Airport Lounges

My funny massage experience at the Elemis Spa Heathrow

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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.

a sign with emojis on it

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.

a massage chair with towels on it

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.

a massage chair with a towel on it

 Literally, a chair massage. Straight out of Sharper Image. I was given the remote and told it was set for 15 minutes.

a machine with buttons and a screen

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…a group of brown massage chairs

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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4 Comments

  • […] The space and concept is great. They’re clean, but they are really old and unappealing. They just need a reno…if you’re interested in reading my funny experience at the Elemis Spa on another trip…go here. […]

  • baccarat_guy June 1, 2017

    Pro-tip : You get the chair massage while enjoying the facial. (I enjoyed a deep clean aviator facial, as I usually do yesterday). Quick break from the CCR prior to my flight to Boston yesterday. BTW, I never tip at the Elemis spa (T5 or T5 arrivals) at LHR. It’s just seems very unusual to tip there. Had a lovely therapist yesterday, and walked away with a great assortment of spa samples.

  • Cipta May 31, 2017

    Lol in changi those chair are available for free in front of the gate or some waiting hall. No charge, no lounge.

    • baccarat_guy June 1, 2017

      Yes, but this is LHR; and it’s still “free.” It’s a bit difficult to travel to Singapore for a massage chair when you are flying from LHR. 🙂 I don’t believe there are a lot of “free” massage chairs at European airports, though I never really thought about it much.

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