British Airways Terminal 5B lounge refresh: details of Phase Two revealed

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

• Neil says:

  6 Oct6 October 05:35

  Has BA any concrete plans in place for a full refurbishment of all the Lounges in T5 or will they just be doing these refreshes.

  • Rhys says:

    6 Oct6 October 07:49

    There were rumours of concrete plans pre-covid. Unclear now.

  • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

    6 Oct6 October 09:38

    Planning permission has been a nightmare since the resident mice banded together to collectively campaign.

• Derek Scott says:

  6 Oct6 October 06:24

  I was in the lounge last month and it badly needs new carpets. The stains and marks in front of most seats are awful and I doubt a deep clean would make much of a differnence. It’s still better than A’s North and South though

  • Panda Mick says:

    6 Oct6 October 09:39

    That may happen sooner rather than later given the rampant spread of bed bugs

• Andrew J says:

  6 Oct6 October 06:37

  But the toilets are continuing in the hospital style?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    6 Oct6 October 15:01

    I’ll never understand this because you can literally do them one/two at a time. No need for much disruption

• Doc says:

  6 Oct6 October 06:43

  Was about to as the same question as Andrew J. Surely they would have at least updated the toilets as part of this since they are probably the worst part of all the BA lounges at T5.

  • Andrew J says:

    6 Oct6 October 07:03

    The worst part of Heathrow – even the public toilets are nicer.

    • Paul says:

      6 Oct6 October 17:41

      Really, I always find the smell of Heathrow toilets meets me several yards from the entrance. The floors around urinals are always wet and the ridiculous hand drier set up means they too are also always wet. With such turnover they need to have permanent staffing, certainly through the main operational hours.

  • Rob says:

    6 Oct6 October 08:53

    Sadly the rundown hospital style toilets appear to be in a similar state to their Website and IT systems as of late…

• Jake says:

  6 Oct6 October 06:49

  Also why not just bite the bullet and do it properly now?

  Everyone knows it is needed, it will be overall more expensive to do it in phases and the summer peak is over. Travel is still down pre-pandemic (particularly outside of leisure periods)

  • JDB says:

    6 Oct6 October 07:07

    September had record high passenger numbers at LHR.

    • ken says:

      6 Oct6 October 10:28

      I remember some people claiming that Heathrow passengers in 2023 would be so low that they should be allowed to gouge customers silly…

      They even had the brass neck to bleat to the CMA.

      Only so long they can rely on ludicrously pessimistic passenger forecasts to support their agenda.

• Simon Bradford says:

  6 Oct6 October 07:11

  Agree about the toilets. Always a queue!

  • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

    6 Oct6 October 09:39

    Since they went unisex. Given a chance to self-sort, mens line will always move faster.

    • Rhys says:

      6 Oct6 October 09:44

      …but even before they went unisex the men’s wasn’t always that fast!

      • yorkieflyer says:

        6 Oct6 October 14:58

        Ah shall we start the gender neutral toilet discussion once again?

        • TGLoyalty says:

          6 Oct6 October 15:03

          It’s a single self contained toilet with no urinal (if I remember correctly) Splitting it for genders was just a waste of time

        • Gordon says:

          6 Oct6 October 17:09

          Let’s please not go there again! That was painful!

• James Wyatt says:

  6 Oct6 October 07:24

  An underused lounge – I love it – but I assume this is a ploy to lure passengers away from the A lounges which are often stuffed to capacity. BA should make more of an effort to inform passengers departing from B & C gates to use this lounge.

  • Richie says:

    6 Oct6 October 07:47

    They do, I’ve been directed to this B lounge.

    • Tom says:

      6 Oct6 October 08:22

      Me too, but only to later discover that my flight was departing an A gate, so that is a long walk back along the -4 tunnel.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        6 Oct6 October 15:04

        It’s really not that long. Maybe 10 mins if you really stroll.

    • Londonsteve says:

      6 Oct6 October 11:12

      How do they inform you? In my experience for short haul they only reveal the gate about 20 minutes before boarding commences. Having not gone to the B gate lounge (because there’s a high chance the flight will depart from the main terminal), if you’re sitting in Galleries N/S, you’ll miss priority boarding by the time you pack up and make it over to the B or C gates.

      How come some airports are able to publicise a boarding gate hours in advance, even when check in opens? It’s so much more comfortable to site oneself in the general vicinity of the boarding gate instead of having to leg it from a main terminal area along with everyone else.

      • Paul says:

        6 Oct6 October 17:46

        Because they are not run by Heathrow Airport.

        BA are responsible for stand plannings and publish gate data at least 3 hours in advance of long haul and as soon as they can for shortfall. Heathrow then stop this information from becoming public until about an hour for long haul and 45 mins for shortfall. This keep passengers in the shopping areas spending.
        When T5 first opened BA ran a campaign with the tag line “bored waiting….board sooner” it was printed on boarding passes and staff had badges. Heathrow Airport management were apoplectic and the whole campaign was canned inside a week.
        You must always remember that Heathrow is a shopping mall with two runways! Nothing more

        • Mike says:

          6 Oct6 October 19:09

          This is the correct answer. Airports want to maximise “dwell time” on the basis it maximises retail spend.

        • Derek Scott says:

          6 Oct6 October 20:39

          Considering how dead the few retail outlets are in B Gates you’d think LHR Ltd would want more footfall there too… tease shoppers in A Terminal and seal the deal for waverers in B/C? Clearly LHR don’t like to deploy psychology of sale, just in-yer-face tactics

      • Froggee says:

        6 Oct6 October 19:21

        Flightstats tends to show the gate way before Heathrow does.

• TimM says:

  6 Oct6 October 07:29

  Initially mis-read it as the “Weeping Angel” bar (i.e. from Doctor Who). I loved the thought of my glass being refilled by a statue every time I blinked.

  • Harry T says:

    6 Oct6 October 08:02

    Good reference!

  • Clayton says:

    6 Oct6 October 10:14

    Oh yes @TimM it’s all fun and games until you turn your back on them. Then it’s all “final call for Timothy. Your flight is about to depart” and you’re stuck by the coffee station unable to move as your now made of stone 😂

    • yorkieflyer says:

      6 Oct6 October 15:04

      Exactly this. Changed from Will depart from C gates to Boarding to Final Call in 10 mins exciting Mrs Yorkieflyer to rush from B lounge to the furthest C gate 61 if I recall correctly. To be fair my nonchalance probably needed challenging as once we’d schelped through the tunnel we were nearly last to board. Wouldn’t wanted to have waited for the train and a walk of shame

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