LHR T5 first lounge

usually avoid BA like the plague, but i'm booked BA next week and seems i can use the T5 first lounge via oneworld emerald

any hints/tips? i looked on BA's website and google but didn't find much of use, it's clearly no CH but beyond that i've no idea

i guess the main questions i have are...

are there showers?

i'll be wanting a nice brekkie, is the food worth eating? or is it better to head for prunier or gr's plane food?

There is a good thread on on the BA lounges on the BA board on *cough* flyer talk *cough*

Have a look here for the Galleries First lounge menus and
Have a look here for more general information about the lounge

Showers are in the Elemis Spa, but not sure on the 'entry' requirements, could be First and Club World passengers only?

In this day and age it does make me laugh that people still refer to BA as the dark side or avoid them like the plague! The UK is lucky to have two very good airlines. People should take whichever is the best in terms of cost and convenience of schedules. Blind loyalty will cost you huge amounts otherwise...

With Virgin going westwards mostly, it maybe time for some to abandon their predudices!

tbh i used to fly BA often

but over the years BA lost my loyalty - consistent delays (almost every short-medium haul i was on), often miserable cabin crew, declining in-flight service, extra travel time to/from T5, crowded and often dirty lounges

the final straw was paying for BA CW on a short break LHR-IST only to find we're on clapped out planes with pure EC seating (not even adjacent empty seat), poor service and, yes, delayed both ways

imho the erosion of local competition has made BA lazy, it doesn't have to try anymore, so it doesn't

so BA went from being my airline c. 90% of flights to 10%, in the process i'm enjoying few delays and superior service

i'm not blindly loyal to any airline, when I fly LO/JU/LX/etc. the experience is consistently better than BA

tbh i used to fly BA often

but over the years BA lost my loyalty - consistent delays (almost every short-medium haul i was on), often miserable cabin crew, declining in-flight service, extra travel time to/from T5, crowded and often dirty lounges

the final straw was paying for BA CW on a short break LHR-IST only to find we're on clapped out planes with pure EC seating (not even adjacent empty seat), poor service and, yes, delayed both ways

imho the erosion of local competition has made BA lazy, it doesn't have to try anymore, so it doesn't

so BA went from being my airline c. 90% of flights to 10%, in the process i'm enjoying few delays and superior service

i'm not blindly loyal to any airline, when I fly LO/JU/LX/etc. the experience is consistently better than BA

I think many many people thought the same as you sungod, but a lot of people now think BA have turned themselves around, massively improving their customer services standards! In flight services have improved vastly, at the time many think that VS have declined slightly.

I don't quite understand your flight to IST, BA don't sell CW on this route, but do sell CE (the economy seats with the middle seat free, pretty standard in the Europe short haul market), but could of been you were downgraded or last minute change onto a chartered airplane that was economy only? BA often use Titan airways when their aircraft go tech so they can still fly passengers without cancelling the flight.

Hopefully you will see that things have improved when you travel with them next.

a lot of people now think BA have turned themselves around, massively improving their customer services standards! In flight services have improved vastly, at the time many think that VS have declined slightly.

Is this the same BA that's just shafted the vast majority of its FF club members?!

And, without wishing to reignite the "who's better" debate, IMHO offering nothing more than crisps or nuts in ET on a flight to Germany, its overcrowded and lacklustre lounges in its flagship base, its recent downgrading of seat pitch in CE and its 8-across layout in CW do not suggest to me that this is an airline that's "massively improved" standards. The ME3 and the likes of CX put it to shame.

BA got bad, then it got better. Now its heading down the worse way again, people are counting the cuts regularly and the BAEC cut was actually a correction of a relatively generous scheme back to being kind of crap like the rest...

VS was good, got bad a few years ago, and got better, but still isn't anywhere near as good as it was. If it wasn't for the clubhouses, I'd dismiss them, I've already went to BA on price...

My last PE was worse than my first Economy. Foodwise. Drinkwise.