British Airways now using the No1 Traveller lounge at Gatwick North – feedback?

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• Dave T says:

  4 Feb4 February 09:15

  As a regular user of BA at Gatwick (18 return flights in 12 months ) give me the old BA lounge any day of the week , the number one lounge at Gatwick is the pits in my opinion , having to pay if you want a second item to eat is something BA need to sort out fast , unfortunately we still have a number of flights booked with BA out of Gatwick in the coming weeks but will consider other options for travel later in the year as paying premium prices for a flight with B A and getting the number one lounge at Gatwick north service is not for me , thank you

• Noqueueing says:

  4 Feb4 February 10:41

  Visited this lounge on Tuesday 02.02 early afternoon. It was like a poorly heated sauna – never been to a lounge that was as unpleasantly hot. Very, very crowded. Small queues at the bar, and you could have any beer you wanted as long as it was Budwaiser. I decided to have a glass of water.

  I can see where the positive reviews would come from, though – the interior is nice and if it wasn’t so full it could be an “ok” lounge.

  Had the Asian chicken soup – while taste was ok, the portion was TINY (and I’m not a big eater). The buffet – I honestly don’t understand on what basis people think this is a “big improvement” from BA First lounge! Some tomatoes, potatoes (yes, potatoes), and some kind of salad. Vegetable soup. Wow.

  Personally I never had any issues with the BA First lounge really. I would usually go to the small computer desks right behind reception and start working (or reading Head for Points) in my nice little environment, get whatever drink I wanted WITHOUT queueing and grab some salad.

  For me a lounge is a place to relax, and I definitely didn’t feel relaxed in this overheated, crowded lounge where you queue for drinks. No, even the kids playroom or the movie theatre didn’t make the experience any nicer.

  I won’t go into the champagne discussion – other than to state I fully understand anyone travelling business or first being p***d off at this. Champagne seems to a pretty much standard offering in most business / First lounges, and the Taittinger or Castelnau served in BA First at Gatwick was definitely better than nothing. And you didn’t have to queue for it either.

  • Rob says:

    4 Feb4 February 10:53

    There is no champagne in any of the oneworld / Priority Pass business class lounges at Heathrow T3 – not BA (admittedly if you beg a staff member they will pull out a hidden bottle), not Swissport, not No 1, not Cathay, not American.

    • Jj says:

      4 Feb4 February 21:18

      Well that’s rubbish. They have it in t5 BA club. Hell they even have it in the ba lounge in Seattle and they certainly had it in the galleries club in Gatwick. Race to the bottom continues then

• DB says:

  4 Feb4 February 12:58

  We had the double whammy last weekend – the totally heaving No1 Lounge with insufficient bar staff, the silly champagne rule and actually pretty poor food AND the absolute failure of BA to sort a lounge at Rome airport, despite the fact that all the other One World airlines can use one there! We have written to BA to complain – have to say that the quality of the response was extremely poor and no compensation offered.

• Jj says:

  4 Feb4 February 21:32

  Visited all three lounges today (amex pp) out of curiosity, and I will say that I can see why raffles likes it. It is a cool design/ funky touches, the decor is good. Just wish they didn’t keep it at sauna temperature, served food in more than snack size portions and of course gave me champagne. But an OK place to spend a few hours IF it’s not busy. We were lucky, it was quiet, relatively speaking. To the point we could have gone in with priority pass had we not had a BA invite. But I can imagine it is hellish at 7am, this was noon and the morning flights had gone.

  My lounge was also quite funky albeit very small, has some veggie chili and snacks and self serve yellow tail/ magnets on tap. Again would have been nice enough if I hadn’t been intent on lounge hopping, but only because it was dead.

  Aspire was much nicer than I expected, I thought it would have no natural light. But it does, although no views. And was much bigger than I expected. The only food was soup and snacks and the wine was echo falls. I only hung around long enough to take some pictures. But if upstairs was heaving and you just want peace and quiet it would do the job.

  Then we boarded our flight and predictably 9 out of the first ten people asked for champagne and they ran out before the meal service and spent the next three hours apologising. Not impressed ( I do like my bubbles and it is what I signed up for when I booked a ce flight)

  • harry says:

    4 Feb4 February 21:48

    Good report. Totally pathetic they can’t load more Champagne on board.

    1 litre = 1kg, let’s ignore the glass & cork etc, it’s irrelevant.

    So loading 10 cases of 12 bottles (75cl) of Champagne on board is going to be…

    120 x 750g = 90kg

    90kg is just 3 big suitcases.

