Heathrow lounges

[exarchaeologist]

Could someone explain airport lounges to me please? We are flying from Heathrow in May half term, and for some reason when we booked our flights to France a few months ago, business class was only £27 more than economy, so we are flying business class. My question is what does that entitle us to at Heathrow, can we use any of the lounges, I see there are a few, or is there one that is run by BA that we can use? I know you can pay to go in some of the lounges, but we wouldn't want to pay anything more, so looking for what is included as part of our tickets. We are going from terminal 5. Thanks!

You can go in the BA business lounge.

Ooh, I love a lounge!!

That's great, OP.

You can use the BA Business lounge at Heathrow. All food and drink is complimentary.

You can use the BA Galleries lounges. There’s one at either end of the main terminal, they get very busy but perfectly adequate. There’s another at the B gates which is much quieter but as you have to take the transit it’s not worth going to that one unless you know you’ll be going from B or C gates.

If you fancy a champagne when you’re in the lounge just ask one of the staff members and they’ll bring you a glass!

Thanks so much everyone, so to be clear it has to be a BA lounge then, we couldn't go in https://no1lounges.com/lounges-by-location/club-aspire-at-heathrow-t5/ for example?

No lots of lounges are pay to enter.
if you’re flying BA you can go to the BA lounge. Or pay to go into another I suppose

The BA lounges may be busy, but the quality of drinks, views and facilities are generally much better than the paid entry lounges. Not that I judge by wine but last year I managed a good tasting session of several decent glasses.
Depending on time of day there’ll be a decent selection of hot buffet food, free pour spirits plus soft drinks.

Why pay to use another lounge anyway?.

Use one of the BA lounges for no additional cost rather than pay for the likes of the number 1 lounge. The Ba lounges at T5 have recently upped their game in terms of food and drink offerings and it’s a lot better than before.

Not unless you have access through another means, I get that lounge through my credit card for example, or you want to pay. But given the choice I’d go with the BA one, if you only need seats for 2 and not a family of 5 you should find a spot easily enough, and the food and drink is much better in the BA ones. If you’re very early for your flight and/or your flight departs from B or C gates then you could always go to the one at the B gates; it’s always really quiet compared to the other 2.

Which terminal? The Qantas lounge at T3 is much nicer than the BA lounge, and depending on when you are flying, they have an a la carte restaurant as well as a buffet.

Great, thank you - we wouldn't want to pay any extra, but wasn't sure if all the lounges were somehow linked, but makes sense BA have their own dedicated ones, so we will use one of those :)

Thank you to everyone for your advice, hopefully one day I will be a seasoned business class traveller!

Don’t go into Aspire. The one in T5 is dreadful. Far too many people at busy times and there is very little choice of food. You’re better off going to one of the airport restaurants.