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THE ALVIATOR'S VERDICT
A huge upgrade over the airline's Heathrow lounges, with good seating, cocktails, and some other fun elements. The only thing bringing the lounge down is their surprisingly bad WiFi |
4.5
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As the first leg of my mad trip to Asia, I flew British Airways Club Europe from London to Alicante. I won’t actually be reviewing this flight, as I’ve reviewed British Airways’ Club Europe multiple times. However, this flight flew out of London Gatwick, so I intentionally booked Club Europe so I could visit the British Airways business class lounge at London Gatwick, which I hadn’t reviewed before.
British Airways’ business class lounge at Gatwick is significantly better than the lounge options they have at Heathrow Airport. This is partially because the Gatwick lounge is newer, but also because the airline has recently been rolling out some improvements to their ground experience, which have been introduced at Gatwick but not yet at Heathrow. That’s due to change in a couple of years’ time, though at the moment British Airways offers a competitive ground experience for their premium passengers at Gatwick Airport, whereas they don’t at Heathrow.
Here’s my review of the lounge, including the seating and atmosphere, catering, as well as the lounge’s other facilities.
British Airways Business Lounge Gatwick Access and Opening Hours
British Airways’ business class lounge at Gatwick is open from 5 AM. The closing time varies from 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM depending on the day of the week, which just about covers the airline’s 9:15 PM departure to Bangkok. The airline has later departures than this some days of the week, and I believe sometimes passengers are invited to use the First lounge later in the evening when they close up the business class wing early.
Access is open to the following passengers:
- British Airways Club World and Club Europe passengers
- Passengers flying a Oneworld airline in business class
- Passengers with Oneworld Sapphire status and above flying British Airways
- British Airways Gold cardholders flying Vueling flights ticketed through British Airways
Those with Oneworld Emerald status or flying British Airways first class will have access to the First lounge. I didn’t fall in either category, so only had access to the business class side.
British Airways Business Lounge Gatwick Location
The British Airways lounge is located at Gatwick Airport’s South Terminal. The lounge resides one floor above the rest of the terminal’s lounges, two floors above the departures hall at London Gatwick.
Is it just me, or did Gatwick get a glow-up recently? The departures hall seemed a lot more modern and expansive than I last remembered.
London Gatwick Airport Departures Hall
You can go via the duty free maze and circle back through the main departures hall, though the smarter way is to find the side alley that lets you head directly to all of the airport’s lounges, including the British Airways lounge. This is located directly to the left after security.
London Gatwick Secret Passageway to Lounges
Once you get through this passageway (through the lifts down to the ground floor), you’ll be let out very close to the lounges entryway.
British Airways Lounge Gatwick Entryway
The No1 lounge (which I’ve reviewed before) is located on the lower level, whereas the British Airways lounge is located on the upper level. In this case I took the stairs, and headed over the lounge’s entryway, which looked as follows:
British Airways Lounge Gatwick Entrance
I was welcomed into the lounge by a friendly lounge attendant. The business class side of the lounge is located right of the entrance, whereas first class passengers will be pointed to the left.
British Airways Business Lounge Gatwick Seating and Atmosphere
The British Airways business class lounge at Gatwick Airport is spread out across two floors, with a much larger ground floor and a smaller mezzanine floor. The ground floor features a series of partitioned rooms.
Closest to the door is a conventional lounging area, featuring sofas and coffee/side tables.
British Airways Business Class Lounge Gatwick Seating
Next up, you’ll find the lounge’s bar, which I’ll cover separately below. The bar area is a new addition to the lounge, and only opened a few months ago. I like the high ceilings, as well as the more cocktail bar-style seating.
British Airways Business Class Lounge Gatwick Bar Seating
Past the bar is a tea area. There are some wine bottles on display here (presumably as it’s proximate to the bar), though this area isn’t where you’d find wine in the lounge.
British Airways Business Class Lounge Tea Area
Past the tea area is a coffee area with Union coffee branding. The lounge’s coffee machines are among the better ones out there, though there isn’t any barista coffee here, sadly.
British Airways Business Class Lounge Gatwick Coffee Area
Here is also where you’ll find the food spread, as well as the lounge’s self-serve bar.
