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How many British Airways passengers with status use Heathrow Terminal 5 in a day?

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A Head for Points reader was passing through Terminal 5 over Easter when he found a copy of the daily British Airways ‘Premium Brief’ document on the floor, so he sent me a photo of it.

It is for a Saturday, so it is not representative of a normal business day.  The proportions are interesting though.

The long-haul load factor was a hugely impressive 96%, although that would have been skewed by holiday traffic as it was the Saturday after the schools broke up.  Short-haul was over 80%.

The number of card holders in Terminal 5 on that particular day was:

Premier:  55

Gold:  2,982

Silver:  2,416

Bronze:  2,081

The proportions here are interesting.  There are, obviously, substantially higher numbers of Bronze members compared to Silver and Gold.  However, by definition, a Gold flies more than a Silver and a Silver flies more than a Bronze.  This is why Gold card holders was the highest % of status passengers.

It is also gives you a glimpse into the number of people using the British Airways lounges.  On that particular Saturday, there were 5,400 people able to access the lounges via status.  These could all bring a guest.  There would also been oneworld status members who could use the lounges plus non-status passengers flying in Club World, Club Europe or First.

It is very easy to see how 10,000 people could have passed through the British Airways lounges in Terminal 5 on that particular day.

These numbers also given an insight into why priority boarding is now so chaotic.  Allowing Bronze members to have Priority Boarding added about 40% to the number of people who were allowed to use it on the back of their status, which is why some flights have very few people on them who do not qualify for it.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (53)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • CapeCam says:
    16 Apr16 April 06:13

    Raffles – I have seen these documents several times on the desks at the 1st check in area at t5
    The figures you show are pretty representative of Both Weekday and Weekend. Easter and bank holidays may tweak it a bit. Every one of these I have seen show more gold than silver travelling on any given day and I have seen some days where premier cards are in single digits. It always worried me that golds were exceeding silver, and that at some point they was going to have to be a “correction” to make it harder to achieve gold. Interestingly it doesnt distinguish between regular Golds and Gold GGL. Of course it does not include One World Partner Pax with status.

    • Think Square says:
      16 Apr16 April 06:46

      I wouldn’t worry that there are too many Golds. They just travel more – some of them a lot more.

      I maintain Silver, but your chances of seeing me in a T5 lounge are minimal. Thanks to Little Red, I think I’ve only travelled through T5 once in the past year.

      • Oh! Matron! says:
        16 Apr16 April 08:48

        I miss Little Red so much. Given I work 1 mile from Heathrow, it was wonderful being able to leave work and within three hours, be at my folks in Lancashire 🙁 And the cost was always consistent, unlike BA. They wanted £300 return LHR-MAN last week 🙁

        • James says:
          16 Apr16 April 09:55

          Head on over to the flyertalk virgin forums, a handful of us are contemplating being on the last little red flight for old times sake

  • MilesFromBlighty says:
    16 Apr16 April 06:15

    Goodness that’s why you can never get a seat in the First Lounge!

  • Hingeless says:
    16 Apr16 April 06:50

    55 premiers is interesting – on a saturday.

    • Robert says:
      16 Apr16 April 10:22

      My thoughts exactly…

      Anyone know how many Premiers are out there?

      • Steven says:
        16 Apr16 April 10:59

        I think there are 1500, can’t remember where i saw that figure, or if it is correct.

        • Dan says:
          16 Apr16 April 19:41

          I’d guess there must be more that 1500, unless around 3% of all premier members were flying that day?

          Really interesting article – thanks Rob

  • Paul says:
    16 Apr16 April 06:54

    96% load factor the Saturday after the schools break up is not a surprise nor is it an indication of good levels of premium traffic, it simply means that the booked level of passengers across the day was equivalent to 96% of the total available seats. There will have been huge numbers of upgrades.
    Transfer traffic will also have made up a significant part of the total number.

