British Airways moves 12 long haul routes from Terminal 5 to Terminal 3

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• Mark says:

  13 Oct13 October 06:01

  Sadly the secret seems to be out about the Cathay first class lounge. Last Friday morning there wasn’t a single seat to be had, and that’s before BA move all these flights across…

  • NorthernLass says:

    13 Oct13 October 08:01

    Cayman/Nassau/Providenciales is effectively one flight per day in total so not as bad as it looks …

  • qrfan says:

    13 Oct13 October 08:10

    Is the “secret out” or were you there at the same time as one of the Cathay flights where the airline directs elites and f passengers to their own lounge? That lounge always had busy periods pre covid.

  • Nigel Thompson says:

    13 Oct13 October 08:18

    Interestingly, I pre booked for two in the No1 Lounge in T3 a few days ago with my NatWest sourced DragonPass and the booking fee was described as “Free” on the confirmation I received.

  • memesweeper says:

    13 Oct13 October 11:59

    You’ll know the secret’s out when the BA lounge is empty… I bet it isn’t

• Sam says:

  13 Oct13 October 06:31

  I have found myself with a mixed BA T3 out/T5 in itinerary, any advice for best parking solution? Current thoughts are park at T5 and get terminal transfer bus to T3 so car is ready at T5 to make getting home as smooth as possible late on a Sunday evening

  • DorsetFlyer says:

    13 Oct13 October 06:44

    Both the official Valet and Meet+Greet parking will happily do a mixed terminal booking. You car is ready at the arrival terminal. Did this recently when out from T5 and back in to T3.

    • Sam says:

      16 Oct16 October 12:04

      How did you book this please? The website doesn’t seem to facilitate it and can’t see a way of speaking to someone at heathrow parking

      • Sam says:

        16 Oct16 October 12:12

        Worked it out – get a quote for valet parking for any terminal (for me T5 was sold out, but T3 available), then when you get to the pay screen it asks for times and terminals for drop of and collection along with flight numbers for return

  • John says:

    13 Oct13 October 06:53

    T2/3 business parking is adjacent to T5 long stay. So park at T5 long stay then walk over to business parking to get the shuttle to T3.

    There isn’t any “terminal transfer bus”, it would be the tube or train to go landside from T5 to T3.

    • Sam says:

      13 Oct13 October 07:09

      Thanks both, two good options

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    13 Oct13 October 07:23

    Just back from opposite scenario – parked in pod parking and got train back to T5 on landing at T3

  • Benjamin Murphy-Ryan says:

    13 Oct13 October 07:48

    That’s what we did – parked (and stayed at sofitel) T5 and flight left from T3 AA so took Heathrow express free for one stop to T3 out, but return landed T5 – less faff after a long flight that way

  • tiriavpo says:

    13 Oct13 October 07:52

    You can get the airside bus on the way back, but not the way out. For short stay, if a speedy getaway is the priority, I’d park in T5, then get the train across to T3 for departure and arrive back where the car is. Otherwise the T5 long stay/T3 business combo works well.

    • John says:

      13 Oct13 October 13:21

      Not if you have luggage to collect

  • Rich says:

    13 Oct13 October 09:10

    An additional comment for those who live out in the sticks and are cash conscious but not time poor…. whilst neither are low cost anymore, T2/3 long stay parking is typically cheaper than T5 long stay whenever I book and sometimes by a large margin. If you can put up with extra faff, or as in this case you are flying from T3 out or return anyway, the saving might be worth it.

• Chrisasaurus says:

  13 Oct13 October 07:24

  Clarification on T5 point – First wing, security and by extension Flounge – OneWorld Emerald plus a guest OK on a short haul BA flight?

