What I Liked
- Wide variety of tasty food
- Beautifully designed lounge
- Complimentary bar
- Lounge wasn’t too busy
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The British Airways Lounge in Heathrow Terminal 5B, also written as Terminal 5 B, is the smallest lounge in Terminal 5. It’s also the quietest.
The lounge is located in satellite terminal B. It’s probably my favourite BA business lounge in Terminal 5.
I was there during the lunch service and really liked the food. The spread was varied and everything I tried was cooked properly.
There’s a complimentary bar with a wide variety of drinks. I also like the lounge design. Classy and modern.
Terminal 5B's the sleeper pick of the three British Airways Lounge Heathrow Terminal 5 options, and after this visit I'm fairly convinced it's the one worth seeking out. It’s tucked away in the satellite building, which puts most people off. Their loss.
Getting there takes a bit of effort. You're on a monorail for around ten minutes before you even reach it, which explains why it's so much calmer than the main terminal lounges. Fine by me. If you're heading out on a British Airways Club Suite flight from 5B or 5C, the location actually works in your favour rather than against it.
There's very little natural light in there, which was the one thing that let it down. Everything else, from the buffet counter to the self-pour bar, more than made up for it.
The BA lounge at Heathrow Terminal 5 is open to people with a business class ticket of any Oneworld airline.
It’s also open to people that have silver status with BA and people that have equivalent status with any Oneworld airline.
Don't have BA business class or Oneworld status? You're not locked out of Terminal 5 — the Plaza Premium Lounge at T5 takes Priority Pass instead.
The Lounge Access with Priority Pass
British Airways doesn't sell membership to this lounge — you're either flying business class or you're not, no subscription option.
Priority Pass works differently. Signup here and get a 30% discount. The cheapest membership costs £48, Standard Plus costs £183 for 10 visits — working out at £18.30 each — and Unlimited membership gets you into over 1,900 lounges worldwide.
A lounge visit through Priority Pass is usually far better value than paying for food and drinks in the terminal on top of your flight.
Lounges can fill up though, Priority Pass ones included. I'd pre-book a timeslot for £6 to guarantee entry rather than risk getting turned away.
In terms of location, this lounge is one of three BA business class lounges in Heathrow Terminal 5. There are two lounges in the main terminal building. This one's specifically about the Terminal 5B lounge.
You get there via the transit train from the main terminal building. The journey is about 10 minutes.
Most long haul flights will fly from satellite terminals. These are terminals 5B or 5C, so it's very convenient if you have a long haul flight.
If you're flying back into Heathrow rather than out, it's worth knowing BA has a dedicated post-flight space too — I've reviewed the Heathrow Terminal 5 BA Arrivals Lounge if you fancy freshening up before you head home.
Airport Parking
Parking's one of those jobs that's easy to leave too late, so I sort mine before I fly to Heathrow.
I use Purple Parking — they cover most major UK airports, wherever you're setting off from.
Purple Parking say they're the cheapest airport parking around, and plenty of travellers rate them well on Trustpilot too.
Book your airport parking with Purple Parking here. Booking ahead nearly always beats turning up and paying on the day.
A walk along the South Bank
You don't need a ticket for this one. Walk the Thames path from Westminster Bridge to Tower Bridge and you'll pass Big Ben, the London Eye and the Globe Theatre, all for free. It's the best way to get your bearings in the city. Go at golden hour if you can — the views back across the river are hard to beat.
London in a Day: Tower of London, Westminster & River Cruise
Book your ticket here for $130. It's rated 4.8* from over 1,000 reviews. You get the Tower of London, Westminster and a river cruise all in one day, with a guide doing the queuing and planning for you. It's the priciest of the three, but for a first visit to London it covers the big three in one hit.
London Borough Market and London Bridge Food Tour
You can book here for $118. Rated 4.96* from over 740 reviews. A guide walks you through Borough Market and points you at the stalls actually worth queuing for. Go hungry — this one's about the food, not the sightseeing.
London Sightseeing Walking Tour with 30+ sights
Buy tickets here for $26. Rated 4.97* from over 840 reviews. You'll cover more than 30 sights on foot with a local guide, without paying for a coach or a river cruise. It's the best value of the three, though your legs will know about it by the end.
The lounge's location is in the middle of the terminal. So you’re not right next to the windows. As such, there isn’t loads of natural light coming into the lounge.
It's a mid-sized, rectangular room — nothing fancy in shape, but the buffet counter and self-pour bar make it feel bigger than it is.
The design here follows the same BA playbook I like — exposed wood, chandeliers, nice furniture — but T5B's version feels calmer because so few people make the trip out to it.
This lounge is the most difficult to get to. So it's often the quietest. The lounge wasn’t too busy on this occasion.
There are multiple tea and coffee stations throughout the lounge. The buffet was served on a counter to one side of the lounge.
There was a variety of seating. From tables and chairs, to sofas and low-style lounge seating.
I was at the lounge during the lunch. The buffet menu was excellent. I had an excellent meal.
There was a wide variety of options, served from the buffet counter at one side of the lounge.
The buffet changes, but on this visit it included:
The salad bar and sandwiches were really good. Sandwiches are often served in lounges. In my experience, they are typically awful. These sandwiches were freshly made.
The salad bar was also very good. Lots of freshly made items, like bulgur wheat and pesto covered tomatoes.
I had a range of dishes. Roast potatoes, cheese tart, mushroom pasta, salad and sandwiches.
The tart was lovely. It was warm and had some nice filling. The pasta was decent. You can’t go wrong with pasta! The potatoes were ok. They had none of the flavour of the roast potatoes I make at Christmas!
While the food in this lounge was good, it’s not the best food I’ve had in a British Airways Lounge. That has to be at the lounge in Miami. It had unlimited freshly cooked Filet mignon steak. I (almost!) regretted that I don’t eat meat..
Tea and coffee here is served the same simple way I've seen in other BA lounges. Union Roasters coffee machines dotted the lounge. There was also a selection of teas by Twinings.
There was a wide variety of alcohol. All self-pour, served from dedicated counters. BA offer premium spirits, wine selection and beers.
I wanted a beer. But I knew I was going to have champagne on my flight. So I didn’t want to mix drinks. I had one glass of Prosecco, which was pretty good.
Of the three British Airways Lounge Heathrow Terminal 5 options, the one in 5B is the one I'd go out of my way for. It's quiet, it's classy, and the buffet at lunch was genuinely excellent — the sandwiches and salad bar in particular, which is not a sentence I get to write about airport lounge food very often.
It’s not perfect. Barely any natural light gets in, since you're stuck in the middle of the terminal rather than by a window. The ten-minute transit train ride to get there will put some people off too. But that same inconvenience is exactly why it stays calm.
If you're flying long haul out of Heathrow Terminal 5B or 5C and you've got the entry requirements sorted, this is the lounge I'd point you towards. You'll need business class on any Oneworld airline, or BA silver status or its equivalent. Bottom line: it’s a bit of a trek, but it’s worth the trek.