Review: Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge, London Heathrow Airport (LHR)

We made our way through immigration by 5:20 AM, thanks to the fast track cards we were offered, and the fact that we were one of the first flights through. From there we passed baggage claim (we didn’t check any bags), and walked through Terminal 3’s drab arrivals hall, following the signage to the arrivals lounges.

The Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge is open to arriving Upper Class passengers and Delta Gold Medallion members. Unlike the departures Clubhouse lounge, though, you’re not entitled to a guest here. The lounge is open from 5 AM to 1:30 PM, so it’s mostly for passengers on morning flights who don’t have a hotel to check into yet.

The lounge is located opposite the multi-storey carpark, and requires a walk diagonally across the (small) arrivals hall, and a ride up a lift (the signage is intuitive enough – one of the redeeming qualities of Heathrow’s Terminal 3). The lounge is then located to the right of those lifts.

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow Entrance

We made our way past the automatic doors and went down somewhat of an old downward-sloping hallway into the lounge.

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow Hallway to Lounge

From there we showed the front desk our mobile boarding passes and were promptly admitted entry. We were asked if we’d like a shower immediately, and I decided to get a few pictures of the lounge while my dad was at it. I was informed to tell the front desk agent anytime I wanted a shower.

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow Front Desk

I was expecting the lounge to be some sort of a nice place to sit down and have some breakfast, but wasn’t anticipating the lounge to be so stunning. While the seating area consisted of a single, small room, I liked how well-lit it was, and I appreciated the variety of seating, which was as diverse as it gets given the lounge’s size.

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow

Since our flight was the first Virgin Atlantic flight of the morning to arrive and we were first through immigration (and didn’t have any bags either), the lounge was empty when we arrived, though it soon filled up to a comfortable capacity.

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow

The centerpiece of the lounge was more or less two red sofas facing each other (where we initially elected to sit, though there aren’t any charging ports there), though there were also tables facing each other, with restaurant-style seating, more comfortable armchairs for lounging, and bench seating by the walls.

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow

All the tables were set up for dining, and also included the menu for the morning, which makes sense, since that’s what one of the main purposes of the lounge is for, especially at this early hour.

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow Dining Table

By the side of the lounge was a bar. Technically there’s less utility to a bar here than in the Clubhouse, since this lounge closes at 1:30 PM, and mostly serves as a space for freshening up for a day at work – however, I still appreciated having this space to sit at.

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow Bar

I don’t actually know if the bar serves any alcohol, though I knew that there was juice at the bar, as well as barista made coffee. For some reason I’d already chosen to have coffee onboard the flight here, so I didn’t end up needing a coffee here – but you will get true barista-made coffee, as opposed to coffee whipped up from a machine.

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow Bar

Since arrivals lounges are landside, those looking for plane views will be out of luck here. That said, the multi-storey carpark adjacent to the lounge serves as a good place for planespotting. I didn’t get a chance to do that, since both Dad and I had to make separate errands in the arrivals hall, and we didn’t want to leave our valuables lying around unattended.

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow View (or lack thereof)

Apart from the main seating area, there’s also a separate business center where you can work. I appreciated that there was a cubicle for people who had brought their own devices, though didn’t have to work that much here, as I’d already done so on the flight.

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow Business Center

There’s also a printer (and a baby chair, for what it’s worth).

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow Business Center

On the other side was a luggage storage area, which was handy, since the lounge is landside. In this case we both had small carry-ons that we didn’t want to lug around the lounge with us, so we found this area handy as well. I also appreciated that the cupboards were big, so we could retrieve stuff from our luggage whenever we needed to without having to take our bags out of the cubby holes.

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow Luggage Storage

While the lounge isn’t large, it does have an impressive amount of facilities. The spa and shower suites were all down the same long, straight hallway.

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow Hallway to Showers

The spa menu was located at each table, and read as follows. You get one complimentary treatment (from a limited selection), though you can choose more for an additional cost:

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow Spa Treatment List

The actual room isn’t large or particularly nice, though it’s definitely nice to have the option to get a spa treatment in an arrivals lounge after a longhaul flight. That said, I’m not the biggest fan of massages, so didn’t take advantage of this (while I tried to get my dad to do so, for some reason he didn’t want a massage either, even though he gets a facial every now and then).

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow Spa

Bathrooms are in separately enclosed rooms in this lounge. For some reason there was never a wait, despite there only being three bathrooms – though I suppose you could always use a shower suite for a quick number one.

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow Bathroom

There are 18 separate shower suites, so there was never a wait (British Airways has 96 shower suites at their arrivals lounge, though obviously the airline has more arrivals than Virgin Atlantic has). I was assigned shower suite 18, which was one of the shower suites closest to the lounge (on the contrary, suites 9 and 10 would be the furthest down the hallway, though it’s not that long of a walk).

