[TiredOldHack]

I’ve been reading this thread with interest, as I’m going to hit Gold this year.

Someone once wrote that it’s very hard, once you’ve turned left on entering an airliner, to turn right on subsequent flights. In my experience, damn right.

I reckon that most of my premium class travel is company travel. However, my company will only pay economy fares. So I quote them the BA economy fare price and cough the extra for myself. They’re happy with that. As most of my company travel is very long-haul, it suits me (don’t give a damn on short-haul).

The extra costs, if you use the premium ticket brokers, start your journey in ‘favourable’ countries, and take advantage of the regular BA premium ticket sales, are usually a lot less than people appreciate.

By doing that, I manage to get enough TPs and Avios both to make my own personal travel a damn sight more pleasant, and also to ‘pay for’ my own travel. So last year saw my wife and I using Avios to fly in F to Mumbai, and the whole family flying to Geneva for a skiing holiday and being able to use the lounges and LHR and GVA (wife is Silver, so it’s one child as a guest each).

When I tot up the savings both in getting many of my own tickets on Avios, and to be made by not having to pay airport charges for food and drink, plus the improved quality of travel life, I think it’s a very fair exchange. This suggests to me that BA’s loyalty scheme works well on its current ratings and prices.

Interestingly, Mrs TOH has come round to the same way of thinking. We flew back from BKK in WT+ recently, having flown out in CW, and she muttered to me in mid-air “It’s just not as good, is it?”

[OK-in-MUC]

I recently had the pleasure of spending 5 hours at the BA First Lounge at T5.
There were two very noticeable points:
– Some of the furniture looked tired to the point of worn out
– The food choices, while sort-of-nice, were below par compared with other airlines.

I made it apoint to also order from the menu, but those dishes were not really convincing. The tables were not laid and silverware and napkins had top be fetched at the buffet – while the wait staff had a hard time remembering who ordered what, and where they sat.

To me, the quality of the F Lounge is less about wrapped biscuits or finding certain brands of drinks or snacks (although I prefer having a choice when it comes to crisp flavours), but how it compares with the competition…

SWISS’s First Class Lounge at Zurich airport was a much nicer experience: Clean, quiet, with a nice selection of ready buffet food, plus a high-quality menu of fresh dishes prepared by a chef and served in a restaurant setting.

EMIRATES First Class Lounge in Dubai offers hot and cold European, Asian, and Arabic food options at pretty much any time of the day. In addition, a wide variety of freshly prepared dishes can be ordered from the menu. And, there is a tended wine bar…

LH has a slightly different approach for their lounges:
The LH First Class Lounges in Frankfurt and Munich are very impressive, and the food options simply fantastic. These lounges are only for passengers buying first class tickets, or for those who are HON status frequent travellers.
The LH Senator Lounges and BA’s F Lounge are not really that different from one another, although the newly remodeled SEN Lounges inMunich and Frankfurt now have a definite edge over BA.
But, while a few years ago BA clearly had the nicer CW lounge and much better food offers, LH improved their Frequent Traveller lounges to a point where BA is now clearly coming in second place…

[MartynSinclair]

I walked into the Galleries First today wondering whether Armageddon had arrived.

OK, the Special K had still not returned AND some of the food did look like slop BUT how many choices are pax being given?? I would be very surprised if there wasn’t something either on the menu or on display that I couldn’t eat AND I AM VERY FUSSY where food is concerned.

[Swissdiver]

In the lounge now.
The menu food clearly improved (well, that was not a big challenge given the fact many items were hardly edible before). Had a decent Cesar Salad and a good Szechuan chicken and veggie. This is for the positive.
As mentioned earlier, no more Cheddar chips or any other flavour: plain, plain, plain. Biscuits pose in my view an hygiene problem (no, not everybody washes his/her hands after having visited the toilets). But more importantly, a disaster: no more Grande Cuvée of Champagne and no more Bordeaux Grand Crus! How annoying!

