British Airways launches new Seattle lounge, confirms Heathrow rebuild for 2026

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• Jimbo says:

  22 Feb22 February 06:14

  Light refreshes all that’s likely until they assess the damage done to tier point system and many of us ditching them for their abandonment of loyalty.

• JDB says:

  22 Feb22 February 07:19

  If the word “decimation” in the last phrase of the article is used in the strict sense of its meaning, we aren’t exactly going to have empty F lounges. How many fewer BA Gold card holders will there actually be and after some leave BAC to obtain equivalent status in another OW scheme, what will be the net reduction in eligible Galleries First passengers?

  • Rich says:

    22 Feb22 February 07:44

    I would really like to see the figures for current members per tier, the predicted shrinkage from April 2026 and then the actuals. Decimation might be too strong a word, but the shrinkage is surely going to be a high %.

    • The Original David says:

      22 Feb22 February 08:10

      There’s some interesting analysis here: https://revman.substack.com/p/bas-missed-opportunity

      • Nico says:

        22 Feb22 February 08:44

        Lot of assumptions, though I agree with the conclusion: it won’t be that many less people entering lounges especially given new IB scheme and RJ.

        • JDB says:

          22 Feb22 February 09:01

          @Nico – yes, the idea (mainly propounded by the haters) that BA will suffer from empty aircraft and/or that lounges will suddenly be empty next spring is for the birds.

        • riku says:

          22 Feb22 February 09:25

          When you fly somewhere like DFW, the BA flights are full of Brits and the AA flights full of Americans. People favour flights by airlines from their own country and it’s only readers of blogs like this that will switch their membership to IB/RJ. The majority of BA members will stay members of BA Club regardless of the changes.

        • Bagoly says:

          22 Feb22 February 10:27

          @riku:
          People favouring flights by airlines from their own country is certainly valid, although the whole code-sharing and alliance action means there is favour of own alliance too.
          LHR-DFW is between two hubs of the same alliance & cartel, which means the nationality effect is undiluted.
          On DFW-FRA a couple of times recently, J seemed to have a majority of Americans.
          I’ll guess either United members and/or on connections.

    • JDB says:

      22 Feb22 February 08:46

      Decimation would mean a reduction of 10% which might not be so far off. Perhaps a bit more, but under 20%.

      • Kevin C says:

        22 Feb22 February 12:49

        That’s the original definition of decimation but the meaning has changed over many years. The most common meaning now is almost total destruction.

        Language evolves. See how quickly ‘staycation’ changed its meaning.

        • JDB says:

          22 Feb22 February 13:06

          I know language evolves, but with a word like decimation it seems an unfortunate evolution when the derivation of the word makes the meaning quite clear.

          The ten per cent is probably also a rather more accurate estimation of the number of Golds to be culled rather than to expect some wholesale cull as modern usage of the word implies.

        • memesweeper says:

          22 Feb22 February 13:41

          “electrocution”

          original meaning: execution with electricity
          then morphed to any death by electricity
          now people lick a nine volt battery and claim to have been electrocuted

          … I’m with JDB, stick with the accurate meaning unless it is arcane/confusing.

        • John says:

          22 Feb22 February 21:09

          The most common meaning of this word now seems to be people trying to be clever by using it in its original meaning with a clarifying preface.

• Yona says:

  22 Feb22 February 07:27

  Typo on the last paragraph guys!

• HAM76 says:

  22 Feb22 February 07:47

  Dining Experience for First sounds like they have closed the small First lounge and reduced the service.

  • James C says:

    22 Feb22 February 08:23

    Yes they have. Though Concorde Dining will be an upgrade for F passengers (and GGL card holders).

• Roy says:

  22 Feb22 February 07:59

  If it were used in the strict sense of the word then it would mean that BA would have killed one in ten of their gold card holders! I hope and presume that this is not what BA have in mind 😀

  • Roy says:

    22 Feb22 February 07:59

    Sorry, that was meant to be a reply to @JDB

  • JDB says:

    22 Feb22 February 08:12

    @Roy – yes, I walked into that one didn’t I?! Only a metaphorical cull. Hopefully nobody even died of their silly apoplexy on announcement.

    It feels more like sensible corporate culling of the worst performing staff each year.

• Sandie de Rougemont says:

  22 Feb22 February 08:03

  Thank heavens Seattle lounge is open again. I didn’t appreciate schlepping all the way to the Alaska lounge!

  • LittleNick says:

    23 Feb23 February 16:02

    Will they let BA Silvers access the BA lounge when flying domestic on Alaskan? BA can be funny at their other US outstation lounges

• Chris W says:

  22 Feb22 February 08:56

  I predict that in maybe 2027 they will convert half the Galleries F lounge into a paid restaurant experience for status pax like KLM have done with the top floor of their Crown Lounge

  • Barrel for Scraping says:

    22 Feb22 February 11:40

    Hope not, the ‘blue’ restaurant in Schiphol is rubbish.

• BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

  22 Feb22 February 09:28

  “It will interesting to see if British Airways intends to shrink Galleries First in Terminal 5, or merge it with the Concorde Room, following the decimation of the Gold card ranks on 1st May 2026.”

  Well good luck with that! They’ll be plenty of ex BA golds who’ll have gained OW Emerald via other airlines so the reduction in F lounge users will hardly be noticeable.

  A merger with the CCR will hack off those with F tickets for starters.

  And how would they shrink the size of the lounge anyway?

  If one of the reasons for the cull is to make the F lounge more pleasant for those that remain reducing the lounge size by 10% or whatever isn’t going to do that because the space that’s left will still be overcrowded.

  • Barrel for Scraping says:

    22 Feb22 February 11:44

    Currently on the same level as the Flounge and CCR is the unused Elemis Spa so surely BA has more space on that floor to play with and I can’t see any sensible way that some of that space could be handed back to the airport as it’s not on a route non lounge passengers would pass through so unattractive for retail. Maybe if they reduced the lounge space they could fit in a gym for people on connections. That would make connecting at LHR more attractive for some and would also mean they’re not eating or drinking in the lounge too.

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