    I travelled out on the 8th late in the evening and Galleries North was deserted. I was the only passenger on the balcony. Moreover my flight had no more that 30 people on it and the terminal over all was very quiet. Still, boarding was a scrum and we left late.

  • Metatone says:
    16 Apr16 April 07:45

    I don’t find non-priority boarding that stressful. What’s always a real improvement when travelling with Mrs M (who has Bronze) is the priority check-in desk. I do look forward to a Priority Pass lounge in T5 – but at the same time, I don’t actually spend that much time in T5 on an outward leg, so a drink and a wander around the shops often does it for me.

    • Mark says:
      16 Apr16 April 09:39

      I think the real value of priority boarding is when flying shorthaul economy since if you board a full flight towards the end you’ll struggle to get any overhead locker space. Will be interesting to see whether BA’s attempts to make hand baggage only fares less attractive will have any impact on that….

  • AndyGWP says:
    16 Apr16 April 07:49

    #BOOM

    50k “Supplementary Cards bonus points” have just hit my account in one big hit! 🙂

    Cards in question were ordered in groups, and were activated on:
    20th February
    25th February
    5th March

    Can cancel Platinum now!… Cheers Raffles!

    • What's the Point says:
      16 Apr16 April 09:48

      All my 50k posted today as well!
      Thinking about keeping it for the moment, see if any decent promotions come up.

      • AndyGWP says:
        16 Apr16 April 10:06

        I say they hit my account, but it was actually my wife’s Platinum card / account (she likes the benefits / perks of Airmiles, but doesn’t like the management / earning 🙂 )…

        I suspect she will soon be referring me for a Gold card 😉

        • What's the Point says:
          16 Apr16 April 14:40

          Same her, it was Mrs WTP’s card!

          • RT says:
            16 Apr16 April 15:43

            Mine have all been posted too.

            My IHG ones haven’t though/ That’s been over 2 weeks…

          • Liz says:
            16 Apr16 April 17:50

            Mine haven’t either – been told they post about 2 weeks after the first statement.

    • Laurence says:
      16 Apr16 April 09:58

      Urrgh! 90 days have now passed since my cards were activated and still nothing, contacted customer service 3 days ago and still nothing. Not the greatest service considering the £450 annual fee!

      • AndyGWP says:
        16 Apr16 April 10:07

        To confirm, I never committed any spend, or did anything to any of the cards beyond activation. Sounds like yours should definitely have posted too, as we had done the same thing.

        • pauldb says:
          16 Apr16 April 10:59

          I only activated (and spent) on one of the three I applied for, and all three posted overnight.

        • RT says:
          16 Apr16 April 15:44

          I didn’t even activate any or spend on any 😛

          • Laurence says:
            16 Apr16 April 17:47

            Sorted. After calling again and mentioning the word ‘complaint’ the 50,000 points were in my account in minutes. Also got £20 credit to my account for my trouble. Now time to use them on some Cathay flights before the devaluation!

    • Tariq says:
      16 Apr16 April 20:04

      Got my statement for the BAPP yesterday and there was a bill stuffer in there – current promo is 500 Avios when you add a supplementary card to the BAPP… no comparison to the Platinum offer!

  • tony says:
    16 Apr16 April 08:01

    Your 40% stat is only going to hold if there are…

    No other OW status passengers
    No one flying in J or F
    No one flying on a Business UK ticket

    You’re not in politics, are you?

    • pauldb says:
      16 Apr16 April 11:01

      It says “added about 40% to the number of people who were allowed to use it on the back of their status”. It should say BA status perhaps but it’s basically accurate.

  • Ben E says:
    16 Apr16 April 09:36

    Guess it’s no surprise that the spa in both outbound and inbound lounges in T5 always has a >2hr waitlist

    • Don says:
      16 Apr16 April 16:42

      But that’s also because half of the showers at the south lounges are out of use since October and waiting for refurb, but wait, there is no money.

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