.
When I was at BA CCR (only once) it was pretty good but not the best. Many times at TG FCL in BKK and always good. However, a friend reported that it was not good at the peak hr (11pm): no seat!! and not personal service. FRA LH FCT/FCL many times and there are times when I did not feel so good too. So I guess it could be all hit and miss but TG and LH are more hit than miss.
Definitely not a great experience - did you provide some feedback to BA (especially given this was a paid F ticket you were on?!) - they need to vastly improve the consistency of what they're offering here. I've never been in the CCR myself but the dining options look little different to the Flounge. The cabanas look massively disappointing - I was expecting something along the lines of one of these - https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=&tbm=isch&q=cabana - not a pokey little room!
On the burger front though I'm afraid I'm more on their side. With a steak the bacteria are on the outside and therefore killed even when cooked rare, however with a burger the beef has been ground, mixing any surface bacteria (with the main potential organisms we're bothered about here being Salmonella and E Coli O157) are distributed throughout the patty. It therefore has to be cooked through to minimise the risk of food poisoning (also see http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/acmsfburgers0807.pdf).
You are quite harsh towards BA. I still think they are by far the best European carrier out there, and any comparison to Thai or EK is unfair given the different cost structures of the airlines.
I have flown BA Club World recently and I have had a very positive experience, which I hope to replicate soon. Indeed, the service could be more courteous at times and they took 2 months to respond to a feedback/complaint I filed online. But overall BA product is very hard to beat. Just my 2 cents...
Where can I book in advance the spa and cabana? I tried to call Executive Club but they said it can't be done. I'm confused. Thanks.
@ J Goldmeier -- You'd want to contact You First. Their phone number and email address can be found here:
http://www.britishairways.com/travel/youfirst/public/en_gb
Great report! Too bad about the CCR, I have never been. But it seems like a mediocre JCL lounge.
However, I have to agree on them with the burger. I mean, it's not a steak. I don't think you are supposed to eat raw ground beef, not exactly "top quality" meat which can contain a lot of nasty bacterias.
Echo almost everything in this post. I was severely disappointed with the CCR experience. It was stuffed full of people. Long wait for a table, for a server once seated and for the food (wrong order) to arrive. Would have preferred a buffet style, although the food once it arrived was good. A nice experience but not amazing, and certainly not worthy of its reputation. Seems a bit small for the crowd it serves. And best to avoid hamburgers in the UK full stop! Always disappointing.
My wife and I are at the Concorde Room now and this is our 2nd visit this week. By the way, our first visit earlier this week was connecting from BA F to domestic economy on BA and we had no trouble with access, they welcomed us right in. So for those wondering if they have access arriving on an Int'l F Flight on BA and then connecting to a domestic or Intra-Europe in C or Y on BA, no issues for us, we just showed our inbound F boarding passes.
Overall, the experience here is pleasant, but certainly not LH or TG quality, a step above the Asiana or CX F lounges in my view. Check-in at BA T5 was not especially friendly, nor was check-in at Elemis. The 20 minute foot massage was nice and i would add we had no problem booking the appointments via the BA "You First" website, both for Elemis and Cabanas.
Food at Concorde Dining Room was quite good, service friendly enough i suppose, but not memorable. Cabanas are good for a shower, but nothing more, i actually prefer the Business Class shower rooms at ANA Narita and UA Narita over the cabanas here, even though the cabanas are larger.
Seating can be quite scarce at times, some of that a product of passengers that hog the space. Private toilets were nice, but sterile as in your photos, would be better served i think with a common toilet facility, as they were often all occupied.
Overall, a good lounge but nothing exclusive in my view.
May I just say to the gentleman that actually wrote the original pose and supplies the pictures . Do you actually have anything positive to say ?!?!? Your article couldn't be further from the truth ' British Airways are amazing and always flown with them . The service is impeccable which is the very back bone of there history . Your just jumped up and clearly in need of coming back down to earth ! Seriously ! First of all not everyone will ever get the chance to experience what you do and if by some miracle they do , they shouldn't go by your exeperince maybe you were giving off bad vibes and possible even rude just like your post expressing . I wouldn't serve you . Who are you to judge others and a service in this way ?!?! Perhaps your fortunes should be best spent on helping others instead of being critical of others . You should be ashamed of yourself and remember that a vast amount of the population will never ever get to experience what you do ! So be grateful and chill out ! Stuck up people are the worst thing to our human race . Be mindful of others and respect all those who offer a service .
Aaaaaand now I know what you are talking about.... What a horrible lounge. I always thought "it can't be that bad". But unfortunately it is. Waiters were rude, spa receptionist couldn't find my appointment and then told me "well sir you should've called when you didn't get your spa confirmation". And it is jam packed! Eeek, can't wait to be back at the The Wing First Class lounge....
I am curious as to why you checked your bag at LHR? You said you were doing it so they didn't make you at the gate. I would love to know what that is all about.
@ Jen -- My bag was extremely full/big, so I figured it made the most sense to just check it.
Those judging British food on airport lounge experiences need to get a life and probably get out more. However, while I think this blog is usually a bit harsh on BA this visit does look shockingly sub-standard.
The service in particular sounds awful and there's no excuse for that.
wonder if you were there in 2013? i met SuBo in T5 at that time (when she was still fairly fresh n famous) - much shorter than i expected and friendly enough.
Off to Concorde T5 Cabana in a few weeks so fingers crossed its not per your above experience.
Small details such as name (because they hold a register of those they expect) and a smile makes a massive difference.
Do they still do the "escort you to your seat" thing or has that gone now? around 6 years ago (last time i flew first) you had end to end almost hand holding and hand off to stewardess on board. it was a little OTT but amusing to see others reactions as you were chaperoned around (and shortcut'd to your seat!)