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  • Lounges – Heathrow T3 (British Airways)

    Since I was the first person into the BA lounge today, it gave me the opportunity to take photos without including other passengers in the shots. So, since I’ve had no sleep, I amused myself by walking around taking photos whilst drinking coffee to keep me awake. It worked beautifully.

    Usually when at Heathrow T3 I would lounge hop around the other Oneworld lounges, but 5am isn’t an ideal time to do that as some aren’t yet open. That can be the focus of another post though…

    The fruit selection, with the accompanying yoghurts located a little further down, is carefully separated out with the different fruits. None of that mixing it all together and having people pick the bits out they like thing happening here… The kiwi fruit was a bit hard, but the grapes were rather lovely. Although I of course didn’t go overboard with the fruit.

    This is the informal seating area near to the front of the lounge, usually occupied by diners.

    The self-service alcohol selection, which I decided not to sample since it was 5am. Incidentally, and often not known by passengers, it is possible to get champagne by asking one of the staff members in the lounge. It’s also possible to get Marmite, another request only product (it gets stolen otherwise).

    The chilled drinks selections in the fridges.

    There are lots of different seating types in the lounge, which helps make it feel more relaxing and less like some giant school-room.

    This is often the section I end up sitting in, as it’s right at the back of the lounge and hidden away. There are power points in this area, which is something that this lounge isn’t great at providing. When BA modernise a lounge they do add a lot more power points, so it’ll improve one day.

    A little snacks section, with BBQ corn balls, spicy corn snacks and berry surprise. The berry surprise, which seems a little enthusiastically named, is rather addictive.

    Another seating area.

    Cinnamon rolls.

    Bacon rolls and some sort of egg thing.

    Croissants, pastries and soups.

    The business area of the lounge, where there are printers and computers that passengers can use.

    The room for kids. There are endless discussions about how children should behave in lounges, but if they’re being loud, I like it when they’re shoved in here. I’m sure Dylan and Leon would like the room for a while, but then want to explore the rest of the lounge though….

    Beautiful. I mean the crisps in the background, but it’s all rather lovely.

    Very decorative.

    The lounge also has showers and Elemis travel spa facilities free for those who want them. The showers are useful, but the Elemis travel spa facilities are a complete mystery to me, but it’s something to do with pampering. I just go in and eat crisps, that’s my pampering.

    It’s all very functional, but the lounge can get quite busy. As mentioned earlier, I’m a fan of lounge hopping when at T3, which isn’t something possible at T5 as there are only BA lounges there. It’s possible to hop between BA lounges at T5, but that’s not quite the same as hopping between lounges operated by different airlines.

  • London – Briefly

    I’m sure many people would decide that if they had a day transiting (I’m not sure I can call it transit when it’s my home country, but that word works here for me) in London, they might actually get a hotel and have a peaceful night’s sleep before their flight the next morning.

    I decided though that this was another ideal opportunity to walk around Heathrow T3 for the night, uncovering more areas that I’ve never discovered. Well, this doesn’t really work, I think I’ve discovered all of Gatwick, Heathrow T3 and Heathrow T5 over the years. But, I can people watch. Or the people that are around to watch that is….

    Anyway, I get ahead of myself. My day was full of things that I can’t talk about (not that they’re important, more just drivel really that isn’t worth talking about), but it involved firstly getting from Gatwick South Terminal to London. By miracle given the recent railway fiasco, my train was on time and I got into London much earlier than I had anticipated. I got off at London Bridge, hence the photo of the Shard at the top.

    I also got chance to go to Wimbledon. When I say Wimbledon, I mean I went to the place, I didn’t actually see any tennis. But I can say that I was there. Well, down the road.

    Travelling to Heathrow at night isn’t really that common a pursuit. It meant that I had the entire carriage, and indeed nearly the entire underground train, to myself. But there were about five of us on there, and I’m guessing there was a driver as well. I also opened the windows at the end of the carriage so that there was a hurricane blowing through, which made the temperature just right for me.

    And when at Heathrow, it’s possible to see all the hundreds of people there….

    For anyone interested, the best places to entertain yourself for a night at Heathrow T3 are the arrivals area for getting devices charged and the bus station for the best people watching. There are very few opportunities to charge devices in the bus station area though, so don’t get there if you’re short on power.

    Whilst at the bus station, I watched two kids playing ‘paper, rock, scissors’ and they were keeping score. They were at 110-89 when I was watching, and the parents looked entirely exasperated. I can only begin to imagine how long that game had gone on before I got there.

    Oh, and I also watched someone fall off the bench they were sleeping on. This kind of entertainment is unmissable to me, I had waited for nearly fifteen minutes for them to move far enough to fall. And I couldn’t stop them, I can’t awaken sleeping people, they might be furious.

    Airport security opens at 04:45, which is later than Gatwick, and there are numerous benches for those who want to sleep. I didn’t, I wanted to stay away and read Facebook. See, who needs a hotel?