British Airways Business Class Lounge Food and Self-Serve Bar Spread
Afterwards, the lounge opens up, where you get more natural light, as well as a view of the mezzanine floor. This area of the lounge is where you’ll find a majority of the food and beverage spread, and also where most people decided to settle within the lounge.
There’s a good variety of seating here, including sofas and armchairs of many sorts. I quite like how this lounge is designed as well (once again I prefer this to the lounge design at Heathrow’s T5).
British Airways Business Class Lounge Gatwick Seating
There’s good partitioning throughout these areas, and you’ll find some larger communal sofas as well, which could be good for big groups.
British Airways Business Class Lounge Gatwick Sofas
There’s some workstation-style seating facing the tarmac as well, fitted with power ports (there’s also a separate business centre, if you’re looking for a proper work setup).
British Airways Business Class Lounge Gatwick Workstations
There are some of British Airways’ signature private lounge pods as well.
British Airways Business Class Lounge Gatwick Pods
Tarmac views are brilliant at this lounge – there’s a clear top-down view of gate 10, as well as gates on that side of the main airport terminal. You also get views of flights taking off from runway 08R in the distance.
British Airways Business Class Lounge Gatwick Tarmac Views
As I mentioned, the lounge also features a mezzanine floor. Albeit the ground floor being fairly at capacity, nobody really chose to sit up here, so I enjoyed having this space to myself. I found the mezzanine floor to be beautifully appointed, featuring a large oval wooden bench and chairs, and some tables and chairs round the side.
British Airways Business Class Lounge Gatwick Mezzanine Seating
There were also some sofas fit for families (this is where I decided to perch during my stay in the lounge).
British Airways Business Class Lounge Gatwick Mezzanine Lounge Seating
At the end was a Brewdog-branded self-serve pub area. I’ll talk a bit more about this area later, though the area was well-appointed, featuring Brewdog signs and branding, as well as more pub-style high-top seating.
British Airways Business Class Lounge Gatwick Brewdog Bar
Then on the other side of the mezzanine floor, there was more high-top work seating, as well as more armchairs.
British Airways Business Class Lounge Gatwick Seating
Perhaps I’m more impressed by the contrast between this and the airline’s Heathrow lounges. However, I found the lounge to be beautifully appointed, and reasonably sized. This was a fairly busy Sunday afternoon (my flight out to Alicante was full), and there was plenty of empty seating throughout the lounge. I also appreciated the range of seating, between more high-top work-style seating, to coffee table seating, to restaurant-style seating.
The only complaint (and this is relatively major) I will have is that WiFi was incredibly slow throughout the lounge. It wasn’t unusable, though a London lounge should be able to do better than 1.99 Mbps down and 0.64 Mbps up.
British Airways Business Lounge Gatwick Food and Beverage
The British Airways business class lounge at Gatwick features a decently sized food spread. At 2 PM on this Sunday afternoon, the main hot food spread featured items such as sweet potato pineapple curry, Spanish chicken, jumbo fish fingers, and beef bolognese pasta.
British Airways Business Class Lounge Gatwick Food Spread
To the side, there were some scones and tea cakes.
British Airways Business Class Lounge Gatwick Food Spread
Then there were a few sandwiches to choose from.
British Airways Business Class Lounge Gatwick Food Spread
Additionally, there was a salad bar, as well as some other cold options.
British Airways Business Class Lounge Gatwick Food Spread
The lounge features a self-serve bar, where you’ll find various forms of juice as well as wine (including prosecco, but not champagne). You’ll also find a self-serve selection of spirits. While at most British Airways business class lounges you can flag down a lounge attendant to ask for a glass of champagne, in the case of this lounge, champagne is served at the bar.
British Airways Business Class Lounge Gatwick Drinks Spread
I wouldn’t say the food spread was particularly impressive or attractive, though the couple of bites I did have were quite good-quality, and didn’t feel stale.
British Airways Business Lounge Gatwick Bar
One of the newest additions to the British Airways lounge at Gatwick is that there’s a manned bar. This is a feature that doesn’t exist at the airline’s Heathrow business class lounges, so it was quite a thrill to get a (non pre-mixed) cocktail in a British Airways lounge.
