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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.)

First Dining Room Concorde Room British Airways lounge Heathrow Terminal 3

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.

First Dining Room Concorde Room British Airways lounge Heathrow Terminal 3

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

First Dining Room Concorde Room British Airways lounge Heathrow Terminal 3

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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Comments (37)

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

  • Roger says:

    Just watched a very insightful T3 lounge tour by KenTravels360 on Youtube
    He shows the food offerings and now highly rates above all others the AA first class lounge.
    Things are a changing.

    • LittleNick says:

      I enjoy watching his videos, didn’t realise he liked the AA first lounge. I mean AA flagship lounges in the US are generally pretty good from what I’ve heard and only been to one a few years ago, maybe their aim eventually is to refresh/rebrand the LHR lounges to meet the same standard?

  • Thorbjorn says:

    best T3 lounge for gluten free food, if anyone has any experience?

  • Paul says:

    I could not be enticed into a BA lounge in T3 even if they paid me. My last lounge visit was to Galleries First in T5 where passengers have taken to eating food from M&S!
    The ambience is also awful and there is no diversity among the staff.

    • Rob says:

      Eh? The BA lounge staff is hugely diverse, as with any other minimum wage, crappy hours job in London.

    • LittleNick says:

      Problem is (I suspect) too many people don’t complain about the poor offering in Galleries First. If everyone complained then maybe something would be done?

    • Harry T says:

      Most of the serving staff seem to be BAME in the First lounge in T5, so your comment strikes me as odd.

      • RoyalswithCheese says:

        Perhaps they mean they are all the BAME, diversity can work both ways I guess

  • Charlie says:

    HFP seems to assume that people are far more rational than they are in reality – if “everyone would go to CX” why is there anyone in any of the lounges, apart from CX, at all? Like the £1 Avios flights, the majority of the population doesn’t know / care / get bothered, I would suspect.

    • babyg_wc says:

      Agreed, Mrs babyg travelled via T3 recently and was proud of herself for sending me a picture from BAs T3 lounge…. i quickly reminded her of all the options she had (and ones i had taken her too) and she quickly decamped to the CX lounge… but yes most people have zero idea, and event those that do dont care…

  • Eric says:

    I was flying on a F ticket on AA this past Sunday and went to the BA F lounge. The check-in agent didn’t offer up the first class dining room and didn’t even mention it. I wish that I’d known that all first class passengers could get access because I would’ve tried it out! There wasn’t anything definitive online and he did not seem like he was in the mood to answer questions

  • Occasional Ranter says:

    That £100 figure is a shocker. Mrs Ranter and I are flying CE out of T3 to Nurnberg next month, 8,500 Avios plus £25 each. Utter bargain, for:
    – tour of the T3 lounges;
    – no-one in the middle seat;
    – reasonable meal and drinks on board;
    – good luggage allowance;
    – virtually 100% refundability.

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

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