  • Rob says:

    13 Oct13 October 07:32

    Yes

• Paul says:

  13 Oct13 October 07:30

  I can see Cathay closing the lounge to non CX passengers at certain times. If I were a CX passenger with the right to use F and can’t because it’s full of refugees from the awful BA lounge, I would not be happy.
  Don’t get me wrong I use the CX lounge, but I am normally going to Europe and in ET and have found it odd that I can do so. Those routes are very leisure heavy flights and in addition to the European services. I can’t see CX or QF allowing their product to be sacrificed simply because BA won’t improve their own

  • qrfan says:

    13 Oct13 October 08:07

    Everything you say has been the case for years pre covid and it’s never been the case that either cx or qf renege on their oneworld commitments. What’s changed to make you think they will now?

    • Paul says:

      13 Oct13 October 13:01

      Not 13 long haul there wasn’t. In any event you cannot get near either the Al Mourjan or Al Safwa based on status alone, just as you cannot get into the Concorde room with an F ticket or a CCR card. It is easy for carriers to protect the products especially the good products.
      CX and QF will no doubt welcome the revenue but there comes a point when something has to given and if the lounge has no seats complaints will rise and CX will respond.

      • John says:

        13 Oct13 October 13:23

        CX and QF flights will be full for the foreseeable future regardless of whether their current offering is poor (and it is, compared to previously, though still better than BA) including lounges being full.

  • John T says:

    13 Oct13 October 09:15

    Cathay aren’t operating any F class flights from LHR for the foreseeable future so I suspect they will happily take the revenue for lounge guests from other airlines.

• WTL says:

  13 Oct13 October 07:38

  Can one still use the Cathay/Qantas lounge if ticketed on BA Club World (long haul) but no BA status?

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    13 Oct13 October 09:39

    Yes it states this on the oneworld lounge finder so have that loaded on your phone in case of difficulties

  • Charlie Whiskey says:

    13 Oct13 October 09:42

    Yes

    • WTL says:

      13 Oct13 October 19:06

      Thanks!

• Cat says:

  13 Oct13 October 07:39

  Fabulous news, I’ve been idly thinking about a hiking trip to Sedona for a while…

  • Jill (Kinkell) says:

    13 Oct13 October 09:17

    We’re off on a road trip early next year and staying in Sedona. We’ll be ‘walking’ as I suspect your hiking is a bit different! We’re always amused that what the Americans call hikes, to us is a walk! Flight to PHX was from T3 , but changed to T5 a couple of months ago. Suits us

    • SammyJ says:

      13 Oct13 October 10:53

      That’s interesting, our flights to PHX have been from T3 since we booked them a few months ago, for next April.

      • Jill Kinkell says:

        13 Oct13 October 13:57

        We’re heading end of January

• Jim says:

  13 Oct13 October 07:40

  The CX lounge is undoubtedly in a different class to BAs tired offering. However I was bitterly disappointed with the CX food offering when I visited last month. A few years ago their made to order dim sum and noodle dishes were of excellent quality. This year I found the food practically inedible. Extremely low quality ingredients. I can’t believe I’m saying this but I’d prefer to BA school canteen offering!
  More generally, my experience of T3 left me feeling the place was grubby, claustrophobic and sad.

  • John says:

    13 Oct13 October 13:25

    I agree, it’s not as good as it was pre-covid. If you merely want to fill your tummy BA is not that bad actually.

  • Track says:

    13 Oct13 October 13:43

    Correct, the food in CX lounge was downgraded in the series of increments — in my perception.

    One large downgrade occurred even before Covid.

• NorthernLass says:

  13 Oct13 October 07:59

  @Cat, that sounds great – I’d love to do a road trip around that region.
  I have GCM and LAS next spring so am also very pleased about this development, let’s hope it sticks this time!

  • Liz says:

    13 Oct13 October 08:07

    We detoured from our Route 66 trip to Sedona back in 2017. Watched a stunning sunset over the red rocks!

  • Jill (Kinkell) says:

    13 Oct13 October 09:20

    We’ve done a few road trips from PHX and DEN ….brilliant! Scenery, driving, climate just great. The USA National and State sparks are excellent

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