British Airways’s route network takes it through one of London’s two airports; its primary base at London Heathrow and it’s secondary base at London Gatwick. London Heathrow’s Terminal Five represents the flagship of it’s lounge network. British Airways offers its primary business class lounges, it’s first class lounges and it’s exclusive Concorde Room First Class Lounge. As connecting passengers like we were, we’d stop in to visit the British Airways Galleries South Lounge at London Heathrow airport.

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This post is one chapter on a trip to the South of France and Cinque Terre, Italy. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status and Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan. For information on how this trip was booked, please see our introduction. For parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Review: British Airways Galleries Business Lounge – London Heathrow Terminal 3, United Kingdom

The British Airways Galleries Lounge forms part of the primary lounge network for the British Airways Lounges at London Heathrow Terminal Three. If you’re very lucky, and your flight is departing from nearby London Heathrow Terminal Five, you’ll have access to the British Airways Concorde Room – London Heathrow that we’d visited previously.

If you are passing through London Heathrow – Terminal Three, you may also have access to the excellent Qantas Business Lounge, the Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge, the Cathay Pacific Business Lounge, the American Express Centurion Lounge , and the Priority Pass No 1 Lounge; all of which are available from this departure concourse.

Locating the British Airways Galleries Lounge:

I ended up arriving into London Heathrow on a British Airways Club Europe Nice – London Heathrow flight. Our British Airways Club Suites Business Class London Heathrow – Vancouver flight was departing from London Heathrow Terminal Three. After a visit to the American Express Centurion Lounge – London Heathrow, it was time to explore some other lounges.

The British Airways Galleries Lounge – London Heathrow Terminal Three is centrally located just off the retail zone from the Terminal Three departures concourse. From the main concourse level, its a brief walk in the “F” Lounge Zone from the main atrium.

It is a pretty austere walkway from the retail zone towards the British Airways Galleries lounge. With nothing more than a plane hallway, we approached the lounge entrance.

How to Access the British Airways Galleries Lounge:

It’s fairly straight forward to access the British Airways Galleries Lounge.

Lounge access is available to:

• British Airways customers flying on a scheduled flight in Club or First
• Silver and Gold Executive Club Members on scheduled flights operated by British Airways or one of our oneworld® partners
• Emerald and Sapphire level Members of any oneworld airline frequent flyer programme on a scheduled flight operated by British Airways or one of our oneworld partners
• As a Sapphire or Emerald member you are welcome to invite one single guest per each departure flight to join you in the lounge. (Guest must be travelling on British Airways or one of our oneworld partners).
• All lounge access is subject to capacity restrictions.

If you’re a premium credit card holder and looking for lounge access, you’ll have to visit the No 1 Lounge in LHR Terminal Three as the British Airways Lounge network doesn’t partner with Priority Pass or many credit cards that come with access.

Our access was provided today courtesy of our British Airways Club Suites Business Class London Heathrow – Vancouver flight.

Inside the British Airways Galleries Lounge:

The British Airways Galleries Lounge in London Heathrow is more of a functional space rather than an impressive opulant one. The initial impressions were that of a space that was more of a holding room, rather than a luxurious environment.

After gaining access, we wandered into the lounge. The British Airways Galleries Lounge offers a long rectangular layout, which is somewhat strange for an orientation for a lounge. This orientation leads to a lot of foot traffic at the entrance of the lounge, with a quieter environment the further back into the lounge you go.

After entering the lounge, the first feature of the lounge are the washrooms and the guest services desk.

After passing by this area, which could get a little congested thanks to it’s “Z” shape, we passed by a small snack buffet area. The buffet area consisted of a rail counter, which added to the congestion as a result of the traffic too and from the area.

On the right hand size of the buffet area, there was a small seating area. Since this was the first lounge chair seating, this area tended to be quite busy and, you guessed it, “congested”. The room wasn’t decorated with any real theme. Rather, it was quite plain and functional in nature.

Passing by the first seating area, the lounge gained a little more personality. The main part of the lounge offered a Kids Zone Room, along with fully upholstered lounge chairs. The room was accented with floor to ceiling wine racks, which tried to add a slightly upscale decor to the space.

Towards the end of the formal lounge seating area, there was a Botegga Sparkeling Wine display. This featured Bottega sparkling wine marked with wine coolers on either side of the display. The Bottega display was marked with several free flow self service bottles in proper stemware.

Getting towards the very back of the lounge, the British Airways Galleries Lounge offered a quieter seating area. The British Airways Galleries Lounge offered a long bar, with self service beverages. There were also elegant decorations hung from the ceiling, which added a more upscale touch.

The long bar offered a large amount of self service beverages with the traditional lemon and lime garnishes. The emphasis on the beverages were on various types of gin, along with malt whiskies.

In addition to spirits, there were also several varieties of wine. Despite being a European Lounge, I didn’t find the wines to be all to engaging or impressive for a business lounge.

The British Airways Galleries Lounge London Heathrow continued it’s partnership with Union Coffee. Several coffee machines were available, although I didn’t see many actually using them on our late afternoon visit.

Much like our experience at the British Airways Galleries Lounge – London Heathrow Terminal Five, the lounge was pretty packed with people. Aside from being a bit limited on seat selection, and it’s strange rectangular orientation, the lounge seating was pretty comfortable after you found a seat.

Food and Beverage:

One of the British Airways Galleries Lounges greatest strength’s is the amount of food that’s on offer to travellers. Our experience visiting in the late afternoon was similar to our visit to the British Airways Galleries Lounge – London Heathrow Terminal Five. During our visit in the late afternoon, the lounge had a substantial amount of food available for enjoyment.

Food service was self service buffet style, with virtually unlimited options. In addition to salads, there were hot and cold items off the buffet bar. I enjoyed a basket full of chicken drumettes, which were a nice picnic – like feature to enjoy in a business lounge.

After killing off a three hour connection, we headed off on our connecting British Airways Club Suites London Heathrow – Vancouver flight.

My Thoughts on the British Airways Galleries Lounge:

The British Airways Galleries Lounge offered everything that you’d expect from a solid international business lounge.

The British Airways Galleries Lounge’s best feature was the quality and quantity of food that was available to its visitors. The lounge exceeded all expectations in this regard.

The main disadvantage of the lounge was the busy nature of the place, making it a little difficult to easily find a seat.

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If you’ve visited London Heathrow, do you have a favorite British Airways Galleries Lounge ?

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