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Bits: Qantas T3 lounge ‘soft opening’, Virgin Trains closing lounges?, REAL Transfers winner

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News in brief:

New Qantas lounge in Terminal 3 ‘soft opening’ due

If you are heading through Heathrow Terminal 3 soon, you will be spoilt for choice for good lounges.

The new Qantas lounge, which we previewed in this article last year, is due to have a soft opening in the next few days ahead of the official opening next week.

The lounge will be available to any British Airways passengers departing Terminal 3 who are flying in Club World, Club Europe or First Class or who have a Silver or Gold Executive Club card.

The choice for British Airways passengers in Terminal 3 is now laughably good.   You also have the excellent Cathay Pacific lounge which we reviewed here, the ‘OK’ British Airways Galleries lounge (review) and the ‘OK’ American Airlines lounge (review).  If you’ve got a Priority Pass you can add in the No 1 Lounge reviewed here and the Club Aspire lounge reviewed here – they are both very good as well.

Qantas has its work cut out if it wants to top the Cathay Pacific lounge – will it manage it?  We will find out very soon.

Is Virgin Trains culling its smaller lounges?

A reader dropped me a note to say that Virgin Trains is closing its lounge at Wolverhampton on 11th December.

The company hasn’t put it like that, of course.

A sign outside the lounge says:

“GREAT NEWS!  From Monday 11th December 2017 this lounge will be open to all our customers providing a warm and welcoming waiting area for everyone using the station.”

….. which, as a piece of spin, is pretty impressive.

I think Virgin West Coast has outstation lounges in Glasgow, Manchester, Crewe, Wolverhampton, Birmingham New Street, Birmingham International, Runcorn, Liverpool and Coventry.  I doubt the big cities on that list are at risk but I can think of a couple that could disappear if penny pinching was underway.

Virgin Trains Wolverhampton lounge

REAL Transfers competition winner

We have a confirmed winner of our competition last week in association with REAL Transfers

Chris C has won a return Mercedes E-Class transfer from anywhere inside the M25 to Heathrow or Gatwick.

Well done Chris.  If you are not Chris, you might be interested in one of REAL’s current promotions for a discount on your next booking.

For new customers:  new customers get 10% off bookings to any destination when they create an account online. The promo code will be sent to you via email once you have registered.

For existing customers:  if you’ve used REAL in the past you can get 15% off all transfers by using the promo code RT15LUX on the REAL Transfers website.  This offer expires on 31st December.

If you come to the Head for Points Christmas Party on 12th December (tickets on sale later this week) there will be another chance to win a transfer from REAL Transfers in our raffle.  We now have over £3,000-worth of prizes to give away …..

Category

Cathay Pacific and Asia Miles, oneworld alliance partners

Comments (94)

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

  • Dan says:
    22 Nov22 November 07:40

    RE Virgin Trains Lounges

    Runcorn and Liverpool have them too.

  • Rob says:
    22 Nov22 November 07:42

    Worse deal than the Avios / Virgin one!

  • Charlie says:
    22 Nov22 November 08:00

    Looking forwards to taking a look at this in 10 days on route to NBO. I do seem to time flights badly though – wherever I’ve a lot of lounge options to try out, I always seem to be on an early flight so don’t have the time to take full advantage. First world problems!

  • Claude says:
    22 Nov22 November 08:05

    The management of Wolverhampton station is transferring from Virgin Trains to the new West Midlands Franchise at some point in the future. Maybe the closing of the lounge is linked to this in some way? All of the other lounges are at Virgin stations or Network Rail operated stations.

    • Smid says:
      22 Nov22 November 08:23

      So in effect won’t the other Virgin run lounges be changing over to that Franchise, especially the niche ones like International or Coventry?

      Will be interesting to see if the new Franchise runs these lounges, but the existence and transfer means that Virgin west coast will perhaps cease to exist? Or is it just the bit of west coast up to Wolverhampton (used to be the main midland spur) which might be HS2 covered?

      • Claude says:
        22 Nov22 November 10:07

        The West Midlands franchise is the current London Midland franchise. As part of the new franchise they take control of Wolverhampton station.
        International and Coventry are staying with Virgin.

    • Smid says:
      22 Nov22 November 08:38

      Indeed, just looked at the map of the franchise. Pretty much covers all lounges except for London, Manchester and Glasgow.

  • xcalx says:
    22 Nov22 November 09:22

    “The lounge will be available to any British Airways passengers departing Terminal 3 who are flying in Club World, Club Europe or First Class or who have a Silver or Gold Executive Club card.”

    Would Oneworld Emerald and Sapphire also gain entry.

  • mark1980 says:
    22 Nov22 November 09:54

    OT: I never do any business travel but have got to go down to London for a week long training course next month and my company is offering the choice of the The Tower (a Guoman hotel) or the Grange Tower Bridge. Both seem to have good reviews on tripadvisor and both close to where I need to be. Anyone with any knowledge / experience any thoughts on which one I should go for? Thanks.

    • Rashad says:
      22 Nov22 November 10:10

      Grange is literally outside of the Tower Hill underground, and nicely refurbished, whereas Guoman has better views of Tower Bridge if you get a good view room and St Katherines dock with lots of restaurants and bars at doorstep

  • s says:
    22 Nov22 November 10:36

    Hi
    Flying to Cape town with BA, What is the best lounge to use using the Amex Gold / Lounge Club card?
    Thanks

  • s says:
    22 Nov22 November 10:59

    Hi
    Flying to Cape town with BA from LHR T3, What is the best lounge to use using the Amex Gold / Lounge Club card?
    Thanks

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

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