A Weekend Jaunt to Europe: bmi London Room Lounge

British Midlands operates two lounges at Heathrow, the Great British Lounge for international passengers and the London Room for “domestic” passengers.  Thanks to the common travel area between the UK and Ireland, flights to the Republic of Ireland are considered “domestic.”

Security was quick and painless and, quite unexpectedly, only had walk through metal detectors at the checkpoint.

At 7AM, the lounge was almost completely empty.

I was mildly expecting a more breakfast orientated food selection considering it was 7AM, but evidently hard liquor, pretzels, and potato chips make for strong alternatives.

At this juncture, it’s worth noting something about Star Alliance lounge access on this trip.  While I had access to the arrivals lounge by virtue of traveling in the business class cabin, my visits to the London Room and the lounges of Dublin and Frankfurt were due to having Star Alliance Gold status from United (by being at least a 1P).  In stark contrast to United’s Clubs which just need to see an international boarding pass, bmi and Lufthansa are sticklers for the Star Alliance lounge rules and require that they see the passenger’s elite card.

Knowing these rules, I brought my 1K card with.  During my conversations with the Dulles United Club agents who had just been trained on the legacy Continental systems, it seems cards will be needed to visit United Clubs on international itineraries.  It’s just another change United elites will “like” from this merger.

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