Growing Old in Style - British Airways Galleries First

Growing Old in Style – Heathrow Airport and British Airways Galleries First

Index:

With an early morning arrival at Heathrow, there is only one thing to do. Coffee… and laugh at SkyTrax awards.

Thankfully, at Heathrow you can do both at once! After getting a coffee from the 24/7 Costa Coffee, I spotted a list of Heathrow Airport SkyTrax awards…

All for “World’s best airport terminal”. So…. Seoul Incheon, Singapore Changi, and Hong Kong don’t exist then?

After chuckling at that, I headed up to departures – already busy with groups assembling for the morning flights.

I had time on my hand so I sat down for a bit, tried to vlog (the comedic results of that will be soon)

With 5am beckoning and check in terminals opening up – for the last time in my BA Gold days, I headed to the first class check in.

Last time? I’m loosing my BA Gold in February… and I’m fine with that.

I headed over, and was issued my boarding pass by a very nice member of staff and with no luggage to check to Hong Kong – I was on my way.

With that done, it was time to head through security – and at 5am in the morning, its pleasant – especially though the FastTrack.

With those formalities completed, it was time to head to the British Airways Galleries First lounge. Well, it’s a reason to get to the airport early.

British Airways Galleries First

I was welcomed to the lounge and my boarding pass zapped. With that done I headed into the quiet area of the lounge.

Hello Horse!

Got any bright ideas yet for improving British Airways loyalty programmes then? You’re doing better than BA management is already….

Going deeper into the lounge, it was still very quiet – as it should be just after 5am.

It was a quiet morning. Not even an A320 stirred.

Of course, It’s Christmas as Noddy Holder of Slade would shout. This tree was supplied to British Airways… by Harrods.

With breakfast and bubbles being a priority, I headed off to find both.

Hmm. Coffee. Nope. Had one of those.

Cans of drink. Plenty of later on…

Miniatures. WHY?

Muesli and cereals… Nah..

Cold items, Fruit and… BANANA! … Getting close.

Jams, Marmalades and bread… and some cold fruits. Almost… Almost.

Pastries

Fruits and the stuff made from bacterial fermentation of milk.

Ahh. Jackpot. Toast, Bacon, Sausages, Mushrooms, Black Pudding (not a fan), Baked Beans (not a fan), Scrambled egg and Hash Browns.

More toast? Check. Hash Browns and Tomatoes.

With a plate stocked of goodies I headed back to my crash zone to decide what champagne would go best… Taittinger 2006, or or Taittinger Rose?

There were other options too

Some reds…

Or nicely chilled whites

And some orange juice for those who wish to sully their bubbles.

Those who read this blog should not be surprised what I went for.

Taittinger Rose of course.

And the results. Terribly healthy, I know. Oh… and the white camera? That’s another subject completely.

I then got notified of the Gate. And there must be someone at Heathrow that has been on a list and goes “right – he’s on a bus” as the flight I was due to go out on was assigned Gate A10. AGAIN.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Heathrow, Gate A10 is home to the bussing gates at Terminal 5. So a Skytrax award-winning terminal… with bussing.

Sigh.

I would deal with that in due course. So much so, I prepared a short sonnet about Gate A10.

I was pretty satisfied with the help myself section of breakfast, but I knew , there was one thing that could turn this breakfast of champions – Eggs Benedict. Thankfully, one of the staff saw me looking at the À la carte menu, and kindly offered to get me some.

And after a short wait…

And it was delicious. The smoked salmon was light and the egg was done perfectly. The perfect cap-off… and thing to prepare me for A10.

With that, it was time to say goodbye to the lounge.

The Gold Bar.

My normal home in T5 Galleries First. I love those big lumps of B and A there.

Lounge

Maybe we’ll meet again horse with a lamp on its head.

From here it was time to tread the well-worn path back to the Gate A10 Complex.

Off we go in to the main terminal.

The walk to Gate A10 was a brisk one – and rightly so – because by the time I had got there, the first bus had gone.

My boarding pass was blipped as I snuck through FastTrack (with tsks from some of the economy passengers – well someone has to use FastTrack…. and it was going to be me – for once, I had the right privileges for it), and I headed on the bus.

And it was time for another game of Heathrow Sardines.

Eventually, the bus driver decided it would be fun to go for a driver around Heathrow. Eventually, we popped out near T5C, and drove all the way onto the hard stands to meet the waiting Airbus A319.

Lets rock and roll!

Next: British Airways Club Europe London Heathrow to Düsseldorf

Welcome to Economy Class and Beyond – Your no-nonsense guide to network news, honest reviews, with in-depth coverage, unique research as well as the humour and madness as I only know how to deliver.

Follow me on Twitter at @EconomyBeyond for the latest updates! You can also follow me on Instagram too!

Also remember that as well as being part of BoardingArea, we’re also part of BoardingArea.eu, delivering frequent flyer news, miles and points to European reader

Comments

Steve R says

24/12/2015 at 5:09 pm

Good report, info., photos. No showers at BA F Galleries?
- Kevincm says
  
  24/12/2015 at 5:51 pm
  
  There are showers there – I didn’t need to hit them on this trip. Normally quite nice showers… if a little mad in terms of where all the jets are coming and going from…

Growing Old in Style – British Airways Galleries First

Related