Lounge Report: London Heathrow T2 United Airlines Lounge

Well.

After a not so fabulous flight on UA, I was so looking forward to trying out SQ's new lounge concept called 'Home Away From Home' (which by the way is also the tagline for CX's lounge in HKIA) in London T2.

The terminal had only just recently gone into operations and is dedicated to Star Alliance carriers. And it was to be the second site, I believe, after Sydney to have SQ's new lounge designs. I checked in advance and it looked like everything was all set up. But this was not to be. Horror of horrors, the lounge was not completed and we had to go to UA's lounge instead.

OMG. UA. Again.

The lady pushing our wheelchair was a nice Indian young lady that was chatty throughout. We had a great time talking about favorite airlines and lounges. She said she had a lot of opportunities to see the cabins of different carriers because of her job and she loved SQ. Yes dear, we all do.

The trek to the transit area was PUNISHING. It was far, like walking from one end of a soccer field to the other. And with a wheelchair passenger and carry on luggage for two, that was HELL. We saw buggies going by and the lady told us that we could not avail that because we had requested a wheelchair. It just did not make sense. If we had not asked for a wheelchair, we could have had the buggy??

For a while, it was "are we there yet?"

We got to security and oh well, typical. One airport says yes, another says no. They made a big deal about some liquid medication that IAD had checked and cleared, saying it was different in London. Uh hm. Difference in common sense?  The supervisor who oddly enough had an American accent that we spoke to was unrelenting. He said he could not make an exception even if it was medication that was cleared by the Americans. Ok. Whatever.

They had the cheek to say: Go to the pharmacy here at the airport. Ours is much better than this!

Well, I was just grateful they didn't trash my Tom Ford Black Orchid that I forgot to check in! Ok so Tom Ford is fine, medicine nope. Got it.

We got to the UA lounge. The lounge dragons were actually very nice. We went in. And well!  UA did something right. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Of course I had to try the showers. It was pretty full and you had to book in advance. I got my slot, and went in when it was time. The place smelled and looked like a spa. Very impressive. The rooms were also beautifully designed, but if I have to gripe, I wished they had better amenities inside.

Plane spotting: Not so much but you do get full windows to the tarmac. Oh and a view to beautiful London weather!

UA definitely shone in their product. It is just tragic that the same standards aren't followed through in other aspects of their business. But hey, even the best can falter.

Our next flight was with SQ. And again we had requested in advance, wheelchair service. The dude came over when we were in the bathroom. He told the reception he would be back in 15 minutes to get us. That would have meant 15 minutes to departure. Odd. At 10 minutes to departure, we got frantic paging on the intercom that we had to go to the gate. We made our way to the reception. Then BOOM, three SQ ground staffers showed up REALLY GRUMPY. Heard some commotion about how the passengers were not ready to be picked up earlier. Er hm. HALLO. YOUR paid for airport service didn't come back!

Then, to make sure they got an on time departure, we finally got what should have been offered in the first place. BUGGIES. Two of them. They scrambled to drive us to the gate. But the buggies were designed to lock people in, and they can't get out without someone unlatching the door from the outside. I was stuck. Until they realized they had to get me out.

It was chaos. Enough for me to write them in to HQ, which I hardly ever do. But you can't blame your passengers for service failures, and then show them your unhappiness with your black faces.

Thankfully though, when we got on board, the atmosphere immediately calmed us down. I have always maintained that the thing with Singapore Airlines is that you always feel like you are already home the moment you step on their planes. And I hear this a lot from other business travelers who fly with them. And they somehow are able to keep the cabin calm inside.

We had like 3-4 people all lunging forward to help us, especially after they saw the wheelchair coming down the bridge. We had them help us with our luggage, which some airlines by policy forbid their staff to do. And even though we were late, we were still given the full pre-take off service of drinks, hot towel and magazines.

Anyway that is for the next trip report!