For some time now I’ve wanted to share the 7 lounges available to Oneworld Emerald / BA Gold Card holders at London Heathrow’s Terminal 3. This was actually my third attempt to travel through the terminal after one cancellation and after Iberia shifted operations to T5 after I booked… But finally I had the opportunity to travel through en route to Prague on the first leg of my Gold card renewal tier point run.
There are a total of 12 lounges in the terminal – an amazing total – and in this video I’ll also talk about the other 5 and explain when you can access them… And I’ll attempt to rank all 12.
⭐ #loungereview #LHRTerminal3 #MattsPlanet ⭐
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⏰ Timestamps:
0:00 – Intro
2:32 – Into the terminal
4:45 – Lounge #7
6:57 – Lounge #6
9:03 – Lounge #5
11:42 – Lounge #4
14:36 – Lounge #3
17:01 – Lounge #2
20:09 – Lounge #1
23:30 – The other 5 Lounges
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45 Comments
Great video Matt, unfortunately BA moved my last flight from T3 to T5 so didn’t get to experience all the lounges
I’m a B.A. gold holder and I thought you can’t enter the other lounges unless your flying with that airline !
I've only been there once but the Emirates lounge was very pleasant and relaxing when I visited. Great to see the options at T3, sweets included 🍬
Great video. Never tried any of these, but can give a shout out for Emirates in T3. Several million light years ahead of BA Gallery Lounges in T5. Whilst looking for the Emirates lounge, an Emirates buggy swung past and took us to the door; great staff welcoming and in the lounge; good food, excellent champagne and wines; excellent apron views- your plane is parked literally outside the window; and you board direct from the lounge, which takes about 5 minutes. Very very civilised.
What an absolute trooper you are putting in this effort for your viewers! Legend mate!
Really great and interesting video! I especially enjoy your humour. I will attain BA Silver soon and it's really helpful to know I will be able to use Cathay Pacific Business Lounge (which I have visited once and really liked) as an alternative to the BA Business Lounge (which I also visited and liked mainly on the basis it is much better than the T5 Galleries). The Qantas Business looks quite appealing too. I'd say your ranking was very reasonable.
Great video again Matt… is there any easy way of working out easily which BA routes go from T3?
Why was the flight cancelled? Just being nosey lol
I'd take your final list as about right. The Qantas Lounge is dull when you're pushed upstairs, although I quite like sitting at the bar up there, although the staff have to use a recipe list to make cocktails.
If there's someone good on the bar at the Cathay lounge, sitting at the small bar in the Cathay biz lounge is a nice place to sip cocktails.
Definitely AA lounges are worth missing IME, done them both once, but never returned.
Cathay F is typically my favourite for dining.
The BA F lounge First/GGL a la carte dining experience isn't inspiring in any way, although the seating is good if you want to use a laptop, and there are limited views of the apron.
The Centurion Lounge has a decent bar you can sit at, and it has a vaguely separated area for Centurion Members, but all it is is just a casual seating area within the lounge itself. I prefer sitting at the bar… can you see a pattern forming? There's no natural light in there.
Regarding 10 lounges, I'm petty sure HKG hen travelling Oneworld with Emerald status or First, and a Centurion card hits 10 lounges. Having said that, the Centurion Member section of the Centurion lounge at HKG isn't very inspiring; just like in T3 funnily enough!
Six Oneworld lounges, all Cathay apart from the Qantas lounge, and two of the Cathay lounges are First/Emerald. The Cathay lounges are the Wing, Wing F, Pier, Pier F, and the Deck. The Cabin closed about five years ago.
Then there's the Centurion Lounge with it separate secondary Centurion Member only lounge which offers a la carte, and sometimes even caviar is in the free menu.
And with Centurion you get a Priority Pass, so three Plaza Premium lounges and the Chase Sapphire lounge.
So I make that 11 lounge options at HKG if you cheat a bit and treat the Centurion as two lounges.
I've stuck around, yup still here, great little feature is this too, of some historical interest I used to work at T3 many moons ago, for American Airlines in the days when they still actually employed their own ramp staff and around the traumatic time of 9/11 too. Of some culinary significance, we generally had two options while working 'Airside' one was the 'Chuck Wagon' which used to park outside the crew rooms behind the blast screens, or the other was to pop back landslide to T3 arrivals for a square burger at 'Wendys', probably long gone now I would assume, and yup you heard me right 'Square Burgers'.
As well as ground handling all of AA's flights we also had contracts to handle flights for Turkish, Gulf Air, Cathay Pacific, Korean and finally ANA too, that was when jobs on the airport where much sought after and highly prized indeed.
