Review: the new Qatar Airways Frequent Flyer lounge in Heathrow Terminal 4

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• Henry Young says:

  12 Feb12 February 11:45

  You neglected to mention that Qatar Silver gets access too. Perhaps that’s supposed to be obvious ? Perhaps there’s too much of a focus on BA around here ?

  • Rob says:

    12 Feb12 February 12:25

    I just copied what’s on the oneworld website! It did cross my mind though given that Qatar Silver gets lounge access in Doha even though BA Bronze doesn’t.

    • Marcw says:

      12 Feb12 February 15:47

      Qatar Silver get lounge access whenever they fly Qatar.

• Londonsteve says:

  12 Feb12 February 11:58

  Why’s is worth Qatar’s while segregating passengers in this way particularly at outstations? For example, Qantas is not only happy to mix it’s own First and Business passengers with those of other OW airlines, it’s also happy to accept OW Emerald and Sapphire status holders flying on Economy tickets with any OW carrier. I assume this is so that the lounge pays its way, but you never hear complaints from Qantas passengers about the ‘class’ of their fellow lounge users, as long as it’s never overcroded that’s all that matters. It’s impossible to tell when looking at other lounge visitors if they’re there via status flying on an Economy ticket or if they actually hold a premium ticket with the airline that runs the lounge. Is this some Arabic thing to ensure that the Middle Eastern elite flying in First and Business have somewhere completely private away from prying eyes?

  • Rob says:

    12 Feb12 February 12:24

    It’s common sense. Qatar wants to provide an uber-premium service for its Business and First Class passengers, which means that it physically cannot accept status-holding Economy passengers. You can’t be offering a restaurant quality waiter served meal with fine wines and champagne to people on a £300 economy flight to Dubai via Doha.

    London isn’t a normal outstation either – it is by far the most important outstation for the airline in terms of passenger yield, especially from Qatari nationals who pay very high fares for ex-Doha flights.

    (Remember BA does the same in New York with a dedicated First Class lounge – no status passengers allowed – at its most important outstation.)

    Frankly it’s also a space issue. I doubt the Premium lounge could have handled everyone. The Qantas lounge in T3 is probably bigger than the two Qatar lounges and the two Plaza lounges in T4 put together.

    • Londonsteve says:

      12 Feb12 February 13:17

      Thanks for the explanation, Rob. I agree, there is an undeniable logic there. Qantas manages to offer restaurant dining and bottomless Aussie bubbly for the price of a OW lounge entry fee chargeable to the airline which sets a high benchmark, but they don’t do this throughout the day, nor is it a ‘silver service’ experience which I imagine Qatar offers to its own First and Business passengers.

    • Patrick says:

      12 Feb12 February 13:29

      I absolutely understand the airlines POV (to a point) and for sure the economics of it, but…

      You can be on a LHR T3 £45 HBO ticket to Europe with BA and enjoy the superb Cathay First lounge (if OWE status). You can be on a Finnair economy ticket to LHR and enjoy the Platinum Wing with OWE status. There are many sweet spots around the oneworld network.

      By all means let the airlines provide a lounge “above” a Oneworld First class lounge, like the Concorde Room or Al Safwa – but they should arguably still provide a proper OW First/business lounge for status holders IMO, rather than offer a lounge “below business”.

      It’s a slippery slope – the same as Qatar insisting the business ticket holder be on a “revenue ticket” to enter the Premium Lounge. Now if this means not a staff ticket, fair enough – but if this excludes an Avios redemption that’s not cool…

      • Novice says:

        12 Feb12 February 13:52

        But how is it fair for the person who has paid for or redeemed a biz/first ticket for an awesome service to then be lumped in with simply status holders who take loads of economy flights or get status some other way and are flying economy but expecting premium service?

        I don’t like that idea. I want it to be exclusive. Less people and frankly the majority of people who fly economy generally lack manners and etiquette.

        I want a quiet experience before my flights, not hoards of status holders getting smashed or whatever.

        If that makes me a snob; not bothered 😂

        • Patrick says:

          12 Feb12 February 14:03

          That’s exactly the reason an airline may offer a higher level lounge, outside of oneworld rules, to offer a true premium experience to the top fare paying pax. Nobody in the BA LHR “First” lounge is on a First ticket – those pax are (should be!) in the superior Concorde room. Really the First lounge should be called the Gold/Emerald Member lounge.

          Status is a carrot to drive loyalty – if the holder of that status purely flys First or business they don’t really need status anyway as their ticket will include it’s benefits to some extent.

          But someone achieving OWE status hasn’t done this on 300x 5TP economy flights – they clearly do a lot of premium cabin flying.

          By all means go further for your passengers that have paid £10,000 return – but don’t create a new class of airline lounge below that of a business lounge.

          And money certainly doesn’t buy class! 😂

        • Novice says:

          12 Feb12 February 14:30

          @patrick I agree that money doesn’t buy class but in my experience money likes to pretend to be classy therefore ppl are likely to act a bit more civilised in business/first then economy.

        • dougzz99 says:

          12 Feb12 February 14:49

          I hate all these business class posho’s crowding the lounges whilst I’m waiting for my economy flight, I’m in there to get smashed using my status. Bloody snobs.

        • VALittleRed says:

          12 Feb12 February 15:05

          @dougzz99 Even if I’m in there cos I’m on a business class ticket, I still enjoy getting smashed, get my money’s worth!

