To finish off my review trip, I flew British Airways’ A380 first class from London to Chicago. Prior to my flight, I had the chance to check out the British Airways Concorde Room, which is British Airways’ most exclusive lounge.
Oh, the Concorde Room… while it’s a perfectly pleasant place to pass some time, it’s nowhere close to being among the world’s best first class lounges.
On the plus side, the lounge features comfortable seating including on a terrace, excellent coffee, a premium alcohol selection, and a la carte dining. Furthermore, during this visit I found the staff to be quite friendly.
However, there’s really nothing that makes this lounge too exciting. The lounge’s Elemis Spa has closed permanently, the Cabanas (private rooms) have been closed for a long time now, and the food quality just isn’t good, at least at breakfast. This pales in comparison to other first class oneworld lounge, like the Qantas First Lounge Sydney or Cathay Pacific First Lounge Hong Kong. Let’s get into the review…
British Airways Concorde Room location
The British Airways Concorde Room is located in London Heathrow Terminal 5, so only expect to use this lounge if you’re departing from the terminal. While there are airside buses operating between terminals, they take a very long time, and require you to have a boarding pass departing from that terminal.
There are a variety of ways to get to the Concorde Room, depending on whether you’re originating at Heathrow or not. If you’re originating at Heathrow, just go to the very right of the check-in hall to the First Wing check-in area (note that this is being closed for a few months in early 2024).
This not only offers a more personalized check-in experience, but also offers a dedicated security checkpoint which lets out right in the Galleries First Lounge (and from there you can go to the Concorde Room).
Alternatively, if you use the standard security checkpoint, just make an immediate right turn before you take the escalators down, and you’ll see some unmarked double doors. This is the sort of secret entrance to the Concorde Room.
There has long been an urban legend that British Airways has to pay £1m per year for this door, to make up for lost duty free sales from passengers not having to go through all the duty free shops. However, this isn’t true, as far as I know, though it makes for a fun story.
Last but not least, if you’re trying to access the Concorde Room from the terminal level, just look for the signage for the Galleries South Lounges. When you get to that entrance, you’ll then be directed to the Concorde Room, which will be to the right.
British Airways Concorde Room hours
The British Airways Concorde Room is open daily from 5AM until 10PM, covering all British Airways departures from the terminal.
British Airways Concorde Room entry requirements
When it comes to accessing the British Airways Concorde Room, this lounge doesn’t follow standard oneworld lounge access policies. Instead, the lounge is open to:
- British Airways first class passengers, either arriving or departing, as long as you still have an outbound flight; one guest is allowed
- British Airways Executive Club Gold members who rack up at least 5,000 Tier Points (or 3,000 Tier Points in subsequent years) traveling on any oneworld flight; one guest is allowed
- American Concierge Key members traveling on any oneworld flight; one guest is allowed
The Concorde Room isn’t open to oneworld Emerald members — instead, those passengers are directed to the British Airways Galleries First Lounge.
British Airways Concorde Room seating & layout
The British Airways Concorde Room is large, but then again, it needs to be, given how many people have access to it. The lounge has both an indoor and “outdoor” space (I put that in quotes because it’s a terrace looking out over the terminal, so it’s not actually outdoors). Let’s start by looking at the indoor space.
The indoor space consists of a variety of cozy seating areas, plus a dining area and a bar. There are a bunch of seating arrangements that almost feel like they’re in someone’s living room, with couches and coffee tables.
In the center of the indoor area you have the bar, which features some seating. Next to that are a couple of communal tables with high-top seating, plus a few smaller tables. I suspect this is intended to be overflow seating for the main dining area.
Concorde Dining features roughly two dozen tables with white tablecloths, and it’s the main dining area in the lounge.
There’s a room off the main indoor space of the lounge that features sort of semi-private seats, and it’s intended to be a quiet zone.
Back in the day, this space had workstations, which I found to be a much better setup. Then in 2021, we saw the airline introduce “40 Winks” sleep pods in this space, but I guess that partnership already ended, as these were no longer there.
