LHR T1 Little Red lounge option changes

[mitchja]

Just received an email from VS trade.

Don't get too excited, the lounge will still be the same one, but if you prefer, from March 1st VS will now issue a £10 Costa gift card instead to use at the domestic gate area y) :

We’re pleased to announce a new benefit change for customers travelling on Virgin Atlantic Little Red from London Heathrow Terminal 1. From 1 March 2014, eligible customers will be offered a £10 Costa Coffee card instead of an invitation to the Servisair Lounge.

This change has come about as a result of customer feedback. Costa Coffee is located in a prime site in the gate area in T1, adjacent to our desks, so it’s extremely convenient for our customers. And they’ll now be able to choose their own refreshments from a wide range of sweet and savoury snacks and drinks.

To clarify, eligible customers are:

Fully flexible Y and J class bookings
Connecting Upper Class customers
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Gold members

I know which option I'll be using!!

That's good news!

Bit like the arrangement on BA if you are departing from T5C, £15 to spend at Starbucks (though can still visit lounge before heading to C gates!)

Thanks for posting that. I am flying up to MAN on Sat 1st. Will ask if a voucher is available when I check in.

That is a very positive development, well done VS.

It's also a pretty damning indictment of the Servisair lounge - they're clearly embarrassed by it.

The T2 move cannot come soon enough ...

Ace!

Well done VS. It's a bit like getting a $15 food voucher at MCO instead of having to use the awful Delta lounge.

-Steve

its been on the website offers and news page in FC section for a while

Eligible customers can collect their £10 Costa Coffee card at the Little Red desk at Gate 8.

All fully flexible Y & J class bookings, connecting Upper Class customers and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Gold members will still be able to use the 3rd party lounges in Edinburgh (Servisair Lounge), Aberdeen (Servisair Lounge), and Manchester (Escape Lounge). And they’ll still receive their £10 Costa Coffee card at Heathrow Terminal 1.

Please note that discounted corporate fares/route deals on a Y or J ticket will not be eligible for the voucher or regional lounge access.

This is great news and really pleased it has come to fruition. I know VS have been looking at this really carefully and listening to feedback and the Costa option was mentioned when I had the good fortune of meeting the Director of Short-haul at the end of last year.

I have refused the lounge invites on my last few LR flights and no-one has been surprised and comment has even been passed.

Good news

Jon

Slightly off-topic, but fyi, the lounge at EDI is in the middle of a refurb. There's still access to small bit of it whilst renovations are going on.

Well I'm clearly in a minority of one but I think that's complete rubbish. A coffee-shop voucher might be better than a dreadful lounge, but neither is good enough.

Why? What free things do you think should be provided just before a £53 flight* from Heathrow..? And for the airline to still be profit-making, and therefore sustainable.

The lounge may be small and windowless, but has free drinks and biscuits, if you want them.
The preferable option for most in the current T1 location of the gates is to have a Costa coffee, and rest in the very pleasant and quiet Gate 8 area, with a plenty of natural light from the windowed north side, and is usually quieter and more relaxed than any airline lounge I've been in!
And now a £10 voucher makes that more attractive.

*N fare LHR-EDI

The major competitor is BA, and (as we know) they are serious rivals on this domestic front. Their T5 GC lounges are pretty average in my view, but they are much better than what VS is offering. That is what I would be using as a benchmark. I know that I will now be given a lot of reasons why VS can't match BA in this respect, but I don't think that is the customers' problem. All I'm saying is that VS will need to do better even to match the competition, never mind beat it.

Well I'm clearly in a minority of one but I think that's complete rubbish. A coffee-shop voucher might be better than a dreadful lounge, but neither is good enough.

The Costa area is the nicest part of Terminal 1.

The Costa area is the nicest part of Terminal 1.

But regardless of whether that's true, it feels like boxing and coxing when you compare it to the competition. And when you look at BA's superior network and connections, predominantly in one decent LHR terminal, then I'm afraid LR looks a bit paltry. I agree that this is an improvement, but there seems to me to be a long road ahead and I do wonder whether VS can make this work. I really hope so, but I keep hearing the words 'British Midland' in my head....

I've always said the lounge situation at T1 is Little Red's achilles heel. Quite simply, it's embarrassing for an airline that - quite rightly - is praised for having some of the best lounges in the world.

That said, it's difficult to know what more VS could do to improve things. When they launched LR they obviously knew they'd be in T1 less than 2 years so there'd have been no point opening their own lounge - even if there was room for one.

And there are probably, on average, no more than half a dozen eligible passengers on each LR flight so presumably the Servisair "make do" option was the only viable one.

I do hope, though, that having clearly been embarrassed by customer feedback, VS learn their lesson when T2 opens, and the Aer Lingus lounge (if that's what they'll use) is of sufficient quality for their flagship airport.

Hmm a good move, it definitely encourages people to wait in better surroundings.

For short domestic hops though I found the servisair at T1 good enough (although depressing) to pick up a few bevies, check emails, surf v-flyer and then board the flight.

Only done it a few times though so I can understand people getting tired of the place.

As a least worst solution it seems ok, personally I was quite happy (in my pre BAEC status days) sitting by the window at costa with my coffee and bacon muffin before my BHD flights. It was never busy early in the morning, and while I'm now using the BA lounge, I don't feel like I'm getting a massively better experience from doing so (the one exception being when I was stuck there for 8 hours, and the PCs came in very useful indeed).

All moot for me anyway, as I believe the BA domestics are meant to be moving over to T5 at some point...

[mitchja]

T2 opens in June anyway, so this is only a temporary measure.

Not sure when VLR are moving in though?

November, provisionally.

T2 opens in June anyway, so this is only a temporary measure.

Not sure when VLR are moving in though?

It saddens me to agree with the previous comments. I have generally been fortunate enough to have been able to use the Revivals Lounge prior to the onwards journey to Manchester, unfortunately some flights arrive too late. On those occasions I have made my way to the Servisair Lounge, used the Loo, looked at a newspaper and then made my way to Costa!
This area has usually been quiet, relaxing and convenient for my onward connection. However I hope that these attributes are not too widely broadcast, otherwise I might not be able to bag one of the settees! y)