Review: British Airways Galleries Club Lounge Edinburgh Airport

Dang. Why can't the BA lounges in the US be this nice?

I thought the BA business lounge @JFK is not too shaby...

You can access this lounge with a business or first class ticket, right? Why don't US lounges allow customers on domestic first or business tickets into lounges for free? Never understood that

The Edinburgh lounge is newly opened and their lounge in Glasgow is probably c. 12 months old or thereby. Both lounges are bigger than their predecessors as a result of the demise of BMI and the increased traffic.

You have to bear in mind that during the week BA fly from to London airports 22 times a day Edinburgh and 19 times a day from Glasgow.

@Anthony, yes you can access with business or first class ticket (if flying on from London).

You can also access using a Business UK ticket which is a full fare domestic ticket (c. £555 / $888).

British Airways Gold Card holders definitely have fast-track security at Edinburgh Airport.

I don't know if this extends to OneWorld equivalents (e.g. AA EXPs) or not.

Not advertised quite as blatantly but JetBlue will sell you a priority security line pass for $10 or $15 from any of their kiosks.

@Anthony -- US carriers see lounges as profit centers and sell annual memberships. If you got into the lounge with status, very few people would have any reason to buy the memberships. By contrast most airlines outside the US don't sell memberships, the only way to get into the lounge is with status or a premium class ticket.

Obviously Ben is obsessed with Kuwait Airways...

@ Anthony -- Correct, a premium cabin ticket gets you access. Ultimately the business model for lounges in the US is different than abroad. Outside the US the concept of a lounge membership is more or less unheard of, while it's commonplace in the US.

Similarly, first class cabins within the US are totally centered around upgrades, while that's not the case internationally. So as an elite member in the US you're usually getting first class upgrades but not lounge access, while in Europe you're getting lounge access but no upgrades.

I think we win, ultimately. 🙂

Earlier (in the introduction) you said you were flying coach from EDI to LHR. How did you get in there?

@ Hong Kong Airline News -- I'm BA Gold, which gets me access to the lounge even when flying economy.

With QR starting EDI-DOH flights in May, I can see the lounge keeping even busier throughout the day.

Lucky - just asking, but do you need to explore a bit more what a "good" cappuccino is? Many a coffee enthusiast would argue the stuff coming out of the sort of machines you cite as "decent" is anything but...maybe more gourmet-coffeshop reviews?

@ Jason -- To be clear, it's certainly relative, though there are good and bad airport cappuccino machines. So it was good within the realm of being an airport cappuccino machine, though perhaps not good compared to one at a "true" coffee shop.

Lucky,

I'm not seeing any Business class (being sold period, not sold out) from EDI (other than to IBZ) and it looks like BA only flies EDI direct to LHR/LCY/LGW and IBZ (only flight that sell Biz class) according to BA.com. So other than Oneworld Sapphire/Emerald members, folks continuing on Business/First from London, and the off chance someone is flying Biz to IBZ - why do you think BA would put up a new lounge in EDI? I ask because my family is flying from EDI to LHR (multi-day stopover) in economy since there is no business class seats sold on that market - and then they'll be flying business class LHR-US. But because of their multi-day stopover in LHR, they'll have zero access to the EDI BA lounge. (they have no status) So I was just trying to see if I'm missing something. I appreciate any insight you can provide!

@ Chris -- Don't think you're missing anything. I guess the lounge gets enough elite members and passengers connecting in first/business class to other destinations same day to justify it.

If you have a flexible ticket on BA Domestic you do get lounge access. So I'm guessing the lounge exists for that reason, since there are quite a few business travelers flying on the more expensive flex tickets.

Yep, it's a massive improvement - glad you liked it, Lucky 🙂

As Euan mentioned EDI and GLA are probably the biggest two destinations for BA when looking at number of flights per day and EDI-LHR apparently has the highest concentration of GCHs of any of their routes so it's well worth them spending the cash on this lounge. The downside is their new priority boarding policy - now it includes right down to Bronze (OW Ruby) often more than half the plane on these flights can make use of it 😉

This is not actually a Galleries Club lounge. As can be seen from the entrance, it is branded as a 'British Airways Lounge', which is the latest lounge branding. It uses elements from the Galleries concept combined with local influences in the interior design.

@ Chris

BA regularly operate a range of larger aircraft from their normal A320's up to B767 & B777's on the EDI - LHR / LGW route to cope with the demand, at peak times there is a flight every hour to LHR.

While the domestic flights are all single class - majority of the passengers are regular travellers - commuting up and down to London two or three times a week, lounge access (with your executive club status) is an encouragement to fly with BA rather than one of the alternative "low fares" airlines.

I used the Edinburgh BA lounge on the 25th of Sept 2016. The lounge is very nice and tidy however the selection of food was shocking. A sandwich or a bit of cheese with a cracker. Maybe if they cut back a bit on the expensive booze they could spend a bit more on the food.
It was good to have a nice quiet seat however overall it was very disappointing.

Can I access to Edinburgh lounge with business ticket and only blue membership ?

The lounge is not that well serviced. Staff are disinterested, and totally overwhelmed when a flight is cancelled. (Happen twice recently) water pours into and through the aircon units when it is raining, and the TV’s (live ~TV channels) have not worked correctly for months. BASICALLY NO ONE appears to be really interested in fixing anything...

The food on offer is the basic range of BA sandwiches - no afternoon scones, or hot food that I have ever seen...

All in all it sort of looks nice but with little effort could be so much better.

There are no showers.