Review: the LNER First Class Lounge at London Kings Cross railway station

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• Alex says:

  14 Apr14 April 08:38

  The reason these still work quite well is that unlike airports, railway stations are always a crap place to wait

  • RussellH says:

    14 Apr14 April 11:02

    That is a matter of taste.
    I find waiting at airports quite awful, unless there is a decent lounge (and I do not often have access to one).
    Waiting at a rail station though I find quite enjoyable – with one exception, the Eurostar waiting areas in London, Paris and Bruxelles which have all the ambience of an EasyJet or Ryanair waiting area a a remote gate. Even the Business lounge at St. P is nothing to write home about, though obviously better than the rammy in the main waiting area.

  • The Savage Squirrel says:

    14 Apr14 April 11:24

    Well my local station has a historic hotel with beautifully renovated public areas and an acclaimed real ale pub, both attached – and both far better than any soulless business lounge. But anyway, as this is Kings X….

    … even if not drinking, there are worse ways to spend an hour than in the Parcel Yard or GNH bar 🙂

    • RussellH says:

      14 Apr14 April 15:10

      No personal experience, but I have heard good things about the Parcel Yard

      • lumma says:

        14 Apr14 April 19:57

        It’s very good, but had extremely unpleasant toilets for something not that old, can sometimes smell them from the overflow tables in the corridor

• Kev says:

  14 Apr14 April 09:04

  It is good to have access to the LNER first class lounges for a hot drink and chilled water and tasty shortbread and sometimes some Love Corn snacks. This is my main train company for travel along the East Coast and we often use the lounges at KGX, EDI, NCL, YRK, DON and BWK. Really good point that you can use before and after travel. I wish more fresh fruit was available as this is often in short supply or non-existent.

  The Avanti Euston lounge for West Coast travel is much better IMO in terms of fresh smoked salmon, cheese treats, tasty cakes and other snacks pre-departure. Sadly, this is not replicated at MAN or GLC.

  I agree that EMT have really saved on the £’s by closing their lounges at STP, SHF and DBY since COVID. It does make the wait at the albeit beautiful St Pancras station such that a mooch around the shops at ground level is more likely. The ex-lounge space is now used for assisted travel support. EMT used to offer a complimentary glass of wine before late afternoon departures in their lounges at SHF and STP!

  Oh well, back to the airport lounge on Wednesday where some champagne should be chilling!

• Paul says:

  14 Apr14 April 09:05

  Is it ever cheaper to travel by train than to fly to Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow first class. Personally I have never been able to find a standard class return for sub £100 return, but I often get flights around £120 return. Even if I factor in my railcard I just cannot get trains to work from west (Reading area) north.
  Recently my son travelled last minute from Lyon to CDG for just 16 Euro on TGV that took 2 hrs. We have just got trains so wrong in Britain

  • Ruralite says:

    14 Apr14 April 15:47

    Our son lives in the Reading area & through fares are really overpriced, I generally buy LNER return to King’s X then a separate ticket from Paddington to Reading as it’s usually much cheaper that way. Although often the GWR ticket (off peak) can cost the same/more than Don to King’s X 2nd class but I believe GWR is renowned for being expensive & poor quality!

    • Kev I says:

      14 Apr14 April 18:36

      We travel via Reading and there is no need to buy a Paddington to Reading GWR ticket if you use a contactless card when you travel from KIngs X to Paddington just tap in again at Paddington and out at Reading and the total journey is £15.70 off peak GWR charge £25 just for the Paddington to Reading bit.

      • Ruralite says:

        14 Apr14 April 20:45

        Thank you, will try that next time!

  • Rich says:

    15 Apr15 April 09:30

    By contrast, if you want to go from Lyon to CDG today, the next three trains are fully booked (which can’t happen in the UK).

    The following one is Ouigo (no-frills Ryanair style operator) for £90.

    Then four more fully booked, followed by one sole SNCF train at £75 in 10 hours’ time.

    Be careful what you wish for.

• phantomchickenz says:

  14 Apr14 April 09:30

  What are the methods of gaining access – is it just first class ticket holders, or is there some credit card cleverness to be had?

  • Rob says:

    14 Apr14 April 09:35

    First Class tickets only

    • TGLoyalty says:

      14 Apr14 April 11:19

      Do you not think there is a gap in the market here? Or is the gap just being catered for by Starbucks or some other awful coffee chain?

      • executiveclubber says:

        14 Apr14 April 13:36

        For an independent lounge operator? Rents are sky-high at stations and can’t see the market being particularly receptive

        • TGLoyalty says:

          14 Apr14 April 18:26

          Personally I much prefer a nice pub but still think a decent lounge with free soft drinks/coffee and paid for alcohol could do well.

      • Rob says:

        14 Apr14 April 15:41

        Remember that Virgin East Coast only allowed full fare F holders in. I think Advanced F had to pay.

        I have thought that Priority Pass could do something here.

        • Danny says:

          14 Apr14 April 17:25

          East Coast only allowed full fare.

          It was Virgin that eventually allowed advance tickets in.

• apbj says:

  14 Apr14 April 09:32

  This review underscores how poor GWR is compared to other long-distance operators. The lounge at Paddington is in a terrible state: a cramped hospital waiting room full of filthy, broken furniture and catered with water, coffee and packaged egg sandwiches. And onboard, the catering is woeful – even on weekdays you’re lucky to get a sandwich; no hot food, just biscuits and crisps. Even with only a handful of passengers it’s usually one pass of the trolley between Paddington and Taunton (1.5 hours) and large chunks of the journey are off-limits due to “staff and stock changing” which seems to involve a lot of chat. LNER and Avanti are far better value in first class, which shows the power of competition (between themselves and airlines).

  • Josh B says:

    14 Apr14 April 20:24

    GWR first is a joke. I rarely even bother paying the Seatfrog cost to upgrade on it (and I travel on GWR a lot)

• Dmm says:

  14 Apr14 April 09:41

  Worth getting the LNER app as every so often they give you a free lounge pass that you can use if travelling on a standard ticket.

• barnaby100 says:

  14 Apr14 April 10:11

  Shrink wrapped muffins must be a morning thing. I go in at least once a week to get a train at 17.36 and have never seen a muffin. The biscuits are very nice-my dog loves the plain shortbread and gets very excited when he sees the packet.

  Rarely see an unoccupied seat either – piles of luggage and people everywhere. Have had to leave a few times since Christmas as there were simply no seats (and not on a day with delays)

  Does have great female loos- the one at the front is rather large.

• lumma says:

  14 Apr14 April 10:25

  When you consider how busy the Parcel Yard pub is, I think it’s a missed opportunity not to have a paid bar inside this lounge.

  I think they used to sell bottles of the Hop on Board ale in the Virgin Trains East Coast days but not even that now

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