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow Shower Room Entrance

The shower suite was large enough, and very well laid out. It featured a sink, a toilet, and a shower, and I thought the water pressure was very good.

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow Shower Room

The shower room featured Bumble and Bumble hair care amenities (shampoo and conditioner), and two types of shower gels from Cowshed. Virgin Atlantic works closely with both companies, and Bumble and Bumble actually manages their hair salon in their departures Clubhouse lounge.

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow Shower Room Amenities

Back by the main seating area, there’s a small buffet spread on offer, featuring baked goods, fruit-infused water, cereal, etc.. The staff were very kind as well – when I tried to uncover the wrap that the baked goods were housed in, a staff member came over with a clip so I could remove a cookie with more ease. That said, I’m not sure why there’s wrap over the baked goods – aren’t they fresh for consumption on the day?

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow Buffet Spread

That said, the spread isn’t what Virgin Atlantic’s Revivals lounge is known for. The lounge offers breakfast all the way until 1:30 PM, and offers a range of goods, from sweet, to savoury, to sweet and savoury (maple bacon pancakes).

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow Menu

There was also a drinks menu, featuring a selection of tea and coffee (though once again, I’d had my coffee fix on the plane, and I didn’t actually see that coffee was on offer at the time).

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow Drinks Menu

Instead I chose to go for a smoothie, which was a mixed berry smoothie. It was clearly poured out of a box, since the colour was off, and the texture was odd as well.

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow Smoothie – Mixed Berry

I’d also ordered an egg benedict (which was one egg, but you can ask for a duo – I wasn’t too hungry, so went for a single egg). The poached egg was perfectly textbook, the hollandaise was perfectly seasoned, and the presentation was spot on. This was a very well-executed breakfast dish.

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow Breakfast – Egg Benedict

My dad wanted to go for some English breakfast, but he wasn’t much of a morning meat guy, so chose to have it without the sausage and bacon. He enjoyed his breakfast as well.

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow Breakfast – The Revivals English breakfast, sans Cumberland sausage and bacon

While I was working, I decided to order “the ultimate green smoothie”, since I was feeling healthy. It was a concoction of matcha green tea, banana, almond milk, etc., thrown in a blender – a smoothie so heavy that the menu actually classified it as a breakfast item as opposed to a drink. It felt very much like a liquid breakfast, and was delicious for what it was (as far as healthy smoothies go, since there’s a limit to how delicious healthy things can be).

Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow – Ultimate Green Smoothie

The staff were all-around very friendly. They were also very attentive, and constantly came by to check on us, remembered us when we returned to the lounge after popping out to run some errands in the terminal, etc.. WiFi at the lounge was also free and fast (for some reason my computer refused to load its login page, so I used the WiFi signal from the nearby Aerotel, which my laptop could connect to; fortunately, I’ve found a workaround in the meantime).

One complaint I have is that while power ports were abundant at the bench seats, they weren’t universal power ports. That wasn’t a problem for me since Hong Kong’s power ports are the same as the UK’s, though those traveling from other EU countries or the U.S. etc. might want to bring an adapter if planning to stop by the lounge.

We decided to leave the lounge early so I could get myself a SIM card for London, and then we hopped on what we thought was the Heathrow Express to Paddington to catch our train connection to Bath. Unfortunately the “Heathrow Express” that we hopped on was actually the Heathrow Connect train, but we still got to Paddington with a lot of time to spare.

Bottom Line: Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge London Heathrow

Virgin Atlantic’s Revivals Lounge is a very nice place to freshen up in the morning. I thought it was a thoughtful addition to an otherwise very amazing ground experience. I really liked the high-quality food selection, the showers were great (it’s always nice to have one after a long flight, especially in our case where we wouldn’t have the chance all day), and the service there was great as well. Of course, it wasn’t nearly as involved of an experience as the Clubhouse, which is Virgin Atlantic’s departures lounge at Heathrow – however, since arrivals lounges aren’t used for long layovers, I don’t hold them to as high a standard.

This is the best of the few arrivals lounges I’ve been to – Cathay Pacific’s Arrivals Lounge at Hong Kong is drab, has no natural light, and isn’t nearly as well-equipped, and features a smaller breakfast selection, whereas Swiss doesn’t offer a-la-carte dining or barista-made coffee at their Zurich lounge, even though they do have three bedrooms on offer (I don’t need either a bedroom or a spa at an arrivals lounge, though having the choice is appreciated).

I’m keen to see how British Airways’ arrivals lounge at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 compares in the near future, though something tells me it won’t be up to the same standard.