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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…
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