I wrote about my experience visiting the Concorde Room here on my way up to Edinburgh. I won’t review the flight as I didn’t eat or drink anything apart from a cup of tea on the way up. The food from the way back is further down
In this post:
Lounge location, eligibility, and hours
The lounge is not particularly easy to find if you turn the wrong way out of security like I did! There were only signs to the other lounges in that area. When you come out of Duty-Free after security, turn left and then walk to gate 4/5 to find the lounge, shown as no 12 on the map above.
There are no separate First and Club lounges here – one size fits all for those of BA silver and above status (plus oneworld equivalents) and those travelling in Club Europe or oneworld business class.
Weekend opening
Monday to Friday opening
The lounge and facilities
The lounge felt very spacious when it was empty and there were lots of different seating areas.
Many of the comfy seats also had sockets in between each pair of chairs which was great to see.
It was great that there is still a BA lounge that has ample space for working, unlike the BA First and Concorde room at Heathrow. It seems ironic that this lounge had about 3 times the size of work area than Heathrow.
Within the work zone, there was a printer and the sockets provided were suitable for both EU and UK plugs.
I particularly liked the private booths for working and making phone calls (sadly these sort of things are rarely used by those that are most in need of keeping their phone calls private/quiet!)
If you were planning to eat there were also a number of dining tables, although some were closed off due to Covid.
Closed section with help yourself coffee machines
Food and drink
There was no app ordering unlike Heathrow, I’d guess as it’s not big enough. Instead, they have roped off the self-service area and had 1-2 staff getting things for you. They had a menu on display so at least you didn’t have to keep asking what was there.
The drinks selection was really good with some upmarket options such as the Zacapa 23 year old XO rum which is great but lethal!
It wasn’t the most exciting menu, but I thought it was acceptable for the lounge.
The sandwiches were the usual pre-pandemic quarters plus the paninis to order.
The snack selection was a little pedestrian with custard creams and bourbons displayed artfully – making a purse out of a sow’s ear springs to mind…they also have had those biscuits in the Concorde Terrace. But at least they had some traditional Scottish shortbread too! Hidden away were some slices of cake that were not listed on the menu.
It does make you wonder sometimes if they had a meeting to cut catering budgets and asked if anyone had an idea to sell it to the passengers. I know, let’s do “British Classics” we can bung a load of school dinners on the menu with a few cheap custard creams… everyone loves those!
The champagne was the usual Canard-Duchêne which I don’t mind.
The staff were all happy and friendly as well as pretty efficient.
I actually really enjoyed my visit to the lounge and other than having to wait to be served it felt a bit like the old days. It was a great space to get some work done in peace and quiet. If you wanted to relax there was no shortage of space and plenty of charging points. The only thing that was missing was a great view of the runway.
Flight back to London Heathrow
The flight back was with the same crew who had brought me up the night before. I found them pretty unremarkable. Fairly pleasant, not exactly overexerting themselves but adequate. There was a choice of a chicken salad or vegetarian salad for this lunchtime flight of around an hour.
The crew served in a strange way, not using the trolley but going back to the galley each time. It was annoying if you didn’t know what you wanted to drink as you couldn’t see what they had and they would have to go and check if they weren’t sure. The trolley would have been far easier for the initial service.
I still miss the BA & BMI crews who were based in the regions and used to operate the majority of the shuttle and domestic services. They were great at their job,(they had to be with everyone on a full flight getting a hot meal, drinks and tea & coffee) valued the domestic customers who, after all, were their bread & butter, and could even make the frostiest of Edinburgh’s bankers smile with their wit and banter.