[NameRemoved-18/12/14]

I hadn’t been to the F lounge since Christmas Day (sorry to drag up that word) until this week. The only difference I noted was that it was the busiest I have ever seen it. As I was not hungry, I did not inspect what was on offer.

[Swissdiver]

Have to add it seems they cut staff: empty glasses and plates everywhere… Filthy…

[millionsofmiles]

@ Alexpo1:

What is so bad about the word “Christmas Day”????

[NameRemoved-18/12/14]

Hello millionsofmiles

Not a single thing…it’s just not my favourite time of year. In fact, I would rather spend that time of year somewhere it is not celebrated. I can visit my family any other time of the year.

A bit strange talking about Christmas when summer has finally arrived. But I think we digress from the very pressing matter in hand?

[ffidrac]

First time in T5 South Galleries for a few months – and it is dire. The comments book is full of complaints about the food. Mid afernoon there are three types of essentially dry sandwiches (somehow remind one of BR catering), and four different types of cakes. The biscuits are a no-no from a hygiene point of view and as mentioned previously a huge choice of flavours (one) of crisps. Only good point (!) is that flight is delayed for an hour and so might see what the so called hot food is (assuming they will serve it after 6 – there is no schedule to be seen so don’t know if that is the magic hour when hot food appears).

Given the disquiet this downgrading of the lounge food product has elicited, and what has been posted here and on FT, one would hope that an elightened executive might take all of this on board. Clearly that is wishful thinking – since they clearly know what their customer want through their extensive feedback exercise

One can only hope that the hot food continues in the *A lounge in T1. I for one will exercise my choice of airline and revert back to *A. Admittedly I’ve got *A Gold for life as a Million Miler – so the decision is an easy one

[MartynSinclair]

ffdrac – interesting point you raise about having a choice with *A.

Not using *A so I am not a ff card holder with *, what food offerings do they have and is it really better than the Galleries lounge offering? Do they have menu style hot food throughout the day.

I am not sure there has been a true comparison between the hot, cold & snack food offerings / alcohol offerings between the 2.

[PatJordan]

I have experienced the T1 *A Lounge, both business and first. Yes they are both very good lounges. However despite the issues relating to catering in BA First lounge in T5, the BA Lounge remains superior to *A, in my opinion.

*A Business and BA Business have broadly similar food offerings, while the *A First Class lounge has a far smaller range of food that BA First.

*A First Class has one bottle of champagne on the counter: a far cry from the champagne bar in BA First.

Hope this helps.

[SimonS1]

I was in the lounge at LGW yesterday between 7 and 10. A most pleasant experience.

Nice cooked English breakfast and toast and marmalade cooked to order (marmalade in jars). I enjoyed the detox drinks, and there was a big bowl of individually wrapped Walkers biscuits.

A full selection of magazines etc whilst I watched Sky News (I didn’t partake of the alcohol although a full range was available).

Quite relaxing as the lounge was only a third full and we were called to the gate after the rest of the flight had boarded for an on time departure.

All in all most satisfactory.

Oh, sorry, did I say I was travelling with EK?

[Henkel.Trocken]

I’m in the F lounge at the moment too, just had some pistachios and a G&T, moving on to an antipasta plate of freshly sliced parma ham and similar things and then I’m expecting a steak cooked to order. There is a wide choice of puddings and cheese. The atmosphere is very peaceful and rather exclusive. All in all, a top notch experience.

The airport is Frankfurt and the airline is Lufthansa who probably have the best F offering of any European airline by a country mile.

[Guest_Poster]

Lufthansa Group is making an operating profit, as well as rationalising its operations at the same time.

Remind us of IAG’s profit last time?

I suppose that you still think the A340 is underpowered?

[esselle]

HT

I suggest you advise LH to renegotiate their lounge contract on the basis of lowest price, rather than customer experience, in order to allow them to become more profitable.

[Author]

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