Exclusive: First photos of BA’s new First Dining Room at Heathrow Terminal 3

Yesterday we told you that British Airways has opened what we called a ‘Concorde Room Lite’ – but is technically the ‘First Dining Room’ – at Heathrow Terminal 3.

The Concorde Room, for those who don’t know, is the lounge in Terminal 5 which is exclusively for the use of passengers travelling in First Class or those holding Gold Guest List or Premier status with British Airways.

(The Galleries First lounge at Heathrow Terminal 5 isn’t actually meant for anyone flying in First Class. It’s effectively the Gold Card lounge.)

British Airways is moving an increasing number of long haul flights over to Terminal 3, albeit only two of them (Bahrain and Bermuda) have First Class, and those are only eight seat cabins.

The British Airways lounge in Terminal 3 is split into a Business and First area. The First area, as per Terminal 5, is effectively the Gold Card lounge because until this month British Airways had no flights from Terminal 3 with First Class.

Part of the First lounge has now been blocked out and given a coat of paint.

Reader Ian sent us these pictures yesterday, for which we are very grateful.

As you can see, the existing space behind the bar has been smartened up with a lick of paint, some tablecloths and this odd drinks table with some ‘not hugely premium’ brands (Bacardi, Baileys):

Only the following people are allowed access:

• anyone flying in First Class on a oneworld flight, plus a guest

• British Airways Premier cardholders (click to learn how to become Premier) flying in any class

BA has told us that, despite earlier reports to the contrary, American Airlines Concierge Key members do NOT get access.

British Airways Gold Guest List members, who have Concorde Room access in Terminal 5, are NOT allowed to access this area.

As you can see from the sign above, British Airways is calling it the ‘First Dining Room’, to match similar rooms in certain overseas lounges.

Overall, whilst only modest money seems to have been spent (given they couldn’t rustle up a proper drinks trolley and seem to have dug an old table out of someone’s shed) it does look OK.

It’s not clear who is going to use this space though. BA is flying 16 First Class seats per day out of Terminal 3. Probably fewer than half will be sold, and not all of those will use a lounge – and if they do, some will still head over to Cathay’s First Class lounge.

There won’t be many Premier cardholders passing through. This is partly because there simply aren’t many Premier cardholders, and partly because most don’t travel much – the card is primarily a reward to travel managers who sign off on large BA corporate contracts. It’s all very odd.