A few days ago I discussed the upcoming move of BA from the North to South terminals at Gatwick and the new lounges. Unfortunately things have not exactly gone according to plan! The lounges were due to open today, the first official day for BA at the South Terminal. Due to the electrical work not being signed off in time, the lounges have failed to open on time. This does not reflect very well on British Airways. They have at least put reasonable arrangements in place for the time being. At check-in in passengers are being handed a letter with details of the temporary lounges and a map. The letter states that the lounges will be opening in the near future and staff at Gatwick are saying “in the next few days”. Hopefully they will be open for my review in February.
In this post:
Temporary arrangements
Travellers in First and BAEC Gold members
These passengers can use the No. 1 Clubrooms Lounge. New York, Bermuda and Jersey passengers can also use this lounge for some reason.
Unfortunately this is quite a small lounge and they have apparently already been running out of room. The lounge itself is very similar to the Club rooms at North Terminal which BA have been using up to now. Food and drinks are ordered from waiting staff. There is a decent selection of food on the menu which is high quality. Champagne (Castelnau) and Prosecco are available free of charge. The official page for the clubrooms is here.
Club Europe, Club World and Silver passengers
These passengers can use the Speedbird Lounge. This is a temporary arrangement in the former Virgin Clubroom.
It is open from 05:30 until the last flight. The food and drink on offer is fairly standard BA Club Lounge fare but no Champagne, only Prosecco. It hopefully won’t suffer the same overcrowding as the temporary North lounge arrangements as it is only for BA customers. It is also staffed by BA staff which is useful.
UPDATE: Both the Club and First Lounges are now fully open. You can read my review of the new Club lounge here and the First lounge here.
