Pleasant Surprise: United Club Lounge LHR T2

My pictures reviews are mostly snapshot reviews of lounges I visit during all my trips, that I do not specifically focus on doing full reviews for.

Last month I flew United for the very first time to San Francisco. Good product, so and so service and rather poor food. One thing you should bare in mind if travelling with United is it might actually be better to eat in the lounge before your flight just in case given the current catering situation onboard is less than appealing.

Location & Access

United fly from Heathrow Terminal 2, where you have the Lufthansa Lounge used by other Star Alliance carriers.

You will have to walk a fair bit after security to get to the lounge, as it’s the other end of the Terminal ( and closer to United gates anyway )

As this is a United Club Lounge ( as opposed to their Flagship Polaris Lounges available only in specific United hubs ) Business Class as well as Star Alliance Gold card holders flying in any cabin are able to access this lounge.

As a Star Alliance Gold member, you can take 1 guest with you as long as they are in the same flight as you. Note, however, as just a Business Class ticket holder, you cannot take any guests.

There is also a paid option, where entry is dependant on how busy the lounge is at the time.  Full rules can be found here

United Club Lounge LHR

This United Lounge is also referred to as Lounge B1 in Heathrow signage. Once you are here you will find a staffed reception where you are check through

after which you are led into the main open plan lounge area..

The lounge layout follows a slight curve seemingly giving the impression it might carry on. It’s an interesting design with seating and various artefacts as if you are sitting amongst trees. Well they have these deadwood trees

There is some practical glass partitioning panels which creates different zones but yet doesn’t feel enclosed

There are 4 or 5 different types of seating that I could see and they were all fairly comfortable, with this perhaps being the best to work or relax in if you are travelling solo especially..

The seating were all arranged with power sockets in good reach and side consoles for either food or laptops/belongings

and then there is a small circular room on the other end which is somewhat more intimate..

There is also a large staffed bar where you can enjoy a drink overlooking the aprons and aircrafts coming and going..

It was a rather grey misty winter day here at Heathrow, as you can tell!

United Club Lounge LHR Catering

As I was here in the morning, the catering centred around breakfast.  You will find a buffet station in another circular room as you walk in and then turn behind again..

There were a decent selection of hot options that would make a full English breakfast..

And there were also continental breakfast options too..

Besides this, there are also a couple of refreshment stations in other side too..

As you can see there was no shortage of ways to keep yourself hydrated with many choice of sodas, flavoured waters and hot teas.

United Club Lounge LHR Showers

The lounge has a decent sized restroom and several shower rooms which you can book ( when I enquired they were available immediately ) but I did not really need to use one.

As far as lounge showers go, off-course these are not as fancy as the luxurious ones you will find in United Polaris lounges, but they were bigger and better than many airlines lounges, most recent one I can think of it KLM Crown lounge.

United Club Lounge Overall Thoughts

While this is not United’s Flagship lounge, I was very pleasantly surprised by it, as I went in with very low expectations.  It is better than some Club Lounges in the USA. I found the Club Lounge in Denver rather chaotically busy and almost unpleasant. I understand they are opening a new facility there soon though.

Catering options for breakfast was more than satisfactory and the fully stocked bar is handy if you like to start your journey with a drink too!

I don’t know if it was a particularly off week, but it was also very quite and thus had a much more relaxed vibe. Unlike the Delta SkyClub I visited on the same trip. My main hunch is that not all Business travellers were using the lounge, as our Polaris cabin out to San Francisco was completely full!