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Review: British Airways Galleries Lounge London Heathrow Terminal 5 South
I had a couple hours after my flight from Stockholm before I continued on to LA to check out a couple lounges. I was still feeling a bit under the weather, and decided to check out the Galleries lounge South, but hang in the BA First Class lounge, and table visiting the Galleries Lounge North til later in the year. If you couldn’t tell, this is the Terminal that BA dominates ( They have 4 lounges here) and I was curious to see how their business class lounges fair. To make things simple, The Galleries Lounge South is to the right as you exit security and above the First Class Lounge whereas The Galleries North is directly to the left after security. Enough directions, let’s take a look.
The Deets:
- When: June 2017
- Where: London Heathrow Terminal 5 South
- How: British Airways Club World Business Class ticket
- You can also enter as a One World Sapphire Member
- Alaska MVP Gold + Gold 75 have access
Intro:
The lounge is huge. The entire area behind the entrance is food, newspapers, and drink. There are multiple seating configurations and upon initial impression…feels old.
This was actually my first experience in the British Airways Galleries Lounge in Terminal 5 South and it was interesting to compare it to the Galleries lounge in Terminal 3 and the new BA lounge in Boston – without moving much further into the lounge, it’s clear that they need to give it a facelift. It almost feels like a suburban shopping mall, and one from the 90s.
Food/Drink
There is a nice premium bar, Indian foods, lots of bottled soft drinks, coffee…all the usual. In fact, there are a couple of these stations so hopefully the lines aren’t too bad if you visit.
Seating is ample. Kids room. Work station.
While there is a lot of seating, a work space, kids room, etc on the whole everything just feels a bit tired. This workhorse lounge has carried a lot of weight over the years.
The Spa…
You also have access to the spa. You should read about my chair massage experience here. It was hilariously sad.
Overall:
It’s sad to say…but as Business Class lounges go… the British Airways First Class lounge is more of a solid business class lounge than the Galleries is. The Galleries Lounge feels quite tired, worn, and in need of love to make it competitive. There’s a priority pass lounge, Aspire, in Terminal 5 that I’ll review along with the Galleries Lounge North when I fly through Terminal 5 in August so I’m interested to see how all of these compare. The staff was super nice, there is plenty of space, and there are showers and a spa available to you. The showers are OLD and feel like they should be in a nursing home.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based.
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
80k offer in branch currently – I think this should be online soon
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
Super solid welcome offer.
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.
- 3x on dining
- including eligible delivery services for takeout
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/Chase Travel
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 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 Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Primary rental car coverage is my favorite
There is currently an 80k offer after $4k spend in 3 months available in branch, and up to 90k after $6k spend in 6 months. I suspect some version of this will be online soon if you don’t want the hassle of going into a branch.
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 60k is a very, very good offer. 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.
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