Oh for the LOVE of Avios! British Airways First Class Lounge T5

Hong Kong 3: For the LOVE of Avios! With Swiss and British Airways
The British Airways T5 First Class Lounge

Sections:

• Memo to Self: Stop looking at Booking Engines Late at Night
• Leaving Birmingham, Servisair Lounge, To Zürich with Swiss and OLT Express on LX425
  
• Zürich Night Stop – “Zürich Dayrooms”, Senator Lounge
• LX1952 Barcelona to Zurich
• A Free Tour of Barcelona
• Back to El Prat, Lounge, BA0475 Barcelona – London
• British Airways T5 First Class Lounge (THIS SECTION)
• BA027 London Heathrow – Hong Kong
• Holiday Inn Express Soho, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong Island
• One Time Exception: Macau with TurboJet
• GhettoIFE Special: Images of a Fragrant Harbour
• Lounging Around Hong Kong Airport
  
• BA026 Hong Kong to London Heathrow
• British Airways T5 First Class Lounge, BA484 London Heathrow – Barcelona El Prat
• Barcelona Switch, Lounge, LX1955 Barcelona – Zürich Airport
• Run like the wind, LX424 Zürich – Birmingham Airport, Homeward bound
• Avios? Oh Yes, Oh Yes, OH YEAH!

It’s time to play connect a flight at Heathrow… and to play the game called “hammering my BA Gold Card”

Wandering into Heathrow T5, this is my first time in this terminal amazingly (Being a Star Alliance flyer and only recently making the switch to Oneworld is the reason that I’ve kept away from here).

I followed the dots and the signs – and passed the UK Border Control (you don’t know how weird that is not clearing immigration in your home country) and straight through to Connections area. As I’m departing through T5, I proceeded through conformance, and then headed upstairs for FastTrack security. Thankfully, the queues weren’t massive for FastTrack (although some economy passengers jumped under the tensa-barriers), and I was through without questions after a few minutes.

Being my first time at T5, I didn’t know my way around or where the BA F lounge was (hey, I’m new to this BA Games still). I headed to the North Lounge to find out and be told I actually needed to go to the South Lounge for the First Class lounge. So I toddled all the way back to the south lounges (stopping by the chemist on the way for bits and bobs that help when travelling).

I headed up the Escalators and was welcomed into the Lounge.

British Airways First Class Lounge.
Glasses of Champers consumed… umm… *blush*

The Pictures: http://www.photoblog.com/kevincm/2012/11/28/heathrow-t5-first-class-lounge.html

After entering the lounge there were two priorities. The first was to find a seat with a power socket and the secondly, a glass of the bubbly stuff.

I found a nice spot with a view of the window, and a reasonable distance from both the champagne bars and near enough to grab nibbles and such.

Wine Bar

Seating with a bit of motion. I kinda like the pic. My seats were behind this area

Bubbles! 😀 (I’m on the Rose Bolly… don’t ask).

Racks of wine

The other champagne bar – closer to my seat. Shame. 😉

Hick

After that little exploration (and a hunt for the small rooms), there was a small matter of food. Now, there are two options in a BA F lounge – either going to the food area, or getting something delivered to you. I went with the lazy option and had a burger (without the cheese).

Menu

After a short while they arrived. The burger was very edible – easy to the touch. The wedges were how I like them – nice and crisp on the outside, fluffy on the inside.

However, for those who like to get food themselves, there was a self service area

The staff were cleaning the place regularly, and people were being looked after. This is a much better performance than the joke that was the T3 First Class Lounge a month ago.

WiFi speeds were ok – not exactly trail-blazingly fast, but acceptable for surfing and mail checking.

The Horse with a lamp. No, I don’t get it either.

Looking at the departure board, I saw that BA27 to Hong Kong was going to be departing from Satellite C (T5C). I therefore packed up my troubles, thanked the staff and headed off.

The ever changing cloud

Overall: To put it blunt: one hell of an improvement over the T3 F lounge. It looked good, it worked well, and whilst there were a lot of people there, it didn’t feel crowded at any time. I can see why people rave about this lounge now.

I followed the signed to the intra-terminal shuttle, following the advice of others to take the elevators as the escalators take forever.

However when I got downstairs, I was in for a shock – the transit system had halted due to both trains being broken. And that means only one thing – a long hike to T5C.

Considering the signs had it at a 20 minute walk, I did it in 10 (with the me trailing/following the cabin crew), with a lot of people who were very annoyed the train system had broken down.

Well I had to work off the champagne somehow.

A long way to go….

After clearing T5B and finally being granted access to T5C (yes, there were BAA people doing a destination check, I ascended up into T5C. Like T5A, it’s light and airy… and at a reasonable temperature after you’ve walked a fair distance with a few kg on you back…

(and they weren’t pre-boarding yet. The crew had barely made it aboard).

Settling down, boarding had not commenced as I saw the crew board the plane – indicating that there would be more than a bit of a wait.

Boarding started a bit late – however when the call for elites to board was made, I presented myself at the gate. My boarding pass was beeped, and I was allowed to board.

Next: BA027 London Heathrow – Hong Kong. Or… Slimline seats. 12 hours. Great….