Which British Airways lounges can I use with a British Airways Executive Club Gold card?

In this article I want to look at what British Airways lounges you can access with a British Airways Executive Club Gold card, because it isn’t always totally clear.

Executive Club is British Airways’ frequent flyer program, allowing you to earn Avios and tier points in return for continued loyalty.

Lounge access is one of the perks that many people aspire too when the travel. Nothing beats escaping the crowds of a busy terminal and settling down with some free wine or champagne before a long flight. On some flights, British Airways offers ‘sleeper services’ which allow you to dine in the lounge and enjoy an undisturbed nights’ rest on the flight.

Of course, the lounges are not open to all, and British Airways offers several tiers of lounges depending on your status or booked fare. At Heathrow Terminal 5, British Airways offers three Galleries Club lounges, a Galleries First and the Concorde Room – the most prestigious offering.  This gives you five potential options.

Luckily as a Gold card holder, you are entitled to access any of the British Airways Galleries lounges or oneworld business-class equivalents.

At London Heathrow there are four separate lounges in Terminal 5 – Galleries South (main building), Galleries North (main building), Galleries First (main building) and the Galleries at Terminal 5B satellite.  The only one you cannot access is the Concorde Room.

The most exclusive of these is Galleries First, because it is only available to Gold members.  The other three Galleries lounges have a lower specification and are very busy with Silver cardholders.

If you would like to try the Concorde Room – the most premium of British Airways’ lounge offerings – you must either by flying on a first class ticket or be a Gold Guest List status holder. You can read more about the differences between British Airways Executive Club Gold and Gold Guest List here.

In Heathrow Terminal 3, a British Airways Gold members can use either the main British Airways lounge or the First Class section inside.  However, you would have a far better time in the Cathay Pacific First Class lounge (open to you as a oneworld partner lounge).  Other options include the main Cathay Pacific lounge, the Qantas lounge (brand new) or the average American Airlines lounge.

At London Gatwick, a Gold card holder can access either the main British Airways lounge or the small adjacent First Class area.  I personally prefer the main lounge unless I want to order some a la carte food.

British Airways does not have a lounge at London City Airport although you can pay to use the lounge in the private jet terminal next door.

You can check out what lounges you can use globally, even when flying oneworld partner airlines and not British Airways, on the oneworld alliance website site.

(This article is part of our ‘BA Q&A’ series which explains how British Airways Executive Club works.  You can see all of our ‘BA Q&A’ articles here. )

(Head for Points is the UK’s biggest frequent flyer website with 2.4 million monthly page views.  Want to learn more about earning and spending Avios?  Click here to read our latest news stories and click here to join the mailing list for our weekly or daily email newsletters.)

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

There are also good bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These are available to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.