Review: British Airways Galleries Club Lounge, London Heathrow Terminal 3

Introduction

With a British Airways flight from London Heathrow to Singapore on a Qantas-BA joint venture service, I ventured into the BA Galleries Lounge in Terminal 3 a few hours before my flight, around 5pm.

Terminal 3 is home to all oneworld airlines that aren't British Airways, plus the joint Qantas-BA Kangaroo Route flights to Singapore and Australia.

BA's Galleries lounges are the set-piece lounge offer of the partnership in London, much as Qantas' international business lounge is in Sydney.

So my real question was: is this lounge as good as Sydney's?

Location & Impressions

The lounge is located in Lounge Area F (Heathrow unhelpfully directs you to meaningless letters rather than using, say, airline codes) and is open "until last departure".

Snake your way through the endless duty free shop (which is airport operator BAA's fault, not British Airways'), turn left as soon as you're out and walk past Thomas Pink's stylish shirt shop until you spot the "Airline Lounge" signs.

Down a rather industrial corridor, you'll find the dark blue automatic doors for the BA lounge complex, where I headed for the Galleries Club (business class) section.

Three rather disinterested lounge staffers seemed more interested in talking about holidays in Ibiza than with getting people into the lounge, and they didn't drop their conversation as I and several passengers approached.

The "drop-in" area with comfortable armchairs, power points (EU and UK 240v plus US 110v) is right inside the Club entrance.

Once inside, Galleries Club is split into several areas: a small "drop-in" area with comfortable chairs and power points starts off the lounge, leading into a rather soulless fluorescent-lighted section near the food.

Further in is a section on the left with wine bottles on display and comfortable seats, and a large business area on the right with computers, printers and laptop spaces.

Towards the back of the lounge is the attractive Silver Bar, which contained several relatively upmarket bottles of red and white. The Chenin was especially good.

This isn't the lounge to pick if you want natural light to reset your body clock, though -- while there's a view round the back of the airport, there's not much light coming in.

The "drop-in" area near the entrance, while dark, is a good place to get some work done, as long as you enjoy listening to the lounge staff chatting about their latest holiday.

Access

Business class passengers departing on a British Airways or other oneworld flight are given access to the lounge, and oneworld Sapphire-level frequent flyers (equivalent to Qantas Gold) get in regardless of what class they're flying.

Only business class passengers or BA Gold frequent flyers are allowed a massage or facial session in the Elemis Spa, though.

The Galleries First lounge is available next door for first class passengers and oneworld Emerald tier (Qantas Platinum) cardholders.

Dining

The food area is also the most highly-trafficked area in the lounge, since it's right by the entrance, which is something of a design flaw. I saw a couple of near-misses with plates of bright red curry.

The curry, however, was pretty good -- well up to restaurant quality.

I was impressed by the range of whites. The Chenin Sec would be my pick for a drop before boarding.

I arrived in the early evening to find a reasonable spread of "things in sauce over carbs" -- beef stew, chicken and vegetable curries, rice, and pasta with arrabiata sauce. The chicken jalfrezi I had was delicious, but the pasta was a bit rubbery.

A cold buffet of salads, cheese and meat (with bread) means you can put together a sandwich, and there's soup as well.

Breakfast runs until 12 noon, lunch to noon and 2pm, and dinner between 5 and 7pm. I was there for the dinner hour, and the offerings were slightly less impressive than the Qantas International Business Lounge in Sydney.

The wine selection was impressive, with bottles on offer at the Silver Bar and a separate display closer to the entrance.

The Silver Bar sits in the brightest section of the lounge, all the way to the far end.

The champagne -- Ayala, a lower end label that's much too yeasty and uninteresting for my taste -- is available only from the staff on request.

My advice: the wine is better than the champagne, and you don't have to wait for it to be brought to you. The Chenin was particularly good.

Work

The business area is pretty corporate -- and, frankly, underused. Business travellers seem to bring their own laptops with them.

This area -- on the far right side of the lounge -- is my pick for installing yourself with laptop and glass of wine to get some work done before your flight.

BA's wifi speed was relatively slow (especially when compared with the American Airlines lounge in the same terminal). At 2.6Mbps down and 1Mbps up, you won't get much of a movie downloaded or a file uploaded before your flight.

Power points are well spread across the lounge, although not in the dining area. The "drop-in" area has UK, European and US (with 110v power) power points, so you should be able to charge your electronics before your flight.

More than enough power points in the "drop-in" area, but since this lounge is for all Qantas & BA business class passengers for Australia, why isn't there an Australian plug too?

A business area inside the lounge was nearly empty, with most passengers preferring to use their own laptops. With a busy lounge, the space could have better been used for more quiet seating.

Relax

While the food area got a lot of foot traffic and was quite noisy, the back area by the Silver Bar was a little quieter, with a bit of natural light. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of natural light, and the construction of the building blocks quite a bit of it with overhangs.

At the end of the day, this is a functional lounge for an hour or so's email checking and gadget charging, with a bit of time for a glass of wine and a bite to eat. Luxury is left to the first class lounge.

International newspapers and magazines are available in the food area if you want to catch up on yesterday's news, while showers are also available on request if you want to freshen up.

The windows by the Silver Bar are remarkably badly soundproofed, so unless you enjoy the dull roar of a 747's ground power engine, sit somewhere else.

Summary

As it turned out, I found BA's Galleries Club lounge to be the least attractive of the three oneworld lounges in London Heathrow's Terminal 3.

While it was much better than the problematic BA-Qantas joint venture lounge in Singapore, it fell behind Qantas' light, bright and airy international business lounge in Sydney.

And it's certainly not a patch on BA's other Galleries Club lounges in its flagship Terminal 5, on the top floor of the terminal with loads of light and space.

My advice: skip the BA lounge for the Cathay Pacific lounge, which you're able to access with a business class ticket or a oneworld Sapphire (Qantas Gold) frequent flyer card.

John Walton

Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.