    Just a pathetic cost-cutting measure that will upset more people that BA needs to retain.

    Somebody in BA mgt needs to make a stand but nobody bloody cares about delivering good service.

    • harry says:

      4 Feb4 February 22:04

      Why can’t the stiffs in suits get it?

      People paying for First/ Club expect Champers in the Lounge and on board.

      That’s partly why they paid BA the crazy premium.

      Most of them have bubbly permanently in the blood, crazy business decision to cut off somebody’s blood supply.

      Easy to reverse.

      But some bean counter has said let’s cut a few quid on the cost of Champagne, Lounges & on board, with no regard for the impact on loyalty & repeat sales.

• Waribai says:

  5 Feb5 February 09:13

  I was in the No. 1 this morning. It was an absolute zoo! People tripping over each other for the buffet. Luckily we had already had breakfast in the Sofitel Lounge which was a picture of tranquility.
  Just a heads up that there is a new policy whereby children are not allowed in
  the Sofitel Lounge in the evenings which impacts any planned happy hour drinks. Instead I asked for extra complimentary vouchers for the Kua Bar at the mezzanine level and they were more than happy to oblige.

• Conor McCully says:

  5 Feb5 February 12:18

  My wife and I gave the No.1 Lounge a spin on Sunday morning (circa 10:30am) prior to our club flight down to Marrakech. I hadn’t been in the BA lounge so can’t compare it to what was there previously.

  It was certainly busy, boarding on full – we had to do a lap to find some free private seating but got there in the end. One chap behind the bar trying his best, you order food (breakfast before 11am / lunch thereafter) and drinks at the bar which are assigned to a table number which you take back to you table. Décor is smart, views are unaspiring, staff trying hard, buffet style food and drinks readily available and in bountiful supply. My only real complaint was queue for the toilets – this makes it clear that there are too many users for which the area has been designed.

  Overall, average to good. Not an amazing experience but not terrible either. (If you want terrible – try the Sala VIP Lounge in Marrakech). Ha! Whilst it satisfied our needs on our sale priced Club Europe flight I would feel somewhat short changed if spending considerable money in Club World and really gutted if flying First. So much so I would reroute to a different airport.

  A few tips from me below:
  – The library area (to the right as you enter) seems more roomy, quiet and has more seating
  – Hot food breakfast stops at 11am (we ordered as soon as we got in so as to avoid any delay)
  – Charging points situated near the seats around the bar
  – Get to the loo even before you need to go, so by the time its time, you are on it 😉

  Best

• Jimmy Ware says:

  7 Feb7 February 17:53

  My wife, son and daughter in law together with myself were travelling to Vienna on 22nd January and found that we had to use the No 1 lounge with the BA lounge being closed. How thoroughly disappointed we all were, with both our greeting on arrival, the service and the lounge itself.
  We travel both in first and business, when first is not available, and both of the old lounges were far, far superior to the No 1 lounge.
  On arrival we were greeted by a surly woman who proceeded to ask us if we were bringing in guests, I assume she meant by son and daughter in law, both travelling with us in business, then decided to inform us, that it depended on our ticket class on whether we could use the lounge or not, NEVER before has this happened. Being judged before allowed entry! I think she realised her rather large mistake when 4 business class tickets were produced and my wife gave her a very steely glare, we then proceeded through to what was a coffee type area, immediately accosted by a ‘waiter’ who informed us just as we were settling into comfortable seats that he would show us to an area where we could eat, this turned out to be a small, square table with hard seats!! No waiter service is available, so I decided to visit the bar, where there was only one barman on duty, he was taking food orders along with drink orders, so I knew we were in for a long wait for food. Hmmm, not worth waiting for, the portions are miniscule around 4 bites and it’s gone, again it took 40 minutes for this to arrive. I agree with the above poster, go to the loo first, you may just make one of the 2 cubicles in the ladies or the 2 in the mens. It is definitely a let down, don’t expect anything like the old BA lounges, you will be mightly disappointed.

  • harry says:

    7 Feb7 February 18:36

    you went in

    you got a drink

    not a big snack

    next?

• Kathryn says:

  11 Feb11 February 07:24

  So, I’m off to Malta for the weekend this morning, am sat in the library area and it’s much better than my RAK flight, possibly because I’m a few hours earlier.

  When I arrived at not long after 6, it was pretty filthy and busy, but a new job lot of staff arrived at 0700 and have taken to tidying up, so it’s much better.

  Interestingly 2 BA managers(?) have just pitched up and are inspecting what’s going on – cleanliness etc..

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