British Airways First Class Lounge - July 2021

Hours

5:00am to 10:00pm

Airlines Services

British Airways
One World Airlines

Access Rules

First class ticket on an OneWorld airline.
Emerald status on OneWorld.
One guest of the above.

The Lounge

Access starts when you enter the airport and go to the exclusive first-class-only check-in area. Inside this area are check-in desks for British Airways and American Airlines Emerald and First Class ticket holders.

From there, you go through a private customs area and specific security just for first class! Due to security, I could not post pictures of those, but it was quick, although not a lesser security experience as my bag needed to be emptied of hotel bottles (which I don't have to do with TSA Pre-check in the USA). Then when you exit security, there is only one place to go, into the lounge!

Exclusive access starts here and continues until you leave to board your plane

Dining Area

It's hard to tell the dining area vs. the regular sitting areas. It's also dark as heck in the mornings. You can order from any seating area with a QR code on the table, and then you can select from the menu what you want. Food, drink (any drink), yeah. Not really bad to deal with honestly.

All food and drinks can be had here after scanning the code. It is delivered promptly

A pretty extensive breakfast, and incredibly English

The balcony, which overlooks the terminal below. Not utilized much during my stay

Usually filled with Champagne. Closed right now, oh blast you Covid

This is where they prepare the hot food you order, also where I was yelled at for taking pictures

So much wine, I know of some of these, and they are pretty high end

You can even catch a nap or spend some quiet time here with no distractions

The coffee bar, only assisted service, but they have pretty good coffee

Snacks

Small availability of snacks that you can help yourself to.

The only self service area I could find in the lounge

Shower Facilities

They have the facilities but I was departing from London and it was not needed. There are not a lot of them in this lounge sadly.

Summary

I think this is about as good as it gets (ok, there is the Concorde room, but that requires a full first class ticket to get into; other options to enter are... beyond even my travel ability). Great food and drinks all day long, very calm atmosphere. A decent amount of space but it was actually filling up at 8:00am although most English were not allowed to go to USA at that time. I imagine things could be getting tight now.

I really enjoyed this lounge and I am looking forward to utilizing it much more as I am not a frequent London visitor for other reasons than just travel.

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