British Airways ‘First Dining Room’ in Terminal 3 seems to be admitting Gold Guest List
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A couple of months ago, British Airways opened the ‘First Dining Room’ inside its existing lounge complex at Heathrow Terminal 3.
It wasn’t called the ‘Concorde Room’ because Gold Guest List members were banned, despite apparently serving the same ‘Concorde Room’ food menu as Terminal 5.
(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.)
Any regular HfP reader will know that there are some excellent lounges in Terminal 3 which can be used by BA elite members or anyone flying in Business or First.
You have the Qantas lounge (and, from 2025, a separate Qantas First Class lounge) and the Cathay Pacific Business and First Class lounges. These are well ahead of the BA offerings, and BA is charged a fee – rumoured to be over £100 – whenever a BA traveller uses them.
You also have two poor American Airlines lounges (reviews here and here) but I doubt many BA passengers are bothering with those. They are very quiet, however.
Gold Guest List members were banned
Until very recently, British Airways had no flights from Terminal 3 with First Class.
This has now changed, but there are only 16 BA First Class seats flying out of Terminal 3 per day (eight to Bermuda, eight to Bahrain).
BA decided to block off part of the existing First lounge, give it a coat of paint and relaunch it is as the ‘First Dining Room’.
Intriguingly, only the following people were 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
British Airways Gold Guest List members, who have Concorde Room access in Terminal 5, were NOT allowed to access this area.
Who turned up? Virtually no-one, perhaps unsurprisingly. After all, even if BA sold all 16 First Class seats to Bermuda and Bahrain – which is unlikely – few passengers were likely to end up here. They would go to the Cathay Pacific First Class lounge or skip the lounge entirely.
Premier members would add a few more people, but not many. You may get the odd straggler flying in First Class on another oneworld carrier, although that would be surprising.
In all the reports I have read of visits here, the lounge was either entirely empty or had only one or two other guests apart from the person reporting back.
Gold Guest List now appear to get access
According to multiple reports on Flyertalk in the last couple of days, Gold Guest List members of British Airways Executive Club are now being allowed in.
(You can see the criteria for earning Gold Guest List here.)
This would, of course, mean that the lounge is now effectively a ‘Concorde Room’ and we could call it that, especially given the cloned menu.
For clarity, this change of policy isn’t published anywhere so you can’t complain if you don’t get in! You may want to give it a try though. Even if it isn’t on the level of the Cathay Pacific First Class lounge, it is substantially quieter and this may mean more to you.
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