[chriswiles]

“others get an inferior First Lounge in T3”

It’s actually my favourite BA lounge. Usually fairly quiet, decent food, flowing champagne.

The 1st lounge at Gatwick was dire. Poor food, little choice, small, busy and closed early!

According to BA, they will have their own section within the Number 1 Gatwick lounge. Surely someone has experienced this?

[openfly]

Chriswiles…..I totally disagree with your views on the T3 First. Even the BA management agree that it is unbelievably filthy and are bringing in a deep clean programme rapidly. They are also bringing in a rodent clearing team to rid the lounge of the mouse infestation….seen them twice myself!
The First lounge needs updating, with the old fashioned dim lighting and the noisy chiller units. Not a patch on the T5 offerings.
Of course, this lounge has been working hard recently to accommodate the EK pax while their lounge was refurbished. It is now accepting the Cathay pax while their lounges are undated. So the BA pax have to put with a dirty, dingey, dark, dreadful lounge.
But, of course, when the replacement T1 opens in 2019, T3 will be knocked down, so BA are not going to generous with their cash to refurb this lounge.

Regarding the 1st Lounge at LGW as a temporary replacement for the Galleries and First Lounges, the hot food offerings are beans on toast and fish finger sandwiches…true!! Champagne has to be paid for at £8 a glass. The rumour has it that this lounge was to be used until Nov 29th, but has already slipped back to March 1st 2017, as the move to the South Term has been delayed.

Basically if you are travelling from London in a premium class and your flight does not depart from T5….expect the worst from BA!

[SimonS1]

Reviews of LGW here.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1736497-temporary-ba-lounge-lgw-north-no-1-lounge-photos-reviews-questions.html

I’m not aware there is a separate F area.

[chriswiles]

@openfly

To be fair, I wasn’t comparing to the T5 Concorde Room, I was comparing the T3 First to the T5 ‘First’ lounge. I prefer the T3 – quieter for one. Not dirty in my opinion.

[andystock]

I was in LGW North back in November. Staff were frendly and did a much better job in keeping tables clean to a much better standard than BA LHR T5. It’s been standard but I expect they will only let in BA passengers and those who have pre booked already.

[andystock]

Don’t forget avios.com sell number 1 lounge entry for £20 earning 750 avios and fast track security

[openfly]

@andystock There is no Fastrack security at LGW now. The signs are still up but anybody can use it. There is no filtering. I questioned this with a supervisor and she said that this is the case as ” it takes the load off the main security”!!. The word is getting round the pax so expect long queues.
Gatwick has realised that it has so few premiums going through that as it is fast changing from a charter airport to low cost they just don’t need to offer the facility as such.

[AnthonyDunn]

Passing through LGW(N) recently, the Fastrack channel was completely closed and everyone was required to use the standard security channels. This, it would appear, is in preparation (along with all the other building works currently underway in the North Terminal) for EZY’s sole use of the terminal – in due course. It surprises me because I would have thought that access to a faster security channel would fit into EZY’s own FF programme and flex-ticket pricing.

[Derek1948]

I understand that the No 1 lounge will soon be getting a new Club room solely for BA premium passenger use. According to a guy I know who works VIP at Gatwick. Hopefully better than the crowded current rooms in this lounge.

[SimonS1]

Anthony – EZY won’t be having sole use of the terminal. The bit about fast track sounds doubtful as Emirates also uses it (NT has the 380 gate) and presumably Virgin will too when they relocate there.

[sparkyflier]

I am joining this discussion late, but do we know exactly when the North Terminal BA lounge is closing? Has it already closed? Will be using BA from LGW next week and was hoping for a breakfast and a quiet place to do work emails..

[chriswiles]

@sparkyflyer

Yes, both BA lounges closed first week in Jan 🙁

We now have to use the no.1 lounge, even First Class BA customers!

I find Gatwick to be a fairly unpleasant experience at the moment. So much so, I’ve cancelled our First Class flight to Barbados in May and we’ve switched to Los Angeles instead – from Heathrow!

[SwissExPat]

I just used LGW lounhaul with BA

Fast track in Noeth terminal was open and largely empty. I flew through.

The No 1 lounge is fine. It was not too crowded and I had a decent fish sandwich plus wifi and Apple terminals….

NO complaints from me… but would not be happy if in F!!

[openfly]

Passed through Gatwick North a few days ago, expecting a grim experience in the One Lounge as the BA substitute lounge. Quite the opposite. Great food, lovely smiling staff, the Library is very comfortable. I don’t drink so the £8 champagne dies not matter. Doesn’t have the panache of the T5 lounges, but rather better than the old LGW Galleries.
I have decided that BA might have shot themselves in the foot….pay for the One lounge and fly EasyJet…seems a sensible combination to me. Thanks BA for showing me the One Lounge!!

I gather from the BA desk staff, stuck in the corridor outside the lounge, that the workfor Virgin, on the old Galleries Lounge is not scheduled to start until June, so one has to ask why BA moved out in January? I can only surmise that the compensation offered by GIP to BA was too much to refuse! Who cares about passengers?

Yes, the more I think about it, the combination of the One Lounge and EasyJet is a good one, in both terminals at LGW.

[FDOS_UK]

“Yes, the more I think about it, the combination of the One Lounge and EasyJet is a good one, in both terminals at LGW.”

Some of us have known that for years 😉

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