British Airways Galleries Club Lounge LHR Terminal 5A – Review & Trip Report

by Adam Last updated January 21, 2015

This was my first visit to one of the BA Galleries Club Lounges at LHR’s Terminal 5. I visited the lounge located in the North section of Terminal 5A past security. This picture report is part three of a ten part trip report from my travels to the south of France.

My daytime flight from JFK arrived into London in the early evening, smack in the middle of the busy intra-European departure time for the lounge. Needless to say, the lounge was packed. Nothing like the Iberia Madrid lounge from this trip which was peaceful and quiet.

When I first arrived, the only available seating was actually in the separated (see the glass wall in the pictures below) smoking terrace area. Yes, LHR is smoke-free as is the lounge but no one seemed to be enforcing the rules in the terrace area. The good – the area has great plane spotting opportunities and ample seating, the bad is that smoking is permitted (though not allowed). A friend who stopped in the lounge two days later noted no smoke in the lounge.

The lougne emptied out as the evening went on and I was able to find seating in the non terrace area. There are multiple places to find a seat – from a dining area, to sofas, chairs, and work areas. Unfortunately, not all areas had power outlets.

Hot food options included red thai chicken, chicken con carne, baked beans, bean and lentil curry, veggie rice, and penne with mushroom sauce. There were multiple areas with the the same options in order to cut down on the lines. Salad, cheese, and deli meat options were also available.

There were multiple bar and wine areas which were also stocked with water and snacks as well as a separate coffee/tea/cappuccino set-up.

The showers had about a 30 minute wait due to the larger number of guests in the lounge…there were cleaning staff constantly “refreshing” them.

Kids play area…

The lounge is large (there’s an identical lounge in the South section of T5A as well as another Galleries Lounge in T5B) and the food options were good. However, the lounge was packed and seats were hard to find at first. Although only a few years old, it no longer felt all that new…perhaps due to its heavy use.

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Adam

Adam is the proud Founder and CEO of both Point Me to the Plane and point.me. An international consultant turned TV programming strategist, Adam currently works full-time on both websites. His obsession with points and miles dates back to his freshman year at college. After browsing Flyertalk and Mileage Workshop, Adam pulled the trigger and signed up for his first Citibank AAdvantage credit card and MCI phone line (yes, landlines still existed). Back then, both deals were churnable and in no time at all, the college freshman had enough miles to travel to Europe and Asia in First Class for free, multiple times. Needless to say, he was hooked! Fast forward a few years and Adam of course ended up in a career with a heavy travel requirement…which meant extra miles for awards! As his colleagues and friends started to hear about and see pictures from his trips, they wanted in on the secret and Adam began to assist them with their bookings, Juicy Miles was born. At the same time, Adam started an email newsletter to prevent those less obsessed co-workers from squandering their point collection opportunities. The bi-weekly email covered everything from upcoming promotions, guidance on maximizing points, and redemption advice. The distribution quickly expanded outside the office and Point Me to the Plane became a BoardingArea blog.