More BA T5 lounge experiences (formerly disasters)*

There has been some negative comments on here re the state of the BA lounges at the moment and just thought this down to over fussy travellers, I have not had any major cause for complaint in the past….. until last Thursday night at LHR where I was simply appalled.

Clearly there has been a major cost cutting exercise. I was in the T5 South Lounge and arrived at approximately 1745. There was nothing, and I mean NOTHING on offer bar a cookie jar half full on handled, probably stale cookies [what happened to all the hygienically wrapped Walkers cookies and cakes?] another jar full of wasabi peas [which was nearly empty and due to the size of the jar you could not get at the remains with the scoop easily] and salted crisps, yes they can’t even be bothered to offer a selection any more. I kid you not, that was it.

All the food service stations and side counters that once displayed a colourful array of hot options for an early evening meal, salads, fruit, cheese and rolls were deserted. I was obviously not the only one expecting some kind of nourishment, there were many other baffled bystanders.

It was not until 1800 that some salad dishes did start to slowly appear, and when they did it , the scene was like a plague of vultures waiting for the kill. 15 minutes later some hot options appeared. I still did not see any cheese, rolls, crackers or any fruit.

Overall experience for this visit was 2/10. I am flying next week [which will be from T3] so will be interesting to see how that compares, especially to my previous visit to T3 in March. Not impressed if this is the shape of things to come.

I too miss the old wrapped biscuits. It was far easier to bag a few for your journey to eat if you didn’t get time for lunch later in the day. Without getting messy, that’s not possible with loose ones.

No, was the business class lounge.

I was at the F lounge on Saturday afternoon and I thought it was fantastic (compared to F lounges at JFK, T3 and LGW). The food offering was great, the Mrs and I enjoyed made to order poached salmon and a burger. There were also some hot food options readily available and various desserts. The only disappointment was the lack of Johnnie Walker Blue which was available at the LGW F lounge only a couple of months ago.

And don’t even get me started on the old BD lounge BA have taken over for domestic departures at Terminal 1 – dire!

On a more positive note, the newly opened BA lounge for domestic in Glasgow, also an old BD lounge is wonderful – great design, fantastic food and attentive debris clearing from tables.

Arrived in afternoon around 2.30pm looking forward to a hot lunch. There was instead 3 choices of sandwiches or hot soup. Not at all impressed. The Walkers cakes and biscuits have gone. There are fresh cakes there but the wrapped biscuits have been replaced by cookie jars. No longer can you pop a couple of cakes/biscuits into your bag to have later. Like above I noticed choice of crisps down to one flavour only. I do not like the bar snacks at all. There are no longer any “to go” cups to take away a tea or coffee with you. The breakfast service there are no longer any sauce sachets, instead large jars with a spoon in each which with bugs and germs is not at all hygienic. They looked disgusting and I certainly would not touch. A major downgrade to the offerings I feel and huge fail to BA.

@ Agamemnon – 28/05/2013 10:19 GMT

The problem is that, as I have seen, people (who are clearly not short of a few bob – judging by their attire) walking out with pockets literally bulging with Walkers’ biscuits. I can rather understand the decision to put biscuits in jars – as long as there are tongs to lift the biscuits out. I’ve never actually seen anyone take an entire bottle of wine or spirits but it would certainly not surprise me if this had happened.

I never cease to be amazed at what people, on occasions, think they can walk off with. Sadly, whenever something is nominally “free” [yes, you’ve paid for use of the Terraces through your ticket or tier membership], some people really do “take the biscuit” – if you’d pardon the pun.