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I’ve never been Business before so keen to experience everything! But,
1: Which Heathrow and Singapore business lounges should I visit?
2: What really is the point of a business lounge? I don’t drink and they feed you on the plane?
3: Muslim meals – Are they any good? In Economy, on some airlines, a Muslim mean ends up being rubbish Indian veggie food. A big disappointment, so I end up getting Kosher normally. What is Club World Muslim food like — anyone?
4: Special Assistance – need a wheelchair for my mum. Does special assistance take you from check-in to the business lounge and then to the plane? How do they know when to take you?
5: Should I plan to come say an hour earlier than normal just to experience the business lounge? Is it worth bothering?
6: On arrival in Singapore, I will catch a flight to Malaysia — is there a specific lounge that I should use?
First of all, you might want to change your username.
1. BA 5b at LHR
2. Better than being sat in the common waiting areas.
3. See image below for an example ex LHR.
4. Sorry no first hand experience, but for someone I know, they were taken to the lounge, and then collected from the lounge quite a long time before they should have and taken to the gate area really early.
5. I wouldn’t plan on turning up any earlier than you normally would. Priority check in and fast track security should give you back a few minutes.
6. Sorry, no idea.
Re assistance you can request it before check in. There’s a dedicated area in T5 roughly in the middle of the building opposite check in. You may find you sit there for a while depending on how busy they are.
But if your mum can walk to the lounges then I’d recommend going to Galleries South and speak to Guest services which is on the left hand side of the lounge (ie turn left into the lounge and go past the tables situated near the food)
Then Heathrow assistance will come to the lounge and pick you up to take you to the gate. If you are flying from either B or C gates they will collect you quite early to ensure that you negotiate the train and get to your allocated gate well in time for boarding.
I don’t have recent experience of Heathrow, but at Manchester we’ve pushed ourselves (ie you push your mum) if that saves a few minutes (to 2 hours!) waiting for assistance people to come help push. Gets a bit hairy at security when you’re not sure whether you get any priority through though – whereas the assistance people generally take you (your party) to the front of any queue.
It can be quite variable how early they come fetch you to take you to the gate.
In Singapore you can use Qatar lounge (assuming you are flying on to Malaysian on Malaysian Airlines business class). You can also use this on your way home. Much better than BA !
In Singapore, as you are travelling in Business you can visit Qatar lounge, definitely worth a visit, the food is delicious there and I’m sure they will have Muslim food. Much better than the food in the plane, plus the flight from Singapore departs quite late, so once in the air you can sleep and do not have to wait for the dinner to be served.
6) Depends on which airline you are booked in. As others have said above, if it’s MH, you can access any one World lounge in the same terminal.
Wow! What a wealth of knowledge. Thanks to all for kindly providing your thoughts. This would be the longest flight I’ve been on by some margin so all very exciting. I must plan my actual holiday! And, book the SIN-KUL leg of course!
I would echo the comments of @CH – if you are able to push your Mum (in an airport provided wheelchair) it will save you hanging around waiting for a staff member at each stage or being moved too early. I travelled with my MIL, and was told at the T5 wheelchair area we would need to wait 30-60 minutes for someone to help (and there were lots of people waiting, but plenty of wheelchairs) so I asked if I could do it and they were very pleased. Having said that, she can walk, but just can’t cope with the distances so eg didn’t need assistance to board.
Wow! What a wealth of knowledge. Thanks to all for kindly providing your thoughts. This would be the longest flight I’ve been on by some margin so all very exciting. I must plan my actual holiday! And, book the SIN-KUL leg of course!
If you’re booking the SIN-KUL leg separately, keep in mind that the various OneWorld lounges don’t start opening until around 3pm (6pm for some IIRC), so if your flight is before that you’ll have to make do with the SATS lounge (which MH will send you to anyway if you’re re-checking in at Changi, e.g. if stopping over in Singapore before going on to KL – but you can use any OneWorld lounge if flying Business on MH). SATS is ok-ish, but not a patch on the Qatar and Qantas lounges, maybe on par with BA albeit smaller. I would definitely aim for an evening flight if you want a better lounge experience.
That said, if your plan is to go immediately on to KL as soon as you arrive, but on a separate ticket, make sure you allow enough time for collecting and re-checking any checked luggage etc. BA won’t check through unless it’s all on the same ticket, as I recall. If you’re arriving on BA15, you’ve pretty much only got 1 MH flight option that you can safely connect to; a few more if it’s BA11, but you may want to allow a night-stop in Singapore to avoid stress. If you’re not wedded to OneWorld and/or Business class, there may be more same-day options via Singapore Airlines, Scoot AirAsia, or Batik, but you’d be taking a risk of mis-connection if the BA is delayed.
Edited to add: the Crowne Plaza at Changi is pretty good if you can get it on IHG points at a decent rate (was a bit pricey for cash when I looked, but everything in Singapore is these days…).
For special assistance go to Manage my booking and book which level of assistance you require, sounds like you need option 2 to me, do this at least 48hours before flight.
When you arrive at check in ask them to call you a wheelchair they don’t normally leave business class passengers waiting.
They will take you to lounge and pick you up and take to departure gate.
Add in extra time anything involving wheelchairs/disability takes longer.
They will have booked you assistance at the other end.
Yes you can push yourself but if you aren’t used to this or it’s first time I wouldn’t recommend it but that’s up to you.
If you need assistance when you arrive at airport there’s buttons on kerbside you can press and a wheelchair will be brought to you. There is a limited seating area this is towards end of drop off zone near business/ first wing outside.
6) Depends on which airline you are booked in. As others have said above, if it’s MH, you can access any one World lounge in the same terminal.
Assuming you’re in business class. For status passengers in economy I don’t think the Qatar lounge is accessible, but there are Qantas and BA lounges in the same terminal.
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