        • Erico1875 says:

          12 Feb12 February 18:31

          Novice
          “frankly the majority of people who fly economy generally lack manners and etiquette”
          No that doesn’t make you a snob. You do sound a bit of a dick though.
          How can you judge someone’s manners based on which ticket they buy?

        • The Savage Squirrel says:

          12 Feb12 February 19:00

          Indeed; your assumptions about which ticket someone holds when you see poor behaviour may be entirely wrong. As you haven’t checked their ticket you are just assuming, and therefore self-reinforcing a prejudice without any information to support it.

          I’d suggest someone who flies a shedload of economy flights, and so has had access to lounge freebies dozens or even hundreds of times already in the last year, and will do again lots of times in the future, is about the least likely person in the room to feel the need to get off their face on free lounge booze…

    • TGLoyalty says:

      12 Feb12 February 14:30

      I genuinely doubt it’s about cost per passenger but rather the exclusivity factor. Basically you can FF your way into their best lounges you must be flying that cabin.

      • Novice says:

        12 Feb12 February 22:19

        All my experience comes from flying economy class whenever I’ve had the misfortune of doing so. It’s nothing to do with lounges so therefore I have come to the conclusions if you give access to economy pax in premium lounges, they are likely to have a bad affect on said premium product

        • Novice says:

          12 Feb12 February 22:26

          @Savage squirrel, then you are in the minority probably I’m afraid. I may sound like a ‘dick’ as called by @eric but I’ve flown a lot of economy because parents don’t fork out thousands on flights for young ppl who start touring whilst still not having flown the nest yet. So, I do have experience of shed loads of economy flights but try to avoid the class like the plague now.

          Maybe it’s a different experience for me. I have very high standards due to ocd.

• Tom says:

  12 Feb12 February 12:55

  The premium check-in is a nice addition – I used it just before Christmas. F has a segregated area where they now take your bag on entry and give you a tag to give to the check-in desk like a five star hotel. It’s a nice idea but quite honestly pointless as this all happens about 20 metres away from the check in desk!

  • babyg says:

    12 Feb12 February 14:19

    My wife is flying LHR-DOH next week…. do the QR business class plebs get the same treatment as first? she likes this kind of thing…

    • Tom says:

      12 Feb12 February 15:20

      I don’t think so unfortunately, J just looked like a standard queue albeit inside the fancy ‘premium’ area barrier. I think there are probably too many J passengers for it to work in practice, given QR normally has 2-3 different flights checking in at the same time from LHR.

      • Chabuddy Geezy says:

        12 Feb12 February 16:02

        They also take your bags for J tickets in my experience.

• Archie says:

  12 Feb12 February 13:05

  Has anyone experience of whether admission to the premium lounge is granted to biz class redemption pax? I do recall seeing they only permitted pax on revenue biz and first bookings. I’m BA gold and travelling on a biz class reward booking to Doha next month – I’ll see if they let me in!

  • Tom says:

    12 Feb12 February 13:19

    Redemption is fine for access, it’s cash bookings made in the lowest Business Light bucket (P) that don’t have premium lounge access.

  • lumma says:

    12 Feb12 February 13:20

    There’s no issue with redemption tickets. It’s the cheapest cash business class tickets that don’t get access to Qatar lounges

    • Novice says:

      12 Feb12 February 13:56

      Well qatar are not being deceptive about it. I personally think if a person really wants lounge access the premium lounge then don’t buy the cheapest ticket. Simple.

  • VALittleRed says:

    12 Feb12 February 14:43

    In addition upgrades from economy cash fares to Business using avios do not get premium lounge access.

• Smid says:

  12 Feb12 February 14:24

  In case you missed this, BA F lounge food is largely the same as BA J class food. As seen by us last week in Gatwick, and others can confirm T3 BA and T5 BA. Same buffet during the day, perhaps a burger on the table menu for F, but it’s the same exact food.

  • VALittleRed says:

    12 Feb12 February 14:45

    You mean Galleries club and Galleries First have the same food on offer at both T3 and T5 LHR?

    • Rob says:

      12 Feb12 February 16:06

      They are saying its the same food where the same item is offered, if that makes sense – eg its the same porridge in both lounges. I can’t confirm either way.

      • VALittleRed says:

        12 Feb12 February 20:11

        Ahh right, makes sense, thanks

  • Harry T says:

    12 Feb12 February 18:06

    All BA food is average to poor, on the ground or in the air.

    • David says:

      12 Feb12 February 19:54

      Thanks for that, you’re clearly the next Tom Parker Bowles.

    • VALittleRed says:

      12 Feb12 February 20:11

      I think that’s possibly a little unfair. Whilst i could agree it often can leave a lot to be desired there are often elements of the food which are nice, issue is mainly BA’s consistency or lack of it, sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s not.

    • Numpty says:

      12 Feb12 February 20:36

      The food in Biz class these days is pretty good. The stuff they serve in Biz lounge just isn’t worth eating, nothing premium about it – which BA know, but don’t do anything about it.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      12 Feb12 February 22:13

      Disagree. Food in CCR/first onboard was good not great but not average / poor

      I also think the first lounge food has some highlights but there are deffo lowlights mixed in

• Numpty says:

  12 Feb12 February 20:45

  Still think there’s a benefit in looking at how Malaysian organise lounge access. Domestic lounge, regional lounge (ie short international flights), then main Biz and First lounges are located in satellite terminal and aimed at mainly long haul flights. Plenty spare capacity in the T5B lounge to copy (or BA could start directing pax to T5B rather than needing to be in the know).

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