I had no idea that British Airways had a business class (galleries) lounge in Heathrow T3 where most of the Oneworld partners fly from. Since our return flight to Dallas was on American Airlines, we proceeded to take the rather annoying shuttle bus from T5 to T3 right after disembarking from the BA flight from Hyderabad. After clearing security (which is a breeze here compared to T5), we saw signs for the lounges and headed that way.
The entrance to the Admirals Club, BA Galleries, and No. 1 (Priority Pass) lounges are located next to gate 23. Access to the lounge is available for Oneworld business/first class passengers, and sapphire/emerald tier members. And since I had heard not so great things about the Admirals Club, we went straight over to BA.
I’ve reviewed the BA Galleries lounges before in Terminal 5, and found the design and structure of this lounge to be no different. The coffee machines, cookies, buffet, and bar area are all pretty much all the same. The spread is decent enough for a business class lounge, and there are a few Indian vegetarian items (rice + some curry) in the buffet if you are interested. I personally just stick to the biscuits and tea/coffee machines, but there is no reason to go hungry here.
The lounge has the same furniture and hardwood floors that other BA lounges have and of course as always, it got pretty crowded.
In my opinion the highlight of the design of these lounges (in general) is the awesome looking bar and the faux chandelier looking arrangement above it:
On this lounge visit we saw Robert Carlyle (Rumpelstiltskin from the TV show Once Upon a Time) in the seating area right behind us. My sister really wanted to ask him for an autograph, but I didn’t want to go with her disturb him while he was with family. I generally don’t like bothering celebrities in public places because it draws them unnecessary and unwanted attention.
I did accidentally get a picture of him (or who we think was him) while photographing the lounge (the picture is quite cropped and not clear).
The lounge has decent Wi-Fi, restrooms, and a full fledged Elemis Spa, but the showers are in not so great of a condition. I’m not entirely sure the spa services are available to Oneworld business class passengers or Oneworld elites because I saw some people being turned away.
Anyway, this lounge visit was pretty much identical Galleries Lounge T5 visit. In fact, I bet if you didn’t look out the window to see a Qantas a380 parked outside, you really wouldn’t be able to tell what Galleries Lounge you were really in.
Our AA flight to DFW got quite a bit delayed due to winter storms in Texas and after a couple of hours here, we got bored. The Galleries Lounge also got extremely crowded as the day progressed and so we decided to check out the No. 1 Lounge next door (stay tuned for that review).
Bottom Line:
The BA lounges are functional yet crowded spaces with a decent assortment of amenities. While there isn’t too much to complain about, they are still very much a step down from the LH lounges in Frankfurt, and AF/KLM lounges in Amsterdam and Paris. The restrooms and showers are sanitary at best and definitely show signs of heavy traffic as well as lack of proper maintenance. I do like the general design of the lounge and non-alcoholic drink selection (UK has Diet Coke vs Coke Light 🙂 ). And despite the lounge being crowded almost all the time, there is usually a quiet place to sit, nap, or maybe do some work if and when the Wi-Fi works properly.
What do you think of the BA Lounges at Heathrow?
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