Coronavirus: British Airways closing some Heathrow lounges from Tuesday

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I just wanted to drop this in quickly for anyone who is flying on Tuesday.

According to a post on Flyertalk on Monday evening from someone who is known to be a British Airways employee, the Terminal 5 Galleries North lounge and the Terminal 5B Galleries lounge will be closed from Tuesday.

British Airways lounge closures

The other lounges will reportedly remain open:

Terminal 5 Galleries South

Terminal 5 Galleries First (which is at the South end)

The Concorde Room (which is at the South end)

The lounges in Terminal 3 and Gatwick South will also remain open.

If it turns out that there are any changes to this tomorrow, we will write an update.

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British Airways and Avios

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

TripRep says:

17 Mar17 March 05:44

Good we should not be traveling right now.

This virus has an exponential growth rate with huge transmissibility.
Colin MacKinnon says:

17 Mar17 March 07:10

What about the T3 arrivals lounge?
- ChrisC says:
  
  17 Mar17 March 07:23
  
  That’s an AA lounge.
AJA says:

17 Mar17 March 07:25

This is sad news. It’s wise to close some of the lounges since there must be far fewer people flying. Spare a thought for the staff who run them. I hope they’ve been given jobs in the remaining lounges but if they haven’t I do hope their jobs are held for them when this is over.
- Lady London says:
  
  17 Mar17 March 16:51
  
  Unfortunately the workers in these sectors with low wages will also almost certainly be on very poor contracts or no contracts. These types of employers are mostly absolutely awful to work for and they will not consider themselves to have any obligation to those workers now.
  
  This has been the expanding polarisation of work conditions in the UK for decades now.
  
  Anyone who is in a regular salaried position at any level is better off now than so many. Any effects to the vast majority of readers here who are not employed by the likes of Gate Gourmet, Baxter&Storey, Accor will very much have the effects of this mitigated and delayed.
TGLoyalty says:

17 Mar17 March 07:50

There’s not a ban on UK citizens but rather those that have been to the UK in the past 14 days. I don’t know how long you’ve been out of one of their excluded countries ?
Rob says:

17 Mar17 March 08:07

‘British Airways closing some lounges from Tuesday’ and then leading with a picture of the Concorde Room sign.

Is this just clickbait? Appreciate you specify it’s not closed in the article but that’s incredibly misleading.
- Qfx says:
  
  17 Mar17 March 08:18
  
  Given you are already on the website, or email list, i dont think it fits the strict definition of clickbait.
  - Rob says:
    
    17 Mar17 March 08:59
    
    We didn’t have a suitable letterbox image to use, is the boring truth.
Harry T says:

17 Mar17 March 08:20

I can confirm this article is true. Currently in Galleries South, which isn’t too busy. The fast track security was the longest security process I’ve ever been through today, though. I don’t blame security – for some reason everyone wanted to bring a pair of scissors or a massive pile of miscellaneous liquids.
- Boi says:
  
  17 Mar17 March 08:37
  
  In Heathrow too, passed by BA lounge which was closed. Now in plaza waiting for our flight to Leeds.
  Made it out of Canada and can’t wait to see kids. I didn’t tell them we are coming back early just in case we had a hiccup.
  
  Thanks again to those who gave advice 2 days ago when I was stressed about my daughter. Will call Amex and/or HSBC insurance when we get home
  - Anna says:
    
    17 Mar17 March 10:34
    
    Hope you both had a decent journey home. Harry, were the scissors and liquid bearers Americans rushing back to the US?!
    - Harry T says:
      
      17 Mar17 March 14:09
      
      I strongly suspect they were, Anna. They didn’t look like the usual business traveller crew. Last time I went through fast track at T5, it took about 30 seconds…
- Lady London says:
  
  17 Mar17 March 16:53
  
  Hi Harry T, have you posted on somewhere how Oz was? How did the seat thing turn out?
  - Harry T says:
    
    17 Mar17 March 21:12
    
    @Lady London
    Yes, I did post somewhere but there’s too many posts these days to keep track of (not complaining).
    
    Lovely lady at the Qantas ticket office at Melbourne manually assigned us to exit row seats on the bottom deck (row 66). 66A for the first leg was excellent aside from the awful passengers behind us. 66D was also good for the second leg but unfortunately there were many screaming infants and noisy loo users! I think some people mustn’t travel very often, as they didn’t seem to understand polite etiquette on night flights in economy e.g. keeping noise down to facilitate sleep. The new Qantas economy seats are much less comfortable than the old seats unfortunately. The lower deck is also far rowdier and noisier than the upper deck mini cabin. As I’ve seen with other carriers, refurbishments mean improvements to business class but deterioration in economy class standards.
MandS says:

17 Mar17 March 10:25

dear ba

please take this opportunity to close the concorde lounge for good. it is a total embarassment as a first class/ top tier elite lounge. either close permanently, or rethink the entire concept.
- ChrisC says:
  
  17 Mar17 March 10:44
  
  And you think the F lounge is any better???
  - Mike P says:
    
    17 Mar17 March 10:55
    
    As a Concorde Room Card holder, I certainly don’t want to see it closed but would be very happy to see it undergo an extensive update and this would be a good time to do it. In the current climate way down the list of priorities so won’t be happening though.
    - Lady London says:
      
      17 Mar17 March 16:55
      
      Concorde Room was redesigned and refurbished quite recently so BA clearly intends that to be what eligible passengers get.
  - MandS says:
    
    17 Mar17 March 11:18
    
    nope, despite its name, noone pretends the F lounge is a first class lounge. it is essentially a lounge for gold exec club members and other equivalent OW status, who are a dime a dozen.
    
    the access requirements for concorde lounge are correct, they have got that bit right. it is the product that is a joke.
- Qfx says:
  
  17 Mar17 March 13:45
  
  while they are at it, get a local tiler in to sort those bathrooms out.
  - Bagoly says:
    
    17 Mar17 March 21:11
    
    Er, need a Pole?
    But if they come over, they have to self-isolate on return!
GeorgeJ says:

17 Mar17 March 11:57

Jignesh,
You need to look at the nature of the ban, not the passport.
Last time I looked it was that anyone who had been in EU or UK during the last 14 days would be restricted from the US.
Your relevant ban is for people who have been in Colombia, I think Canada has a total shutdown for everyone except US citizens, unless they accept transit. Not aware that US has any restriction for Colombia though FCO is advising against travel there (nb insurance implications if you catch it and are stopped en route).