Lounge attendants may be spread slightly thin throughout the lounge, so it may take a couple of minutes for you to catch the attention of someone who would be able to make you a drink.
British Airways Business Class Lounge Gatwick Bar
The lounge’s menu focuses on spritz – there are a few forms of spritz, Buck’s Fizz, as well as a negroni sbagliato. Occasionally you’ll find more festive specialties as well – I know from reading other reports that they did a Christmas-themed one last year, though mid-November wasn’t close enough to Christmas, unfortunately.
British Airways Business Class Lounge Gatwick Spritz Menu
I decided to go for an aperol spritz, which was mixed on the spot by a lounge attendant. This was served in a slightly unconventional glass, and I also thought the portion was smaller than I would’ve liked, though I could’ve always asked for a second one if I wanted.
British Airways Business Class Lounge Gatwick Aperol Spritz
This is a fun addition that contributed to my overall favourable impression of the lounge.
British Airways Business Lounge Gatwick Business Centre
British Airways’ Gatwick lounge features a proper business centre. This was deserted during my stay on a Sunday afternoon, though it looked well-appointed, with big working tables and power ports.
British Airways Business Class Lounge Gatwick Business Centre
British Airways Business Lounge Gatwick Brewdog Pub Area
As mentioned earlier in the review, British Airways collaborated with Brewdog to set up a self-serve draught beer area. There are two IPAs (Punk/Wingman) on draught, and there’s canned beer in the fridge as well. This was well-executed, as the beer tasted cold and fresh (admittedly the space is probably still too new for the draft pipes to degrade).
British Airways Business Class Lounge Gatwick Brewdog Pub Area
I only saw a couple of people come up to get beers here, and almost wished the space was used more.
British Airways Business Lounge Gatwick Play Room
If you’re travelling with younger ones, there’s a well-kitted out play room located by the main lounge area, next to the washrooms. This seemed like one of the more extensive playrooms I’ve seen, though admittedly I don’t usually spend my lounge time here (as a 24-year-old man travelling solo, that would be quite odd).
British Airways Business Class Lounge Gatwick Play Room
British Airways Business Lounge Gatwick Shower Room
The British Airways lounge at Gatwick has four shower rooms, shared between the first and business class lounges. I didn’t use a shower during my stay, though requested if I could take a peek, so I could get a photo for the blog.
The shower rooms are standard, and look nice. However, these are so much more well-appointed compared to the hospital-style showers at Heathrow.
British Airways Business Class Lounge Gatwick Shower Room
British Airways Business Lounge Gatwick Service
Everyone I interacted with at the lounge was friendly – there seems to be better training generally amongst Gatwick Airport’s ground staff compared to Heathrow Airport’s ground staff, at least in British Airways lounges. The only non self-serve elements of this lounge are the bar and the showers, and in both cases I had good interactions, albeit there being a short wait before someone was available to make me a drink.
Based on a short chat with some lounge attendants, I gather that multiple people comment on how much better this lounge is compared to the Heathrow equivalents. I’d like to encourage the lounge staff at this lounge to continue taking pride in this lounge, as it is very good.
Conclusion: British Airways Business Lounge Gatwick
The British Airways lounge at Gatwick is a great lounge – it gets most of the basics right, has great drinks (and acceptable food), and I like the seating options. The lounge’s manned bar and Brewdog self-serve bar are fun additions, the lounge is big enough with good natural light that it feels pleasant to sit in, and the staff are friendly. If I had access, I’d definitely make a point to pop into the lounge for a drink, even though I wouldn’t spend far too long here.
I can’t stress how much more I enjoyed this lounge experience compared to the airport’s lounges at Heathrow. Apart from being crowded, I found those lounges to be more devoid of character, with fewer features and less varied seating.
The one thing that this lounge can really improve is their WiFi – I’ve had faster WiFi onboard British Airways planes compared to what I experienced at this lounge. However, that’s an easy fix, and will only be an issue to you if you’ve come to get some work done.
Have you been to the British Airways lounge at Gatwick Airport? How was your experience?