The Concorde Room then has a large terrace, with a variety of seating options. There are some chairs for lounging, as well as a few seating areas with drapes.
New compared to my list visit, there’s now also a dining area out on the terrace, I guess reflecting the amount of demand for dining, plus the previously limited capacity.
The Concorde Room is woefully lacking when it comes to availability of outlets. Now, the lounge has improved compared to previous visits, and now some seating areas do have little charging “cubes.” However, you’ll still have to put some effort into finding seating near outlets.
What can we really say about the lounge’s layout? I definitely appreciate that some of the furniture has been replaced, and there are a few more charging ports than before. However, the lounge isn’t about to win any design awards.
British Airways Concorde Room food & drinks
The British Airways Concorde Room has an entirely a la carte dining concept, as there’s no buffet. The servers are constantly roaming the lounge to offer drinks, so early in my visit I ordered a cappuccino, which was very good.
Later on during my visit, I had breakfast in the Concorde Dining facility.
You can find the breakfast menu below, which is served until 11:30AM.
Then you can find the beverage list below. To British Airways’ credit, the airline has an excellent drink selection, and serves Laurent Perrier Grand Siecle champagne in the Concorde Room, which is the same champagne served onboard. So many airlines serve cheaper champagne in lounges, so it’s nice that British Airways invests in this.
Unfortunately the food left a lot to be desired. You’d think that if you’re going to offer a seated dining experience with white tablecloths, you could serve people restaurant quality food. I ordered the “California toast,” described as having slow roasted tomatoes with crushed avocado and chili on toasted sourdough.
Honestly, it just wasn’t great. It didn’t look great, and it was kind of tasteless, and seemed to use more of a guacamole spread than actual crushed avocados.
I also ordered the greek yogurt with granola. You’d think that they could make a nice-looking yogurt parfait, or something, but instead it was just the below, sad dish.
Maybe lunch and dinner are better, but honestly, is anyone going to tell me “oh that looks like fantastic dining for a first class lounge?” British Airways’ biggest long haul market is the United States, and a vast majority of those flights board by 11:30AM, so breakfast is what most people on those flights are eating in the lounge. The airline could put a bit more effort into what’s being served.
British Airways Concorde Room bathrooms & showers
The British Airways Concorde Room bathrooms are located down the hall from the rest of the lounge.
All the bathrooms are individual rooms, which is a nice feature.
These bathrooms feel like something you’d find in a hospital, though. On the plus side, I believe British Airways has updated the flooring in the bathrooms compared to my previous visits. That’s a step in the right direction, but this still doesn’t exactly scream luxury.
The Concorde Room shares its shower suites with the Galleries First Lounge, though I believe Concorde Room guests are given priority access to the showers.
The shower suites are totally okay, but nothing special. They have a toilet, a sink, and a walk-in shower, with toiletries in reusable Elemis containers.
Let me also mention that back in the day, British Airways had an Elemis Spa in its lounge, but this has been permanently closed. Furthermore, while you could in the past reserve Cabanas (private living rooms of sorts), these aren’t available anymore, and it’s not clear to me if that’s temporary or permanent.
Bottom line
I struggle with the British Airways Concorde Room. It’s a comfortable place to pass some time, with a la carte dining, a great alcohol selection, and friendly service.
But we have to be objective, and the lounge simply can’t compete with some of the best first class lounges and ground services out there. The lounge has no more special amenities (they eliminated the spa and even workstations), charging ports are hard to come by, and the food quality wasn’t good, for some dishes that aren’t hard to execute well.
If you take the alcohol selection out of the equation, I’d argue that some of the best business class lounges in the world beat this lounge (like the Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Business Lounge Doha or the Cathay Pacific Business Lounge Hong Kong).
As I often say, the truth is that the British Airways Concorde Room (and the first class experience overall) doesn’t really have to be any better than it is. British Airways dominates Heathrow, which is heavily slot controlled, and is the only truly global airline at the airport (Virgin Atlantic’s network can’t realistically compete). But let’s also not pretend that it’s anything special or amazing.
What’s your take on the British Airways Concorde Room?
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