British Airways has plans to open its own lounge at Miami Airport, as flagged by View from the Wing.
In this post:
British Airways Lounge planned for Miami Concourse E
Miami Airport commissioners are expected to shortly approve a lease agreement for British Airways to open a lounge in Concourse E at Miami Airport. Specifically, the plan calls for a 12,973 square foot lounge on the fourth floor of the Concourse E satellite terminal.
While this is expected to be approved, unfortunately don’t expect the lounge to actually open anytime soon. Final approval is expected for March 2024, permitting will take until November 2024, and then construction will take until May 2026. So absolutely best case scenario, it’ll be just under three years before the lounge opens. For those curious, the airline would pay annual rent of $1,747,463.10 for this space.
Currently British Airways primarily sends its passengers to American Airlines’ lounges in Concourse D, including the Admirals Club and Flagship Lounge.
British Airways’ history with lounges at Miami Airport is interesting. From 1999 until 2007, British Airways had its own roughly 6,000 square foot lounge in Concourse D, though that lease ended up being canceled due to the North Terminal Development Consolidation project, which resulted in British Airways’ operations being moved.
In 2014, British Airways was supposed to open a lounge in Concourse D near gate D21, coinciding with the airline planning on flying the Airbus A380 to Miami. However, construction plans ended up being canceled because British Airways’ operations got moved to the Concourse E satellite to accommodate American Airlines’ growth in Concourse D.
This lounge would be great for passengers
A British Airways Lounge Miami would be great on several levels:
- British Airways lounges in the United States tend to belong to Priority Pass during non-peak hours, so this would likely result in a new Priority Pass option in the terminal
- While American’s Flagship Lounge is a very nice facility for premium passengers, it’s quite out of the way for those departing on British Airways
- British Airways having its own lounge would alleviate crowding in other lounges in the terminal
This seems like a win-win-win, so I’m looking forward to this lounge opening… eventually.
Now, I would manage my expectations in terms of quality of the lounge, even prior to British Airways departures. While some British Airways lounges in the United States have pre-flight dining facilities, this tends to be at airports in the Northeast, where the overnight flights are very short. I wouldn’t count on this lounge getting one of those.
Bottom line
British Airways intends to open its own lounge at Miami Airport. This concept should get approval shortly, and the lounge is expected to open in May 2026 at the earliest. The nearly 13,000 square foot lounge would be located in the Concourse E satellite, so would have a very convenient location for British Airways passengers.
What do you make of the British Airways Lounge Miami?
Surprise BA isn't taking over the old AA AC in E, which at one time for a short period was a OW lounge. AA was suppose to renovate that club before COVID but now no one at the ACs seems to know if that space will ever be used. Given the crowds at D30 any relieve is needed.
Is it going where that old One World lounge was located pre COVID???
Hi Lucky -
Have you been through the E Concourse Satellite lately? Probably if you flew Jetblue out of MIA - I arrived there a month or so ago.
The Satellite is horrendous! I cannot think of a third-world airport that is worse than the E Satellite. Crowded, limited facilities mostly used by charter operators and some off the radar airlines from Latam.
I recall the old BA Terrace Lounge at MIA. Quite liked it and glad to see BA will hopefully be back.
Great too see another BA lounge coming to a key route in the network. Looking at some of the documents the proposed cost is estimated to be $16m which is a considerable investment and makes we wonder if they will include dedicated “The Bar Miami” concepts for F and GGL passengers like Singapore and Dubai lounges.