[JohnHarper]

I’ve just been talking to a guy who is having his first experience of the QR lounge – totally blown away. He’s a BA G and is stunned at the QR lounge experience. Wait until he gets on board!

[Henkel.Trocken]

I too would rate the QR lounge at LHR as the best on the site. Perhaps BA could take note of what QR offer at what is after all an outstation.

[EternalExpat]

When it comes to business class lounges, the Qatar Airways London Heathrow Premium Lounge (to give it its full title) is one of, if not the best I’ve visited anywhere in the world. Dedicated to First and Business class ticket holders only irrespective of status, this lounge is a sharp cut above the rest. Especially, as Henkel.Trocken rightly points out, in view that LHR is not QR’s home base. I’ll be flying out on Monday afternoon to Doha and will compare their offering to BA’s Galleries when I’m booked on Club Europe mid July.

[Henkel.Trocken]

EternalExpat – 15/06/2013 21:11 GMT

Are you also on the 787?

[esselle]

Wait until you see the QR lounges at DOH.

The J lounge leaves most BA lounges gasping, and the F is simply streets ahead.

When HIA opens later this year, the new lounges will be even better.

[EternalExpat]

Hello Henkel.Trocken,

I was initially on that service but then rebooked to the 777 3:05 PM flight when the 787 was grounded. By the looks of it I may not be able to make it at all because of a family emergency. Fingers crossed and see what gives.

[Henkel.Trocken]

EternalExpat – 16/06/2013 16:28 GMT

I hope your family emergency is sorted out and there was nothing too seriously wrong.

I think we all know how hard it can be to balance a working life on the road with family priorities. Please take care.

[driven2travel]

Having used the C lounges at T5 multiple times and the Concorde Room once, I would not choose to fly BA. The C lounges are ok but often so busy and the breakfast food selection is difficult for anyone who has certain allergies. The service in the Concorde room was near non-existent and the Cabanas felt like a tacky pay per hour motel. The stains on the walls, floor and ceiling did not help.

To be bussed to the gate, then having to suffer the sardined Club or First didn’t improve things. Would choose LH, TG, EK, EY, CX, LX, SQ etc over BA. In fact recently, declined use of 2-for-1 AMEX Avios redemption in F to fly back with TG. When taking into account the positioning flight to get to PVG (the only destination in Asia with F available in a 6 week period) and the fuel surcharges, we ended up paying only a couple of hundred pounds extra yet saving 100,000 Avios.

[LuganoPirate]

All the best EternalExpat. Hope everything works out ok?

Many years ago when a group of about 20 of us from several companies used to traipse round West Africa, and email didn’t exist, we’d hang a red tag on the key holder at the front desk. Anyone checking in would then know there was someone he knew staying at the hotel, see the room number and we could then meet up for dinner or a drink, frequently both and often a bit too much liquid!!!

Very simple and effective though nowadays you only get electronic key cards (how I hate them) which never seem to work when you’re on the top floor, furthest from the lift and bursting for a pee! So it would be great if those who would like to meet up on their travels for a chat and /or dinner could somehow post to a permanent section of the BT website.

Martyn and I did discuss this once but maybe someone would like to start a thread on this subject to see how much interest it generates and see if we can get BT to start something.

[MartynSinclair]

Hi LP

John Harper only posted something similar last week on another thread. Problem with doing this on this Forum is that unless BT| support the idea by keeping the thread outside of the top 10 listing, it will vanish from time to time. it would need to be a permanent focus….

There is also the issue of once someone did post, how 1 to 1 contact details could be posted, outside the public arena…..

You are not in London by any chance, I have a dinner this week, which would be nice if you could make…

[IanFromHKG]

This thread got me thinking about lounges for my flights this weekend (HKG-LHR via BKK, flying Thai between HKG and BKK and BA between BKK and LHR)

Well, now, the oneworld.com lounge finder shows a list of lounges and the associated airlines – but no mention of any lounge for MH. Click on the link to the map, and hey presto it shows an MH lounge. Bizarrely, the map also shows only one of the CX lounges (although both appear in the list of lounges). Some updating required, it appears!

Now, a couple of questions for our forum members:

Has anyone tried the MH lounge in BKK? How do you think it compares with the others (incidentally I tried to find information on the MH website but it only includes details of some lounges, and not the one in BKK)? Should I give it a try?

Secondly., can anyone try explaining the Star Alliance lounge access policy for top-tier members to me? The oneworld one is easy – you can access any oneworld lounge of the appropriate class if you have a premium ticket (so you could get into the CX F lounge in HKG on a BA F ticket, even without status), and if you are emerald (as I am) you can use any oneworld F lounge when on a oneworld flight. The *A policy seems quite different, and doesn’t appear to allow access to F lounges even for top-tier members. Instead, you are allowed to access lounges that have a Star Alliance Gold sign outside – whatever that is supposed to mean. Their lounge finder wasn’t much help – try inputting a flight from HKG-BKK on Thai (without mentioning status) and you get a choice of three lounges. Add in top-tier membership (I used TK Miles and Smiles Elite Plus) and you choice is – the same three lounges (even though there are two First class lounges operated by Star carriers in HKG). Do the same search in the opposite direction and a similar result – the same 5 lounges regardless of status. Which rather begs the question – what is the point of earning status if you are flying in business class anyway and it gives you nothing extra?

I should add I don’t have *A gold membership but hope to do so very soon through a status-match – but I am now wondering if there is any point

[Henkel.Trocken]

Ian_from_HKG – 17/06/2013 03:43 GMT

Very few *A carriers designate their F lounges as *G lounges. The rather odd exception is LH and LX who have Business Class Lounges, Senator Lounges – their *G tier which are designated F lounges for all except their own F passengers and then their own F lounges including the F terminal at FRA. If you are travelling in F with any other airline you will get access to the Senator lounge.

SIA also only allow you in to the lounge of the class you are travelling in unless you have status with them in which case, special rules apply. If you are travelling in Y they have a special lounge, I think called the Krisflyer Gold Lounge at SIN which is for gold card holders in Y. I’ve never been in but I understand it is not particularly good.

Generally you need to be travelling in F to get access to an F lounge. IIRC at HKG you can access the C class area of lounges belonging to TG, UA or SQ as a *G card holder. All three also have an F area but you need to be travelling in F to access it.

So, *G lounges are generally C class lounges with a few exceptions.

[IanFromHKG]

Thanks HT – useful insight, although it does seem odd to me that the business class passengers who (I always thought!) are supposed to be the lifeblood of many airlines don’t seem to get much of a bonus from being a top-tier member. The list of *A G benefits on their site lists:
Priority Airport Check-In – which you get anyway
Airport Lounge Access – which you get anyway
Priority Boarding – which you get anyway
Extra Baggage Allowance – fair enough!
Priority Baggage Handling – which you get anyway
Priority Reservations Waitlisting – which you get as Silver
Priority Airport Standby – which you get as Silver

I assume the waitlisting and standby priority is a bit higher, but in reality the only significant benefit seems to be the extra baggage.

[Travellator]

Ian – You get 3 x 32kg on BA Club anyway !

[IanFromHKG]

4 x 32kg if you are a top-tier member of oneworld, Travellator!

http://www.oneworld.com/ffp/emerald-privileges/

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