British Airways changes its lounge access rules for Easter

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

• Mike L says:

  31 Mar31 March 06:29

  Currently in the BA lounge at Glasgow. Airport extremely quiet for Easter. Only 3 others in the lounge. I’ve no doubt Heathrow will be much busier.

  • Cate says:

    31 Mar31 March 18:43

    Nope, it’s pretty quiet at heathrow too.

    • Waribai says:

      1 Apr1 April 00:23

      Everyone must have travelled on Thursday then. LHR T5 was heaving in the late am. Even the plaza premium lounge was fairly full. It was our first time in there and decent enough as it was, the lack of self service for drinks means that you end up waiting a while for bar service when it is busy.

• Liz says:

  31 Mar31 March 07:38

  OT Rob, do you know how long the bonus reward night takes to post from your recent Hotels.com promo. We have just completed a 2 night stay and the 2 nights have posted but not the bonus night. I took a screen print of the booking page but not the T&Cs. The link on the original article just takes you to the Hotels.com page.

  • Dougy Giro says:

    31 Mar31 March 08:12

    Mine appeared with my points for the 2 night stay.

  • Doug M says:

    31 Mar31 March 09:41

    Can’t say for Rob’s voucher but the hotels.com extra nights from their own vouchers and offers have always posted at the same time for me. I think this would be the same as it’s still a hotels.com reward code, albeit promoted by HfP. I’ve found their customer service pretty good. Maybe give it a week and then call or email.

    • Rob says:

      31 Mar31 March 09:54

      Yes, contact them directly. If you get no joy then send your booking reference to me and I will chase it up when I’m back.

    • BP says:

      31 Mar31 March 18:41

      Their customer service is going downhill. As a Gold member I booked a hotel in Vietnam with a private pool. Arrived and there was no private pool. Took 5 hours to sort it with Hotels.com and I had to pay the extra to be moved to a hotel with the private pool that I booked. Wasn’t impressed!!

      • Doug M says:

        31 Mar31 March 19:44

        Couple of years ago now. But I arrived at hotel to find no balcony as promised, hotel couldn’t help so called hotels.com and after they couldn’t persuade hotel to move me they offered to refund the entire room cost, or find me a room with a balcony elsewhere at their expense.

  • Lady London says:

    31 Mar31 March 13:53

    Clear cookies and log in again? perhaps leave an overnight too then try.

• Vistaro says:

  31 Mar31 March 07:59

  In some ways it’s good to see BA relax the lounge access policy especially at Easter. At the risk of irritating some fellow travellers I do feel that in general BA is devaluing the higher membership tiers, having spent many years at GGL level i now regularly feel there is little value, for instance the fast track queue is often longer than the standard queue, the First lounges are sometimes busier than business, The CSD rarely comes and says “hello” anymore and maybe I’m out of date but I spent years getting my GGL level, followed by Concorde access and lifetime GGL, now it sort of feels the service is no different to what a Bronze or Silver never receives, in all honesty the Business experience in the ME3 beats BA hands down even without the loyalty benefits and although I often travel BA First in reality as many others have said “BA First is an excellent Business Class product” BUT BA is nearly always full so maybe it’s me !!!

  • Vistaro says:

    31 Mar31 March 08:01

    Delete “never” from never receives 🙂

  • Doug M says:

    31 Mar31 March 09:50

    If this shifts extra people out of GF that’s great. However when I slip back to silver this is appalling. I think anything like this will always upset as many as it pleases.

• FlightDoctor says:

  31 Mar31 March 08:03

  Flying with family (4 in total) next week to France in Club Europe. I’m Gold but I’m assuming this lounge access policy won’t make the blindest bit of difference as we won’t be able to use the First Wing or First lounge anyway.

  • Rupert S says:

    31 Mar31 March 08:49

    Correct – well almost, you can check in at First then leave that area and head to normal
    FastTrack security and head to Galleries.

    That email from BA totally confused me.

    • Lady London says:

      31 Mar31 March 13:56

      I can;t imagine how it can be possible to fit any more into the Silver-level lounge at LHR. It’ll be like the central area of Stansted airport where everyone’s so tightly packed it looks like they are spectators at a football match and there’s still nowhere near enough seating….

      !!!
      I privatised my lounge access some time ago faced with these challenges and I think that’s the coming trend.

