TRIED AND TESTED LOUNGE
British Airways Galleries First, London Heathrow Terminal 5
It’s pleasant to order food and drink at the table but the menu is much reduced
BACKGROUND
British Airways’ Heathrow lounges were closed from midMarch until early July. It started to reopen them on July 4 – Galleries First, followed by Galleries South and North, all at Terminal 5 – with the promise of adding more over the summer. When they reopened, they were offering a very different service. As you would expect, you have to wear a face mask at all times, removing it only when eating or drinking.
CHECK-IN
I visited the Galleries First lounge three days after it reopened, arriving at the airport at 1500 for my 1845 departure on IB3167 to Madrid. I used the First Wing to check in but since I was flying with BA’s Oneworld partner, Iberia, had to backtrack to Zone E to Iberia’s check-in. I dropped off my bag and then returned to the First Wing, went through security and walked down the corridor to Galleries First. I was given a welcome card, one side of which indicates that you are still using your seat, and the other that you have left and it can be cleaned.
THE LOUNGE
There weren’t many flights departing from T5 that afternoon and the lounge had only about 30 people in it. Seats are spaced out more than before, with clear plastic screens placed between some of them. There are fewer of the lower tables, and some sections are completely closed off. Chief of those is where the main buffet area used to be. This is now a food preparation area, although at the moment is fairly empty. The washrooms now have a one-way system, and the little-used business area beyond the toilets was closed. At the time of my visit the terrace had been repurposed into the “Concorde Terrace”, because the Concorde Room, a separate lounge for First flyers and Gold Guest List BA Executive Club members, was closed. On the terrace, the range of wines had been upgraded (Laurent-Perrier Grand Siècle champagne, for instance).
FOOD AND DRINK
All of the buffet options, including self-service drinks and the coffee and tea stations, have been closed. Instead, all food and drink is provided by table service, so the first thing to do is to find a seat and then use your
phone or tablet to scan in the QR code on the table. This contains the menu – you will need a password to use it, which is different from the one for the wifi. I had a little trouble getting this to work (it was to do with upper and lower case on the password), but the staff were very helpful.
Dishes on the menu are healthy and included traditional garden salad, wheatberry and cranberry salad, or Mediterranean couscous salad, which could all be topped with dill marinated prawns, flaked ham hock or crumbled Stilton. I had a couple of these, a glass of champagne and a glass of the BA-branded Speedbird 100 IPA, and did some work.
VERDICT
Opening the lounges in this manner is a good first step, and you can see both staff and passengers quietly finding their way. In the coming weeks and months, assuming there are no fresh outbreaks, the number of flights will gradually increase, these lounges will fill and new ones will open. Only then will we see how scalable this new service offering is. It’s pleasant to order at your table and have food and drink brought to you, but the list of items available is much reduced, and inevitably there is a delay between placing and receiving your order, because it’s quicker to help yourself. Passengers have complained in the past about the buffet offering in the lounges but I think most will miss it now it has gone.
There are those who think it crazy to travel while the number of cases is still considerable, of course, but there are others who, for very good reasons, want to visit friends or relatives or simply have a break after a miserable six months. It will take a while to get used to these new “protocols”, and whether they are effective or not only time will tell. Meanwhile, BA is taking its first steps with these lounges, and I’m sure the experience will improve further as passengers return.