The British Airways Concorde Room at London Heathrow has to be one of most hellacious lounges in the world. Let me tell you about my visit.
First, the lounge looks like grandma’s house. You know, your grandma whose furniture is about two decades out of style. There’s vintage and then there is tacky. The Concorde Room falls into the latter category. The good news is BA is reupholstering the furniture. The bad news is that much of the threadbare furniture still remains and leather won’t get rid of the chips and cracks of years of use.
And with that dour opening, let’s pivot to breakfast. I arrived from Dubai and had a few hours before connecting to New York. I skipped a full English breakfast onboard Qantas First Class specifically because I wanted that in the Concorde Room.
How was it?
Well, first the dining area. I like it. Private booths with high walls, sterling silver cutlery, and cloth napkins. The menu has a number of breakfast items.
The waitress helping me out was quite cheeky.
I asked her, “What is this black pudding that come with breakfast?”
“Don’t ask love, you really don’t want to know.”
I asked Google instead and found it was blood sausage pictured in my plate below (the black disc that could also pass for dark rye toast). I skipped it. The breakfast was underwhelming (eggs were not cold but also not hot) but the cappuccino was drinkable. I only had four.
There is a lunch/dinner menu in the lounge but I was told I could not see it because it wasn’t available until noon.
Just to see what I’ll be missing? No.
I’m going to do a separate post on the Elemis Spa. I had an interesting experience there…
But I also wanted to take a shower and thought it would be a good time to check on cabana availability. BA actually has private rooms with bathroom/showers available to first class passengers. But alas, there was no room in the inn.
Instead, I was directed out of the lounge and to the spa, where I was added to a queue and told to I would be paged…in about an hour. That’s first class service.
When it finally came time to use the lounge, I immediately appreciated why there was such a demand for the showers. The shower rooms were indeed as good as I’ve ever seen onboard Amtrak or at my local hospital. See for yourself:
Refreshed after the shower, I returned to the lounge and sat down for a bit on the terrace overlooking bustling T5 below. It was there I ran into James Dozer from Travel Codex (who I still managed to beat in publishing this review even though we are both two years late…😉).
By this time, the lounge began to fill up and for whatever reason thoughts of a Tokyo subway came to mind.
Personalised Service
It came time to board my flight to New York. I sat waiting for my personal lounge attendant to escort me downstairs and help me into the Rover to drive me over to my aircraft. I waited for about 20 minutes but curiously no one ever came to fetch me. Then I realized, or should I say realised, I was dreaming about the First Class Terminal in Frankfurt.
I bid goodbye to the friendly staff on the way out but they were so busy doing important company business on their cell phones that they did not even acknowledge me. I wasn’t aware that BA used YouTube and iMessage for official work.
CONCLUSION
You cannot miss this lounge, for it is the best one…in London…in T5…operated by British Airways…on the second floor.
In all seriousness, the lounge is not in the same league as first class lounges across the channel in Frankfurt, Munich, and Paris. It is a nice lounge with some first class elements, but ultimately feels worn out. Reupholstering the furniture will help, but the trite “lipstick on a pig” line seems appropriate here. Cheerio.
And right now it is not even in the same league as the Cathay Pacific ones at T3. They are a breath of fresh air and put these BA lounges to “shame, shame, shame…”
I look forward to checking out the new CX lounge: the old one was dreary.
I dunno, this stodgy, humorless CPA actually liked the decor…
Guess I also lucked out with the breakfast experience. I ordered an eggs benedict, and it was actually quite good. Good service all around, for that matter. We were helped right away, and the server in our section was proactive about checking on us and bringing more items. Of course, I also have no other F lounges to compare it to, so granted I probably don’t know what I’ve missed.
I wanted to try to make this piece humorous, but I did not dislike the Concorde Room. Nevertheless, it underscores what seems to be the truth at British Airways: first class is really glorified business class.
I have super mixed feelings about the lounge. I absolutely echo everything you’re saying, Matthew, about the terrible, fiberglass-insert shower/bathroom “cubicles” for which I had to wait a mere 45 minutes. And don’t get me or my partner started on the tired and outdated décor. It seems like it WAS a *really* good Biz lounge in its heyday, but hasn’t seen that heyday for decades.
But I also have had wonderful lunches and dinners in the restaurant with great service. And I think the restaurant’s furnishings are very sleek and modern and well-kept.
Then again every time I’ve been on the terrace that overlooks the terminal, I’ve had absolutely dreadful service from waitstaff who clearly had minimal desire to physically be *at* work, and even less desire to do their job. To the point that my partner and I would order multiple rounds of drinks because we knew it’d be 20-30 minutes before we saw the waitstaff again for a refill. I mean, I guess we could’ve gone to the bar just inside, too, but then what’s the point of having waitstaff anyway?
The saving grace of LHR is that when transiting from a TATL flight to a continental Europe flight, most of the latter fly from T3 and allow you to use the CX and AA lounges which – and it pains me to say this about an American carrier’s lounges – are lightyears ahead of the Concorde Room. Ultimately I think this just reinforces the notion that BA’s F product is just a very, very nice Biz product. But, as Biz offerings get better and better, I’m not sure how much longer we’ll really be able to say that, and BA will just be another LCC masquerading as a full-service legacy carrier.
You should have gone over to the Galleries First lounge. The overall experience (and shower room) would have been better.
Matt,
This is a bit of a cliche/retread post. And I don’t say that because I have a Concorde Room Card and I’ve seen countless bloggers bemoaning this lounge. I write this because I used to really enjoy your material but it seems you are now putting quantity ahead of quality. Please find the voice you once had — I thought your blog before joining was most original and thought provoking.
Keep up the good work,
– The Dude
I enjoyed writing this one. But don’t worry, I’m not about to become a satirical writer. Check back tomorrow on the LHR-JFK flight report.
With your German heritage and loads of travel experience, I’m surprised you never came across black pudding before. (Or was that satirical too?)
There are blood sausages in just about every nation.
Personally, I love it.
Bad first class lounges, what a first world problem. You’re an idiot Matthew.
Cheers David!
Well, if you shoehorned your entire ground staff from Pentonville, your guests would have a comment or two, now wouldn’t they? Honestly, on the ground? Your review JUST ABOUT brings to light the way I felt I was treated by the prison guards… I mean, staff. In the air I really have no complaints [except I only do Club Europe/First/Club World].
Thanks for a clear review of T5, the shopping mall with exits that go to aeroplanes…