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Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse London
One thing about Virgin Atlantic that you can count on is feeling like you’ve arrived. Everything is cool. From the moment you arrive at the airport, the lounge experience, and . I was pumped to visit the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse for a 2nd time.
The Clubhouse is open to all Upper Class passengers and those with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Gold status ( plus a guest on a same flight ). Virgin is actually running a status match open to a bevy of airlines – give it a look here.
Since we were flying from London to Atlanta in upper class we had access before our flight. The last time I visited the lounge was hours before I proposed to my now wife, and I was VERY excited to return and enjoy in some mod 60s luxury almost two years later.
Visit Details:
- When: January 2022
- Where: London, Heathrow Terminal 3
- Access:
- Passengers travelling in Virgin Atlantic Upper Class
- Flying Club Gold members travelling with us
- Passengers travelling in Delta One
- Delta SkyMiles Diamond Medallion card holders*
- Delta SkyMiles Platinum Medallion card holders*
- Virgin Australia Velocity Club Gold card holders**
- Virgin Australia Velocity Club Platinum card holders**
- Virgin Australia Velocity The Club card holders**
- Flying Blue Platinum card holders*
Arrival and first impression
The entire experience is very cool. Segregated from the main Terminal 3 entrance you’ll find Virgin’s Upper Class check in and wing. Once you’re all checked in, proceed to the elevators, through private security, and voila, the lounge awaits.
The Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse Heathrow feels like you’ve entered a movie set space ship from the 1960s that’d been fit with every modern luxury and amenity. Shower? Pick a shower suite. Some baked goods. Got it. Super delicious cocktails. Rocks or straigh up? Wanna sit down and enjoy a meal? Booth or table. Shoot some stick? Solids or stripes. Need a haircut? Usually Done…but not during covid it’s closed.
Should I keep going? They’ve thought of everything.
The Spa
After entering the lounge look to the far right. That’s where the spa used to be located but is closed due to Covid – Virgin is taking the time to update it for a new spa once it’s post Covid. There are also shower suites.
The haircut area is now occupied by Peloton bikes offering some great plane spotting opportunities
Dining.
There are several ways to go about adding to your calorie count. First…there are some deli style stations.
But, really…when you’re luxuriating – don’t you want to sit, relax and order from a menu? To the far left you’ll find the restaurant which can hold A LOT of people, but since we were kind of in between meal times, we had our choice of seating.
You can find the entire menu selection online here, but I had friend chicken sandwich which was great and washed it down with some champers.
We also tried a few other dishes which were equally excellent. I’d highly recommend filling up your belly here rather than on the plane.
Activities
Virgin didn’t stop at just spa and dining, they wanted to up the ante and provide some more cool. First stop, let’s shoot some stick.
Feeling a bit claustrophobic in the massive Clubhouse Heathrow? Go outside. Peep a few planes, AV geek out.
Looking for some other ways to hang out and get comfy? Virgin has you covered with a wide variety of choices.
Perhaps you want to swing and talk
Or chill on a plush couch while your kids don’t play with all of those toys and pound their smart devices.
Perhaps being on the same level with everyone else is so blase – and you need to take a step down into that sunken banquet vibe.
Or you want to get your geometrically avant garde laptop wireless headphone vibe on. They know their customer base
And last but not least…maybe you just want to pretend you’re still in the 1960s and read some good ole black and white, there’s a forest in my hand, they buried the damn lead again, I can’t believe TWA dropped another 10%, get my broker on the phone, “newspaper space.”
Overall:
This is a lounge I could hang out in time and time again. You can read about the New York space here, but nothing is quite like the flagship London Clubhouse.
I’d HIGHLY recommend budgeting some time to really soak up the experience. And read a newspaper – who knows how much longer they’ll be around. And for you millennials reading this – newspapers are those things laying on the table, to the right, in the last picture.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
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
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
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
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.
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