Good afternoon from T5 Galleries Club south
Posted: 06 Jul 2013, 17:08First time in this lounge, and for that matter, first time with BA in club world for many many years, so naturally, I will be comparing this to my VS experiences. So here, for anyone that might be vaguely interested, are my thoughts so far:
1) Journey to airport. Self arranged car to airport versus Virgin Limo. Clearly a win for VS here, especially in the eyes of my assistant who has a bit more work to do on my expenses as a result...
2) Check-in. Even more emphatic win for Virgin. It's not just the lack of the seamless drive through facility, it's the significant lack of signage pointing you towards the Club check-in desks. All the main screens say is 'BCDF', and it's not unless you happen to be looking when you get the occasional message saying 'club go to H' that you realise... (B,C,D and F were all mobbed by the way, no staff around to ask). I admit I'm something of a novice here, but it's nowhere near intuitive enough, especially when you enter the terminal on the left hand side.
3) Security - yep... you guessed it. OK, it's not exactly BAs fault here, but it's pretty galling when you spend 15 minutes getting through 'fast track' only to look back and see no queues whatsoever for 'regular' security.
4) Lounge - well, given the flame war going on over on FT, I had expected far worse. It's big, not too crowded, reasonable selection of wines (and better quality than VS has I would say...). Not fully explored yet, but while I'd say it's still no Clubhouse, it may not deserve quite the tongue lashing it's been getting. Although as it's mid-afternoon, there are no 'trays of gloop' to be seen... can's see any champagne either, but there are jugs of Pimms which are a nice touch in this weather.
So anyway, VS clearly have the soft/ground product nailed compared with BA. Let's see how the flight measures up...
RC
1) Journey to airport. Self arranged car to airport versus Virgin Limo. Clearly a win for VS here, especially in the eyes of my assistant who has a bit more work to do on my expenses as a result...
2) Check-in. Even more emphatic win for Virgin. It's not just the lack of the seamless drive through facility, it's the significant lack of signage pointing you towards the Club check-in desks. All the main screens say is 'BCDF', and it's not unless you happen to be looking when you get the occasional message saying 'club go to H' that you realise... (B,C,D and F were all mobbed by the way, no staff around to ask). I admit I'm something of a novice here, but it's nowhere near intuitive enough, especially when you enter the terminal on the left hand side.
3) Security - yep... you guessed it. OK, it's not exactly BAs fault here, but it's pretty galling when you spend 15 minutes getting through 'fast track' only to look back and see no queues whatsoever for 'regular' security.
4) Lounge - well, given the flame war going on over on FT, I had expected far worse. It's big, not too crowded, reasonable selection of wines (and better quality than VS has I would say...). Not fully explored yet, but while I'd say it's still no Clubhouse, it may not deserve quite the tongue lashing it's been getting. Although as it's mid-afternoon, there are no 'trays of gloop' to be seen... can's see any champagne either, but there are jugs of Pimms which are a nice touch in this weather.
So anyway, VS clearly have the soft/ground product nailed compared with BA. Let's see how the flight measures up...
RC
