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New lounge and more flights at T5

Published: 17/09/2008 - Filed under: News »

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BA has moved more of its long-haul flights to T5, and has opened its sixth Galleries lounge, at the terminal’s Satellite B building.

From today (September 17) BA flights to the following destinations have moved from T4 to T5:

Abu Dhabi, Accra, Bahrain, Baltimore, Buenos Aires, Chicago, Dallas, Dar Es Salaam, Doha, Entebbe, Grand Cayman, Houston, Kuwait, Luanda, Lusaka, Mauritius, Mexico, Mumbai, Muscat, Nairobi, Nassau, Newark, Philadelphia, Providenciales, Rio De Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Tel-Aviv, Toronto and Washington

As a result BA has closed the remaining premium lounge facilities at its gate 10 lounge at T4 (see online news September 11), and has opened a new Galleries Club within T5’s Satellite B building, from where many of the long-haul flights will be departing.

The Terminal 5B Galleries Club lounge is open to passengers travelling in First, Club World or Club Europe, and Silver and Gold Executive Club members. A spokesperson for the airline said the look and feel of the lounge is similar to the existing Galleries lounges (see online news February 21) in the main T5 building.

Facilities include the Silver Bar, with complimentary champagne and wine, Wine Gallery, Chef’s Theatre, work, entertainment and kids zones, showers, and an Elemis Travel Spa (with complimentary treatments for First and Club World passengers, and Gold Executive Club members travelling on long-haul flights). There is also free wifi throughout the lounge (see online news March 28). To see a detailed layout of the new lounge, click here.

One point to note for first class passengers Gold Executive Club members – there is no Concorde Room or Galleries First lounge in the satellite building. BA advises those customers travelling from Terminal 5B, but using these premium facilities in the main terminal building, should depart for boarding a minimum of 35 minutes before departure, in order to reach the boarding gate 20 minutes before the flight leaves.

For more information visit terminal5.ba.com.

Report by Mark Caswell

COMMENTS » 

viking01 - 18/09/2008 09:08

Just been through the Satellite B lounge at T5 and thought you might want to hear about it. It opened that day (September 17) so was pretty empty, but I have to say I think it is much needed and solves a huge problem with the design of the terminal for business travellers who like using the lounges. Here’s why:

Say you are flying long haul in Club World. The main flow of people in Departures comes from the lifts at the north end of the terminal as people rise from the underground. Normally having checked in online and printed out my boarding pass I use bag drop and then walk through security. This time I walked south along departures to the other end of the terminal to try the new business class check-in area at Zone H. There are less passengers up here, so it seems to be worth the walk and you can use fast track security.

But after passing through this fast track security at the south end of the terminal you want to go to the lounges. There’s a doorway right in front of you that gives you access to these lounges, but you’re not allowed to use it. This is the “Millionaire’s Doorway” through to the Concorde Lounge, and you can only use it if you are flying First. It’s a real genius who thought up that one. “Several thousand pounds for a return ticket in Club? Gold Card? No, of course you can’t come in, walk around and use the main entrance you low life.” So you do. You walk north half the length of the terminal, take the escalators down a floor, and walk back south to then go up again to gain access to the Galleries (I know there is also a Galleries Lounge at the north end, but I’ve only used that for short haul flights, and besides, it is even further from the lifts which take you down to the shuttle train).

So now I’ve had my exercise and they’ve succeeded in getting me to walk past shops, no doubt, but deeply annoying.

Once in these Galleries lounges (First or Club depending on your tier), there are no flight announcements. This is supposed to be so you can relax, but instead you spend the whole time checking the screens because you know it can take a good 15 minutes to get out of the lounge, make your way past more shops, catch the lift down to the shuttle train, transport yourself over to Satellite B and then go up two more flights of escalators, and then find your gate. You also know they won’t hold the gate open for someone who is late. I haven’t yet missed one, but I know someone who has, even though he swears he could see the back of the previous passenger still walking down the airbridge onto the aircraft.

Well the new lounge is the solution. If you are flying from B, don’t go to the T5A lounges at all, they are a complete distraction, and an arse to get to. The lounge at B is huge, it has a spa, a wine gallery, a W and E (Work and entertainment?) area, showers, bag check, all of it, even a screened off kids area. Obviously it looked particularly wonderful on its opening day with no one in it, but it made me wonder whether regular business travellers like me will ever use the main Galleries again when flying from B. (One point to note, wifi is free in all lounges but the BT Openzone one you’ll see come up first on your laptop requires an account, you need to log in to the one that says BA lounge – it’s still BT Openzone, but its free as it is in all the lounges now. That caused me a few minutes trouble.)

What else? There’s no separate area for first or gold card holders, but since I wasn’t flying first, and I’m not gold, I don’t mind them queuing behind me for the buffet – and anyway, there were no queues – everyone was busy going up and down escalators trying to gain access to those Galleries in terminal 5A. There’s less installation art. I know, I know, it’s a real downer, but if you were that design conscious you’d lose the tie and be flying Virgin. If all you need is somewhere to get a drink and a bite to eat then this B is the answer. The next question is whether it’s worth using even if you’re flying from A….

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