Great review i enjoy watching your reviews greetings from the Netherlands
Excellent overview. I 100% agree with your rankings having visited all these lounges over the last four years, well done! 🎉
Nice video, very enjoyable Matt! I did a marathon of the business lounges in late July.
thanks for video but you seem to discuss whether Champagne is offered in every lounge other than the Cathay business lounge. That's odd because Cathay is one of few airlines that has traditionally served Champagne in its business lounges, including at LHR.
I’ve heard of these lounge crawls-how interesting-so how does bringing in a guest work? Is it just card holder only?
Having been to both, I'd probably raid Cathay's F lounge for the scran then go and sit in their business lounge. I've never seen the F lounge that quiet. Always feels a tad too busy for my liking, while the business side seems far more chilled. If they washed the bloody windows once in a while, it'd be perfect.
Great to see you in Prague. Do you think that it is good place to start the Ex-EUs? I do happen to live here and haven't been able to find anything interesting that would suit my dates and interests. Especially for my trip to Vegas that has a fixed date in May next year, almost any other place seems much cheaper. Hope you have enjoyed the city. Unfortunately the lounges here are pretty basic, but there is no need to come to the airport long before the flights leave at least, especially for those leaving from T1. Cheers!
OK, I know this terminal and the lounges very well. I just don't bother with the BA lounges — I don't know if it's changed but you could just walk through from Business to First once in the lounge area and like everything BA, it's second rate. The Cathay lounges are great, although my wife is giving up on the business class lounge and heading back to the AA lounge. During the pandemic I used the Cathay First lounge — it's very nice but as you observe it can get busy. Also if you want hot food you HAVE to use the dining room. I do believe you underrate the AA First lounge, it's not equivalent to Fisrt Class Dining such as we receive in DFW, MIA, etc, but the self-serve food and drinks makes things easy. I go there now over the Cathay lounge. Nevber been to the Quantas lounge, figure I am a morning traveler and they aren't going to cater much to me. The Centurion Lounge: a windowless vault, don't bother. One thing you don't really talk about: Toilets. Cathay has plenty and they keep them clean. AA and BA? Not enough, esp. if you are traveling in the morning. The Virgin/Delta lounge? It's really quite nice but like you I am over the "we're so cool" schtick of Virgin, esp. since they let their male employees wear skirts. They do have the best check-in and security experience though given the separate Virgin drive-up wing. Since you mentioned it Fast Track at T3LHR is a disgrace IMHO. That's my 10c.. (I'm a morning traveler so my experience may be different to your afternoon view). Yes, I've hit the Emerates lounge — nice and huuuuge.
Any lounge with aggressive staff gets demoted to bottom place on my list.
I think Qantas is the only one I've had the pleasure of. As you, my experience was wonderful but sepulchral.
Virgin's club house was much better before the you know what happened.
So I'm going to Prague coming November with Lufthansa…. In business.. which I've never thought I would..
Guess who's to blame for getting me to book this Matt? 😅 Yes you did that with your down-to-earth content. Dubai last year in Economy, to now my first solo (EU) businessclass ever. You inspire and educate, thanks mate. I even went crazy in the itinerary, connecting via Munich and back via Vienna. Added 2 flights and 2 lounges instead of going direct, all because you inspred me and make me wiser about airtravel weekly. (And I'm a sucker for it.)
Also thanks for this video and did you enjoy Prague?? I really love the architecture, vibe, public transport and cost. Any video about the visit due? Where'd you stay?
Love, Peter-Jan
What a great video! Exactly what I was looking for, took this exact flight last week and only as a silver still had a great time. I do agree that the Qantas lounge is a totally different beast when the restaurant is open.
That looks like a great way to spend a few hours, but by the time you have 7 different drinks and maybe a try of a premium spirit or 2 lol. OH, looking forward to getting my gold status in a few months. (didn't make it last year, but defo this time especially with the extension of the double TP.) then it will be a status match to Virgin lol, virgin upperclass LHR TLV is consistently priced but no option for Ex INV lol
Thanks for schlepping through the AA and BA lounges so we don’t have to. I’ve been in the Qantas and Cathay business lounges in T3 as a silver before flying AA and BA out of T3. Preferred the Cathay lounge but did like the Qantas gin bar … the gin with ants in it is interesting. Now I’m gold, I’m looking forward to trying the Cathay first class lounge on upcoming trips on JAL to Tokyo and BA to Vancouver out of T3. I’m looking forward even more to trying JAL’s first class lounge at Tokyo Haneda which looks something truly special.
