Introduction
This is the first in a series of several travel blogs of mine, so cut me some slack… I’ve always been an avid traveller and caught the bug for “gaming the system” and getting access to premium cabins, exclusive lounges and free flights using credit cards and various memberships. Today, I’m going to start sharing my experiences, starting with a review of the British Airways Business class lounge in London Gatwick, as well as other benefits you can get as a frequent traveller.
In this trip I was travelling from London Gatwick (LGW) to Palma International Airport (PMI) in Mallorca on Euro Traveller. Although I was in economy, I was able to access the business class lounge through my silver status in the British Airways Executive Club (BAEC).
If you aren’t a member of BAEC I highly suggest signing up (it’s free to do so) and will help you to start earning air miles or Avios points on travel and other interesting ways. For a full guide on the BAEC, the various tiers and benefits that it brings you for being a member, check out my guide here.
I had never previously visited this lounge, so I was excited to see how it would compare to the Heathrow Galleries lounges. To begin I will walk through the fast track service one would experience if going through London Gatwick, starting off with the check in.
Check-in
The check-in experience in Gatwick is great for frequent fliers. The premium check-in area for Exec club members or business class / first class travellers provides a separate area entirely cordoned off from other travellers.
There is also a more exclusive queue for Exec gold members. This would be available to first class travellers as well, however British Airways exclusively operates its first class fleet out of London Heathrow.
I did not have to wait at all before being addressed. I had already checked in online and wanted to drop my bag off. The whole process from start to finish was extremely efficient, taking no longer than 2 minutes from walking through the check-in area.
Speaking to the check-in assistant about where to find the lounge he told me to look out for the JD Sports on the upper floor, as the corridor for the lounge is right next to it. This leads me on to the next part, of how to actually get there the easiest way possible.
Getting to the lounge
The key here is to pay attention once you have passed security. Rather than going with the general traffic through the duty free, follow the signs immediately to the left for ‘Airport Lounges’. This will lead you down a narrow corrider and take you to where you need to go.
It’s not the most obvious indication, as the flow of the airport naturally leads passengers down the escalators into the duty free area. This is however the wrong floor for the lounges, and you will have to end up going back up the escalators to get to the right place.
Once you’ve come out of the corridor across the floor you will see another narrow corridor next to the JD Sports which will take you to the lounges. It’s a quick elevator ride up one more floor to the BA lounge.
The lounge
The lounge reception area opens up with 2 separate entrances. On the left is the BA first class lounge, which is exclusively for Executive Gold members or Oneworld Emerald status passengers, as once again there are no first class fares out of Gatwick at the moment. I am yet to review this lounge but when I do I will leave a link to that for comparisons as well.
Instead to the right, I took the entrance to the business class lounge, which upon entering, I was pleasantly surprised at the size of.
I would recommend walking through the initial set of couches and past the wine wall, as this area lacks a lot of natural light, and walk towards the end of the room where it really starts to open up.
With floor to ceiling windows and excellent views of the apron, the lounge was both inviting and airy. This was surprising when compared to the state of the current Galleries lounges in Heathrow.
With the majority of the long haul fleet flying from there, one would expect the premium cabin experience in Heathrow to be superior, but immediately I was leaning towards the Gatwick lounge.
This does however pale in comparison to Heathrow’s unique offering for first ticketed passengers in the Concorde Room, but the two are not comparative, as only ticketed First Class travellers, BA Gold Guest List or Premier account holders are able to access that prestigious lounge.
For a review on the Concorde Lounge in London Heathrow similar to this one, click on the link here.
Food and coffee
As it was a morning flight I was dying for a coffee. The union roast machines were nothing to write home about and I found to be quite bitter. I’m not picky when it comes to coffee but this is an area I wouldn’t mind to see an improvement.
What I was more impressed about was the food offering. There was a mix of hot and cold, with the typical English breakfast options abound. Although I’m not a vegetarian, I would however have been disappointed if I were, as nearly all the hot food options were pork, minus the hash browns and baked beans.
I went for the pastries and I have to say, they were some of the best I have had in an airport. The pain aux raisin particularly stood out, and I was very content with my breakfast.
Shower suites
With about 1 hour left to board I opted to use the complementary showers in the lounge. I had never done this before so it was new to me, and the process was very simple.
To request a shower suite, you simply have to ask a member of staff sat on reception and they will prep the room for you.
I was asked if I needed any additional items (toothpaste, razor etc) but I was fine with what I had. The suite was much nicer than I had expected, with a modern finish and ample space to get changed.
I was thoroughly impressed with these in a business class lounge, and felt they were more akin to what you would expect in a first class lounge. If you compare the shower suites to what can be experienced in The Concorde Room in Heathrow T5, they are head and shoulders above them.
Conclusion
All in all I came away from this experience with this lounge vastly exceeding my expectations. I went into this thinking that for some reason Gatwick would be inferior to the hard product offered at London Heathrow, maybe because Heathrow charges far more in air passenger duties when flying through, but in all honesty I thought that the business class lounge in Gatwick was a better experience overall.
I would not hesitate to fly out of Gatwick again based on this experience. If its cheaper when flying short haul then I see no reason why not to.
Long haul travel is a different matter, with the majority of the refurbished club suite offering being completed and flying out of Heathrow, you are better served in a much-improved hard product for long haul travel when flying from there.
