Are airport business lounges worth it?
Are airport business lounges worth it?
Following a recent flight cancellation, I feared I would be asked to start paying rent having ended up spending so much time at Heathrow. After the cancelled flight I was given a new ticket for a later one, but despite it saying ‘booking status: confirmed’ I couldn’t get a boarding pass and was told at the gate that this was because the flight was full.
Airlines must live in a parallel universe where a confirmed booking for a ticket for a flight isn’t anything of the sort and not worth the paper it is printed on.
My third possible flight of the day, around 13 hours after the first one, was delayed. Then at last when we were all on board there was a mismatch between the number of passengers counted and those on the system, delaying things further.
When the crew still couldn’t consolidate the numbers, the captain made an announcement asking us all to think back to see whether we had gone through the gate without scanning our boarding card.
Fifteen minutes later he said as they still couldn’t match the numbers, could we double check our destination, were we sure we were on the correct flight?
By this time I was getting a bit concerned: if they were flummoxed by something as simple as boarding passengers, what were they going to be like understanding all those pesky little switches and displays and levers in the cockpit, or perhaps things like managing to close the doors properly in the cabin?
The pilot then announced that the problem was sorted - only to say five minutes later that it wasn’t. We finally were ready to go 90 minutes after the flight had been scheduled and nearly 14 hours after I was first supposed to depart.
To make this long day’s events even more surprising, the airline in question is widely thought to be one of the world’s best.
However, this complete shambles did give me an opportunity to review a couple of business lounges during my day trip to Heathrow Terminal 2, and the difference in quality was stark.
As a general rule, lounges run by airlines are generally better - some are very plush indeed - while those owned by other companies can vary greatly in quality. The first one I tried was one of the latter type, not operated by an airline - Plaza Premium Lounge.
Here, you typically currently pay £42.77 for two hours in the lounge, and £67.50 for six hours. If you want a shower, that’s £25 extra (for a maximum of 30 minutes).
You can also a select a private resting area (your own little room), but you’ll need to speak to your mortgage adviser if you want that too.
Ok, well, six hours in the resting area is £165, for a double room.
I should imagine most passengers only use a business lounge for an hour or so, once they’ve got through security and the mini-shopping centre at many airports.
The Plaza Premium Lounge has some snazzy photos on their website, but it’s actually rather gloomy, windowless and was pretty crowded and the staff quite surly the day I was there. There were no complimentary newspapers or magazines and many of the drinks cost extra. The food was very average indeed, something you’d typically get at a two- or possibly three-star hotel.
Breakfast consisted of coffee from a machine, a small choice of low fat yoghurt, low quality croissants and Danish pastries, slices of cheap cheddar and an orange cheese of unknown provenance, budget quality bread, fruit salad and a hot buffet consisting of just scrambled egg, baked beans, sausages and mushrooms, and no tomato or bacon, as you would usually get.
When I returned to the lounge after my flight was cancelled I was told I couldn’t re-enter, my time was up.
With an experience like that you’d be better off spending your cash on a meal or drinks at one of the restaurants or bars in the airport, it represented poor value for money.
When I found I was going to have to wait hours more for my replacement flight I checked into Lufthansa’s business lounge, also in Terminal 2. This was a completely different experience. Access is rather more complicated, you need to be flying with Lufthansa or one of its sister airlines (Austrian, Brussels or Swiss), or have some deal with a credit card like American Express or similar, and sometimes economy passengers can pay for access.
This was a completely different experience. The lounge is spacious, spotless, light and tranquil, with a slick contemporary design and large windows looking onto the runway. The staff were very attentive when I visited, there was a good choice of complimentary magazines and newspapers, and a departures board showing current flight statuses. The food was delicious and a large choice of free drinks. There was a choice of workspaces and desks, dining tables, armchairs to lounge in and loungers if you wanted to sleep. The only bugbear was not being able to get the wifi to work.
So it’s a good idea to read reviews before you pay for a business lounge - the term is a very vague one these days.