Very good review
Oh no! Why would you tell everyone? 😅
i flew cathay from T3 this summer and have been enjoying silver status for a while with them. Their business lounge was nice and i like their food options. You didn’t cover the access to showers in their lounge. They are very clean and looked like a fancy hotel’s. A nice little perk.
Status is great because i also got a free upgrade that day, the second upgrade this year.
Can't disagree with the dual-ranking of the QF Lounge and the impression of the staff just "doing enough". Case in point are the cocktails, even when the bar is open and (very early so) the Lounge is quite quiet. Even though the bar tender has the ingredients for other gin cocktails, they are adamant that they will only mix what's on the menu – maybe this attitude will change when/if QF ever do open their First Lounge there. Even when in full-swing, this lounge gets so crowded, I'd be ranking others above the Qantas Lounge when its in "dormant mode". Indeed I've headed to the CX Business Lounge over the QF Lounge early morning because the CX First was a zoo and the Business Lounge was a comparative sea of tranquility!
I had a terrible experience with priority pass at terminal 3, horrible will never go back to this lounge 😢
I think this is one of your best videos. Its something that no-one else has done and is quite interesting.
Great video – and with my wife and I having visited five of the seven T3 OneWorld lounges (not the two AA lounges) I agree with your rating. For me the very best LHR lounge is QR’s T4 lounge. Given your emphasis on champagne quality perhaps you could learn how to hold a wine glass correctly – by the stem (see 13:00, 19:00, 22:15).
Only been in the business lounges there but here's my ranking.
1. Cathay – Fantastic seating and ambience.
2. BA – Decent booze, good breakfast buffet and comfy seating
3. Qantas – Nice lounge and like the bar and sit down restaurant, but the seating isn't very comfortable. Not somewhere you can "relax in".
4. American Airlines – Same reasons as Matt. Don't waste your time.
Great video, just what I’ve been looking for. I want to give a shoutout to Qatars business lounge in terminal 4.
Excellent timing as we’re off to T3 tomorrow morning. Just for a brief 6 hours before departure. I suspect mainly in the Cathay lounge, for the views of course.
Do you think that cynically BA and AA may not make their lounges great so that they can actually not have to deal with so many customers?
Wonderful video, so useful to see. Will you be touring T5 lounges at all?
I do believe BA Vacations is still doing a double tier points promotion that runs until the end of 2024, thought that was interesting (as I had just been downgraded from Sapphire to Ruby at my scheme of choice), but then that promotion would be a logistical nightmare for me being based in the US. There's a chap on here named Phil whose channel is called "My Grey Gap Year" and it was from one of his videos that I found out about the promotion. So if you'd like to know more about this BA Vacations promotion… stick ar- I mean DO A VIDEO!!! Hahahaha
– Red
An investigation of security agents?
What BA services regularly depart from T3? Imm given to understand that T3 is wholly oneworld departures (UL, AY, IB, AA, CX, JAL and Qantas) except BA and the Iberia service to Madrid with Qatar, RJ and MH operating out of T4.
Nicely done, Matt – great video🙌
The T3 experience looks far superior. I was gutted when they moved the Austin flight back to T5.
Also, love the dig at Manchester Escape Lounge in 'Terminal Ryanair' 😂 clearly psychologically damaged by that experience ha.
Also many going mad on the various BA forums about the same buffer food being offered in F lounge in T5 as the biz. Totally dropped the at seat service, very disappointing if permanent
Be nice if you mentioned showers if you should do a review of this same topics again. It’s always a big plus for me if you can shower before a flight or indeed between flights should you feel it necessary
Post covid that centurion lounge saved my bacon when I was stuck in T3 without silver status and the priority pass lounges were both full, and literally every seat in every bar was taken…I was gasping for a drink then I saw the ad for the centurion lounge…was so happy! It’s a gem.
Thanks a lot for this vid, it looked like a fun crawl, a few drinks went down for sure!!
Great video as always. I agree with your ranking except that I might place Cathay's business lounge ahead of Qantas, but it's a close call. Given that any lounge is (usually) better than no lounge, it's great to have such a variety at Terminal 3.
Used to regularly fly LHR – GIB which is T3 and always went Cathay! Never used the BA lounges. Quite surprised you think QANTAS better than Cathay business but a matter of personal preference no doubt.
I’m BA silver and regularly fly AA out of T3 in the morning. Having tried BA’s & AA’s lounges I tried Cathay’s business lounge back in 2019…I’ve not gone anywhere else since!!