British Airways Relaxes Heathrow Lounge Rules For Top-Tier Elites (Temporarily)

a room with chairs and tables

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Every now and again (usually around the popular vacation months) British Airways temporarily changes the access rules to its Heathrow lounges and, with the summer school vacations around the corner, BA has done it again.

There were reports last week that BA was relaxing its lounge access rules once more but those reports suggested that the rules were only changing for BA’s Gold Guest List members – that’s not the case.

The latest temporary rule change allows all oneworld Emerald card holders(e.g. BA Gold & American Airlines Executive Platinum members) to bring two guests into the British Airways Business Class lounges at London’s Heathrow Airport rather than just one.

I flew out of Heathrow with Joanna and MJ a few days ago and was handed this invitation at check-in:

a piece of paper with writing on it

It’s important to note that the invitation is specifically for a Galleries (Business Class) Lounge so oneworld Emerald elites still cannot guest more than one companion into the First Class lounge and cannot use the “First Wing” security line if traveling with more than one companion.

I’m not sure how long this policy will be in place (I forgot to ask!) but, if I was to guess, I’d suggest it will probably be in place through the end of August (if anyone finds out the actual end date please let me know and I’ll add it in here).

Thoughts

I’m really torn when it comes to this temporary policy change.

On the one hand I think it’s nice that BA is helping top-tier elites guest their families into the Business Class lounge at a time when families are likely to be traveling together but, on the other hand, I’ve also seen what this rule can lead to.

There are two issues here:

  1. Overcrowding

When we dropped by the Galleries South lounge last week it was early and finding a seat wasn’t an issue but by the time were ready to leave I don’t think there were two spare seats together anywhere in the lounge.

There’s a good chance that allowing more guests into the lounges will restrict seating for those passengers who actually fly frequently and earn the right to be in the lounge and that can’t be right.

  1. Poor Behavior

By and large you’ll come across two types of parent when you travel – the parents who know how to keep their children well behaved and parents who treat airports, lounges and aircraft as some kind of extended play area where their kids can roam free.

The first kind of parent is a hero of mine while the second I detest (yes, I know I’m probably sounding like a broken record!)

If lounges were only populated with the first kind of parent (and their kids) there wouldn’t be any issues but, as there’s no way of stopping the second type of parent getting in, we have a problem….and I don’t want more feral kids in the lounges.

Bottom Line

Relaxing lounge access rules may seem fairer for elites traveling with their family but I don’t think it’s very fair on those travelers who have earned the right to be in the lounge in the first place.

If lounges were careful to make sure there wasn’t any overcrowding and if they actually took action against parents who let their kids run amuck there wouldn’t be an issue here… but that’s not how things are in the real world.

Until both of these concerns are addressed I’m not in favor of lounge access rules being relaxed.