London Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 3 is looking pretty nice for oneworld flyers nowadays…
In this post:
Now open: Cathay Pacific Lounge LHR
Cathay Pacific has just reopened its premium lounge at London Heathrow, including both the first and business class sections. The lounge closed around the start of the pandemic due to lack of demand, and remained closed until recently. The lounge is now open daily from 5:30AM until 5:30PM, and it’s located in Terminal 3, near gate 11.
This development comes shortly after Qantas reopened its London Heathrow Lounge, making this one of the best terminals in the world for premium oneworld travelers. As far as Cathay Pacific lounge access requirements go:
- The first class section of the lounge can be accessed by all oneworld first class passengers, plus oneworld Emerald members
- The business class section of the lounge can be accessed by all oneworld business class passengers, plus oneworld Sapphire members
While a majority of British Airways’ operations are out of Terminal 5, Terminal 3 is otherwise the biggest oneworld terminal at Heathrow. Flights on oneworld carriers from the terminal include select British Airways and Iberia flights, most American Airlines flights, and all flights on Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Japan Airlines, Royal Jordanian, SriLankan Airlines, and Qantas.
Personally the Cathay Pacific Lounge is my favorite lounge at Heathrow, and in particular I love the first class section as a oneworld Emerald member. I also prefer it to the Qantas Lounge, which is a shared space for first & business class passengers.
Cathay Pacific isn’t even flying from London right now
Here’s something funny — Cathay Pacific has just reopened its lounge in London even though the airline isn’t currently operating flights from Heathrow. Hong Kong told the airline to temporarily suspend flights from London due to the high number of imported coronavirus cases.
The lounge is reopening in order to serve other oneworld guests for the time being. I suppose the economics work out so that this is the best option:
- Cathay Pacific has some fixed costs for having the lounge, including rent for the lounge space, and presumably that has to be paid even if the lounge is closed
- I guess demand on oneworld carriers out of Heathrow has recovered to the point that Cathay Pacific believes that the revenue from serving partner oneworld guests will exceed the variable operating costs
Bottom line
Cathay Pacific has reopened its excellent lounge at London Heathrow, despite the fact that the airline isn’t currently serving the airport. This is a fantastic lounge for any oneworld premium traveler departing from Terminal 3 to visit. It might just be my favorite outstation lounge in the world.
Show Cathay Pacific some love, and visit this lounge the next time you pass through the airport. It’s probably the closest most of us will get to experiencing a bit of Hong Kong flair anytime soon.
Any OMAAT readers have plans to visit the Cathay Pacific Lounge LHR anytime soon?
You wrote "even though the airline isn’t currently flying to Heathrow". Actually it is flying *to* LHR, just not flying *from* LHR, due to HK Government ban on flights from UK. It returns with freight only. Your point is valid though - no outbound CX passengers!
https://webb-site.com/dbpub/HKflighthist.asp?fn=CX251
Great news! Flying to LHR for a quick trip next week and was planning on using QF J but this makes it easy. I could not believe how bad BA J in T3 when I went through in November. Now if only LAX could get their Intl lounge situation together...
Do i need to be flying Cathay Pacific if I am a Oneworld Saphire member to use the lounge?
I wonder if they are opening to allow BA to refurbish their lounge that was planned pre pandemic.
I’d be curious to hear if their offering is what it used to be. I’d burn 2 SWUs just to fly over, drink some bubbles, eat some noodles, and watch planes land from the comfortable chairs on the F side.
We agree with you - it's by far the best lounge at T3. It's an embarrassment of riches - with four decent lounges to choose from. Even the AAdmiral's Club is pretty good! Sometimes I bounce over to the Noodle Bar in the business class side just for the Hong Kong ambiance.
But I don't see a trip to London anytime in our future. We used to transit London 10 times a year -...
We agree with you - it's by far the best lounge at T3. It's an embarrassment of riches - with four decent lounges to choose from. Even the AAdmiral's Club is pretty good! Sometimes I bounce over to the Noodle Bar in the business class side just for the Hong Kong ambiance.
But I don't see a trip to London anytime in our future. We used to transit London 10 times a year - but now haven't been out of the US in 2 1/2 years. Looking forward to VS and KLM starting up service from Austin this year...How things change.
A lounge with no flights? How novel.
I agree with you Ben. Love this lounge (although have never visited the first class side).
I’ve tried the ba 747 upper deck back to the USA a couple of times (it’s actually a good experience!) and I hate having to go to terminal 5 and missing the Cathay lounge
Without Cathay flights operating, my guess is we will see a very scaled-down food and beverage selection.
Will pop by for a visit at the end of March when the wife, daughter and I head down to the Maldives on Sri Lankan. I did a little lounge hopping the last time I was in T3 and Cathay was definitely my favorite lounge out of all the ones I visited.