• Tom1 says:

  31 Mar31 March 09:11

  Any recommendations for UK Spa weekends?

  not looking for a points redemption, but any locations where Marriott/SPG/HIlton gold status gets good recognition would be a benefit.

  tks.

  • Rob says:

    31 Mar31 March 09:55

    Hilton Syon Park has an excellent spa as it was built as a Waldorf-Astoria.

  • TripRep says:

    31 Mar31 March 16:56

    The UK’s only WA in Edinburgh has a decent SPA, treated Mrs TripRep to massage and vino when we stayed there.

    • Andrew says:

      31 Mar31 March 17:35

      I’m told The First Minister is shacked up in a suite there at the moment (whilst the asbestos riddled Bute House is refurbished). There could well be an opportunity for a celebrity selfie at breakfast!

      If you aren’t worried about points, Cromlix House is rather good and just 45 minutes by car from Edinburgh Airport. Only in-room Spa treatments though.

    • Tom1 says:

      31 Mar31 March 19:55

      Which reminds me – completely at a tangent – seems a new WA Maldives opens early next year. Looks to be closer to MLE than Conrad so could save on the seaplane.

      • Rob says:

        31 Mar31 March 20:34

        Oooh … interesting!

      • Tom1 says:

        31 Mar31 March 21:44

        There’s a FT thread and someone has uploaded a very impressive promotional video today.

        Would be interesting to see if people with flexible and/or points reservations at Conrad jump ship as soon as reservations open up for WA.

• Paul says:

  31 Mar31 March 09:17

  Rob you were not alone in not being emailed though it might be that it was targeted at those already booked to travel during the operational period.

  For my family of 1 gold and 3 silver it makes no difference and the best I can get is simply what the family is entitled too. So yet again my loyalty and my cash mean nothing to BA.

  This is a nice gesture, don’t get me wrong, particularly from a company hell bent on taking things away and inflicting self harm on its products and services. But it is also very typical of BA in being chaotic and ill thought out out. The images on twitter yesterday of queues at First checkin meandering down the main terminal show this better than any words and it was not a “ premium experience”

  The whole entitlement, access thing with BAEC needs a revamp. It should, in this day and age, be a technology backed policy where the various level of membership are provided with a specific number of guest passes each membership year, with a maximum number that can be used at anyone time. On presentation at the lounge they are deducted from the account electronically and recorded showing name of guest the date, time and flight numbers.

  This would satisfy family travel as well as guesting , the latter which still gets abused daily by people guesting in strangers who arrange it via forums and blogs.

  BA need to wake up to the fact that these holiday entitlements are all well and good but they are also chaotic and confused. The staff don’t know the rules, the members likewise, and many of are left feeling that our personal annual household spend, is simply not valued even when/if it exceeds that of a company earned GGL!

  • Doug M says:

    31 Mar31 March 10:00

    I like your idea, my guess is BA lack the technology for it. Also, would it be allowed within OW. I’m assuming an Emerald would have to have a guest under OW rules? If so that may make BAEC less desirable than another program. Isn’t it the case that AA top level don’t get lounge access on most US domestic flights, whereas OW Emeralds do, leading to some regular AA flyers doing BAEC as well/instead of AA. I’m sure BA would want to be careful not to damage the attraction of EC.

• Mr(s) Entitled says:

  31 Mar31 March 09:31

  BA try to do something positive, and people are up in arms.

  The lack of objectivity in the comments is very Daily Mail like. So I’m told.

  • Doug M says:

    31 Mar31 March 09:53

    +1

  • paul says:

    31 Mar31 March 12:46

    No BA did not do something positive for all their card holders. they did it for a select group then dressed up the marketing to suggest otherwise. For those who benefit great, but the vast majority do not benefit as my post clearly showed. This can lead to further alianation and BA’s lack of an effective, efficient IT department means they continue to hobble together initiatives like this.

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:

      31 Mar31 March 13:19

      So they can only do something positive if it impacts all. Or do you mean, if it impacts you?

      Man up.

• What's the Point says:

  31 Mar31 March 09:37

  That would explain why the Galleries Club lounge at LHR was busier than usual with families yesterday. I’ve seen it busier, but vs how busy Heathrow was, the galleries club lounge was definitely welcoming the 5 guest rule!

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