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My funny massage experience at the Elemis Spa Heathrow
I couldn’t wait to spa up this layover. The Elemis spa attached to the British Airways Galleries Lounge offers complimentary spa treatments in Terminal 5 for business and first class passengers on BA. A week earlier, I’d had a terrible case of food poisoning, wore myself down, caught a cold, had a sensitive ear, and needed the Elemis spa to make some paillard out of me. In fact…I was so excited I insta-storied the whole thing. I had just arrived from Stockholm where I’d routed for a cheaper business class ticket back to the States from London and had 3 hours to burn. I b-lined it the Elemis Spa as soon as I cleared security and was told they had an opening for a 15 minute chair massage in roughly an hour and a half. Could the Cheshire Cat grin bigger? NAY! That’d leave me just enough time to snap some pics of the Galleries Lounge, enjoy the First Class lounge, get a chair massage, and make my way to the C gates to board early. B-YAH!
Here’s the spa menu.
When I made my spa reservation they said they had a chair massage.
I love a good chair massage. Scratch that…I swear by them. They’re usually quick, cheap, and in public ( Not that I prefer a public massage, but I’m not embarrassed by it, at all). In fact, a little sparkler ignites inside me every time I go to the mall and see that little clump of massage chairs amongst the center sales booths. I have no shame throwing my stuff in a basket, plopping my face in a paper-towel lined face donut, and getting the ole-muscles pressed like a panini.
I even asked what the tipping protocol was…
I’m not sure why because I’ve had massages in airport lounges before, but I felt compelled – I was also trying to furtively snap some pictures and thought I’d fawn a first time experience. The front desk attendants looked at each other for a second with a confused expression…then to break the awkwardness, “it’s to your discretion.” Fair enough.
When I returned for my “treatment” I was given some paperwork to fill out. Shortly thereafter I was taken to my treatment room. This is what was waiting for me.
Literally, a chair massage. Straight out of Sharper Image. I was given the remote and told it was set for 15 minutes.
I can’t believe I asked about tipping. No wonder they gave eachother an odd look. HAHA. To put this in perspective…the ACV business lounge Hanoi has a whole bank of these guys with no time limit and no wait…
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.