Awards for worst lounges?

[simon]

Agadir…. – we travelled over Christmas before BA started flying there- so it may have improved! We opened the door- a very big door- and the curtains were closed- it was 11am! There must have been about 40 people sleeping on the floor and every available chair. Suffice to say we quickly shut the ‘big’ door and waited at the gate! Just weird!

[S879]

I’d give this to Plaza Premium at T5, Heathrow. What an underwhelming experience and so out of touch with food requirements. In the morning there were two bacon dishes, scrambled egg and baked beans. Nothing else. Many people don’t have pork and a lot of people can’t face eggs first thing in the morning. At least put hash browns or something more neutral. Then, there was no concept of a toaster and all you had was sliced bread which no one could toast. This is so dated and many people were looking at each other quite unhappy. My child has gluten and dairy intolerance (no allergy) and there was NOTHING for him other than baked beans as even egg had milk. No gluten free bread or cake/cereal and no alternate milk. Fruit offering was so poor, hardly anything and the portions were so small. Shocking as there are so many celiacs and people with intolerances and for a place like London totally inexcusable not to have anything handy on request. We used our Amex Platinum but I can just imagine the horror of someone who pays and gets this.

[Saltrams]

This was my January ‘24 post on Flyertalk, written in the Pearl Lounge, Marrakech (RAK):
“ Well here I am, in the Pearl Lounge. It is indeed underwhelming; much admin was required in order to enter, the lady gate guardian had our boarding passes for at least 90 seconds & wrote lots of stuff. 🤷🏼‍♀️
…There there is plenty of bottled water in the special tepid fridge. All 4 cans of Coke in the adjacent fridge have been taken since we arrived but the 3 Sprite cans remain. There’s a very pleasant young man making coffee (i.e. pressing the buttons on the self-service machine) and dispensing small cocktail sandwiches & cake upon request. There are 5 or 6 heated buffet service trays with curry, rice, couscous, vegetables, chicken and other varieties of salmonella, which are self-service. Other lounge guests are ripping the @r$e out of this free food bonanza; I just hope they aren’t on our flight when the botulism kicks in.”
Yes, it really is that bad.

[Amy C]

@Saltrams, I was in that very Pearl lounge 8 weeks ago and it was paradise compared to the BA lounge at the other end. The grand piano was odd though!

[memesweeper]

Plaza T5 LHR? Pearl RAK? Nowhere near as bad as the Filoxenia Lounge, Heraklion Airport. The aircon is better than the surrounding departures area, but that’s it for upsides. Food is extremely limited, all pre-packaged and hard to eat (keep chewing, add water, you might get there). Miserable range of soft drinks and a specially blended ‘undrinkable’ wine which ensures no-one can overboard on the booze.

I walked out after ten minutes. Ghastly place to end a great break.

[Chancer]

Star Alliance Silver lounge in Addis Ababa, in terms of F&B…and yet, it was a godsend when my family was allowed in via a voucher issued by a kind airport services rep., when we had a seven hour overnight wait for our next leg. We didn’t qualify for any lounge access, but this was a courtesy on the strength of having a young child.

The lounge area was basic but we at least had a table and chairs compared to the chaos outside. Poor quality toilets, but first class compared to what the airport itself had.

We ate plain boiled rice with salt and pepper, and drank coke and water.

[qc]

The Plaza lounge at Gate 7 in T5 is awful. We were on a flight from Gate 7 which was delayed so we decided to go in – it was heaving with nowhere to sit and they were still allowing people in.

Drinks apart from cheap wine and unbranded spirits had to be paid for. I tried the free Rose – awful!

It’s definitely not worth £40 to go in!

[DanC]

Dublin T2 that is being used for the BA flight to London City. Very poor selection of food. Toilets are grim

[TGLoyalty]

Have to say as a place to sit and kill some time in relative peace Pearl is fine atleast the furniture etc is all clean and tidy, they also let in 5 people with one PP scanned for 2.

Bottled water, soft drinks and a few okay sandwiches. mean it’s a lounge what do you really expect?

PP T5 is dire with rips everywhere floor to ceiling yeah it has crappy food. I know people complain you need to pay a small premium for anything decent but that’s actually the one good thing about it!

[Mouse]

Believe it or not the Marrakech lounge is actually a vast improvement on the windowless room with about 25 uncomfy chairs with no back support wedged together as close as possible that it replaced

[VinZ]

Any lounge at Menara (RAK). Awful!

[pdw8]

Another vote for the lounge at RAK, certainly the one BA used last summer anyway. It was just a sectioned off area of the terminal with a couple of cans, a bartender serving coffee and inedible food.

Bucharest OTP BA contract lounge isn’t much better either.

Stockholm Arlanda BA contract lounge was tiny and rammed full

[Sam]

Can I vote for malpensa t2? Mainly because it doesn’t have a priority pass lounge despite being international

[cin3]

S879 wrote:

I’d give this to Plaza Premium at T5, Heathrow. What an underwhelming experience and so out of touch with food requirements. In the morning there were two bacon dishes, scrambled egg and baked beans. Nothing else. Many people don’t have pork and a lot of people can’t face eggs first thing in the morning. At least put hash browns or something more neutral. Then, there was no concept of a toaster and all you had was sliced bread which no one could toast. This is so dated and many people were looking at each other quite unhappy. My child has gluten and dairy intolerance (no allergy) and there was NOTHING for him other than baked beans as even egg had milk. No gluten free bread or cake/cereal and no alternate milk. Fruit offering was so poor, hardly anything and the portions were so small. Shocking as there are so many celiacs and people with intolerances and for a place like London totally inexcusable not to have anything handy on request. We used our Amex Platinum but I can just imagine the horror of someone who pays and gets this.

This sounds far far superior to the breakfast offerings at many lounges.

[HughM]

I wouldn’t bother with any lounge, at breakfast.

[Sam]

The lounge in T1 Haikou, China is landslide. First for me.

Any other lounges on the wrong/land side?

[memesweeper]

Sam wrote:

The lounge in T1 Haikou, China is landslide. First for me.

Landside lounge, oh woe.
Security’s passed, hope dashed.
Frustration’s sting