Review: the Virgin Atlantic and Delta Revivals arrivals lounge in Heathrow Terminal 3
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This is our review of the Virgin Atlantic and Delta Revivals arrivals lounge at London Heathrow Terminal 3.
This is part of our series of reviews of airport lounges across the UK. You see all of the reviews here.
I rarely make use of arrivals lounges when flying home as I’m normally heading straight home and/or don’t need to change into a suit if I’m heading into the office. For once, though, I thought I’d pop my head in to see what on offer after my recent flight from Austin.
Who can use the Heathrow Revivals Lounge?
The Revivals Lounge is exclusively for Virgin Atlantic and Delta passengers. You can use the Revivals Lounge if you are:
- Travelling in Upper Class
- Travelling in Delta One
- Virgin Gold, Delta Diamond Medallion and Delta Platinum Medallion flying on a Delta or Virgin Atlantic flight
- Virgin Australia Platinum or The Club on a Virgin Atlantic flight.
No guests are allowed and you cannot pay for access.
The lounge is open from 5:30am to 12.30pm.
Where is the Virgin Revivals Lounge?
Getting to the Virgin Atlantic and Delta arrivals lounge is a little convoluted. Once your enter the arrivals hall, you need to follow the signs to the lifts:
The Revivals Lounge is on the first floor:
Inside the Virgin Atlantic arrivals lounge
You have to walk down a long corridor before you get to the lounge proper:
I was greeted at the reception desk and asked my name and where I had just come from. You don’t need to show a boarding pass to enter – they will find you on their system.
I was also asked whether I wanted to have a shower, and whether I wanted to leave my bags with them.
To the right of the check-in desk is a newspaper and magazine rack. Unsurprisingly, the FT was the most popular, with a full rack of Daily Mails still available:
Here’s the magazine rack, although I wasn’t particularly enamoured with the selection:
The lounge itself is like a mini Heathrow Clubhouse (review here) and shares the same design features and furniture.
There’s a nice range of seating options, from the two sofas to little cafe tables:
…. plus some armchairs in the window:
The actual lounge area is fairly small, but that’s because the majority of the floorspace is taken up by 20 showers:
Toiletries are the REN Skincare brand that Virgin also uses on flights and in the Clubhouse. They will also press your clothes whilst you shower.
Note that there is no longer a spa in the lounge. The space was converted into additional showers a couple of years ago.
Food and drink in the Revivals Lounge
The lounge menu is virtually identical to the Clubhouse breakfast menu. Only breakfast is served – understandable, since the lounge closes at 12:30.
You can see the menu online here. Options include eggs benedict / royale / florentine, full English and other bits and bobs. You can either order via a QR code or a member of staff will come over and take your order.
I’d already eaten on my flight home so I went for the bacon roll, but given the menu is identical to the Clubhouse the poached eggs should be pretty good as well. The bacon was clearly fresh:
Looking at Rob’s old review, there used to be a small buffet. This is no longer the case – a casualty of covid I imagine – although it’s no real loss as the staff are very attentive and will bring you whatever you need very quickly.
Conclusion
The Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge at Heathrow is a good way to freshen up if you are heading straight to meetings. I was surprised with the quality of the food – I was expecting it to be more basic than the Clubhouse but in reality it is all cooked to order.
It is a shame the lounge is not in the baggage hall, which would let you freshen up whilst waiting for the bags to arrive. Due to the ground handling staff shortage I had to wait over 30 minutes for my bag to arrive – time I would much rather have spent in a lounge!
You can find out more about the Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge on this page of the Virgin Atlantic website.
How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (April 2024)
Here are the four options to get FREE airport lounge access via a UK credit card.
The Platinum Card from American Express comes with two free Priority Pass cards, one for you and one for a supplementary cardholder. Each card admits two so a family of four gets in free. You get access to all 1,300 lounges in the Priority Pass network – search it here.
You also get access to Eurostar, Lufthansa and Delta Air Lines lounges. Our American Express Platinum review is here. You can apply here.
The Platinum Card from American Express
40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review
If you have a small business, consider American Express Business Platinum instead.
American Express Business Platinum
40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review
American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for the first year. It comes with a Priority Pass card loaded with four free visits to any Priority Pass lounge – see the list here.
Additional lounge visits are charged at £24. You get four more free visits for every year you keep the card.
There is no annual fee for Amex Gold in Year 1 and you get a 20,000 points sign-up bonus. Full details are in our American Express Preferred Rewards Gold review here.
American Express Preferred Rewards Gold
Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review
HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard gets you get a free Priority Pass card, allowing you access to the Priority Pass network. Guests are charged at £24 although it may be cheaper to pay £60 for a supplementary credit card for your partner.
The card has a fee of £195 and there are strict financial requirements to become a HSBC Premier customer. Full details are in my HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard review.
HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard
A huge bonus, but only available to HSBC Premier clients Read our full review
PS. You can find all of HfP’s UK airport lounge reviews – and we’ve been to most of them – indexed here.
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