What I Liked
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Full English breakfast spread and sandwiches
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A place to get a shower
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Natural light shone into the lounge
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The BA Arrivals Lounge in Heathrow Terminal 5, is for passengers arriving in long haul business. The lounge is located in the Arrivals Hall. Once you’ve gone through immigration and collected your baggage.
I had a short visit to the lounge. Just to do this review! Normally, I want to get home as quick as possible.
The lounge is medium sized. It’s open until 2pm. There’s a decent sized breakfast spread. It’s also a place to get a shower and freshen up.
Arrivals lounges are weird places. They’re aimed at business travellers, who arrive on long haul flights. And want to freshen up before going into work. However, I didn’t see any business people in the arrivals lounge. It was mainly full of curious travellers, like myself!
This review has the full details on what to expect, when you visit. You can click in each photo. To open out the full slideshow.
This lounge is one of six British Airways Lounges in Heathrow Terminal 5. All of the other lounges are departure lounges:
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You’ll access the British Airways Arrivals lounge after you have taken your flight. It’s located in the arrivals hall, after you’ve collected your baggage. This a key difference to departure lounges. Departure lounges are located in the air side of a terminal.
You can access the BA Arrivals Lounge, if you arrive on a long haul flight to Terminal 5. Your flight needs to be with British Airways or American Airlines. You need to fly in business class.
You won’t get entry if you’re arriving from a short haul business flight.
You can also get access, if you’re a British Airways Gold Member. You need to arrive on a long haul flight.
The entry requirements are more stringent than the departure lounges. You can get access to the British Airways departure lounges if you’re a Silver member. You can also access British Airways departure lounges, if you’re flying in short haul business class.
The other option for lounge access in Heathrow Terminal 5 is a Priority Pass Membership. There are two Priority Pass Lounges in Heathrow Terminal 5. The Plaza Premium Lounge and the Club Aspire. Click the links for my reviews.
Priority Pass is the largest airport lounge network in the world. Signup here and get a 30% discount. Membership starts at £48.
I’m generally a fan of the program. But there’s also some things that I don’t like about it!
That being said, I really love Priority Pass. It’s changed the way I view airports.
Standard Plus Membership costs £183 and comes with 10 free lounge visits per year. Each Lounge visit costs £18.30. Great value for unlimited food, unlimited alcohol and your own personal space.
The British Airways arrivals lounge is located in the arrivals hall of Terminal 5. It’s after you pass immigration and collect your baggage.
The lounge is located on the 1st floor. You can take an escalator or a lift to get there.
From the Lounge, you can look outside and see the arrivals hall. There’s a photo of this above.
Arrivals lounges are weird places. By the time I’ve been through immigration and collected my baggage, I want to leave as soon as possible. I just want to go home.
I don’t fancy hanging around an airport terminal, eating sub-standard food.
This is different to a departures lounges. You’re waiting for a flight and have nowhere else to go! So it’s nicer to be in an airport lounge, rather than the terminal seating.
The British Airways arrivals lounge is aimed at business travellers, arriving from a long haul flight. Who want to freshen up and go to work. That being said, I didn’t see any business travellers in the lounge!
I arrived in the lounge at 12pm. Given that the lounge closes at 2pm, it wasn’t very busy.
The lounge has the four main seating areas.
The lounge has an Elemis spa, which offers complimentary treatments. However, the spa was closed when I visited. I don’t know if the spa will be reopening.
From the lounge, you can look out to the arrivals hall. There’s also natural light coming in from the outside.
In terms of design, the lounge was modern. Maybe a little bland. The furniture was all in excellent condition.
If you click the photo above, you can open out the full slideshow. I took a load of photos of the lounge.
The lounge closes at 2pm, so they only offer breakfast. They don’t do a full lunch service. I entered the lounge at 12pm. The following was on offer:
You can basically get a full English breakfast. Which is a nice feature. The British Airways Departures Lounges don’t offer a full English breakfast.
I had some mushrooms and potatoes. They weren’t the best. The mushrooms were under-cooked. The potatoes bad been taken from a freezer and heated in an oven.
I also shared a croissant with my daughter.
The arrivals lounge offers coffee from self service machines. There was also a tea selection from Twinings.
In terms of alcohol, I saw some wine on offer. I didn’t see anything else. Although, I’m sure it’s available, if you asked.
I had a cup of Twinings English Breakfast tea. I didn’t have any wine – obviously!
The British Airways Arrivals Lounge in Heathrow Terminal 5, is a decent facility. It’s a medium sized lounge. You can get a full English breakfast, a cup of coffee and a shower. There’s also natural light, coming into the lounge.
There’s only one hotel in Heathrow Terminal 5. That hotel is the Sofitel. Review here. Every other hotel requires a taxi, to get to the terminal. The hotel is modern. It also has a 24 hour fitness centre.
British Airways flagship business lounge in Terminal 5, is the South Lounge. Review here. The lounge is massive. It has a large drinks selection, cool runway views and a lovely ambience. There’s also a model airport for the kids!
I flew in British Airways Business Class from London to Denver. Review here. The flight was pretty good. The food was tasty and the seat was comfortable. However, one of the flight attendants really disliked my children..