Since our move to London we have been flying more. We are taking advantage of our location to see Europe on our holidays. With this travel we have been using one of the credit card perks we have, airport lounge access. With MC and my American Express cards we can each get into Priority Pass lounges and take 2 guests. That means the entire family can get in a lounge without any extra cost beyond what we paid for the annual fee on the card. This benefit alone this year justified the annual fee. The way i calculated that was since we need to get to the airport early for flights especially with the girls. We would get lunch. Lunch was costing us £40-60 pounds. Since we can get food at the lounges i calculated each visit to a lounge to be worth that amount to us. By adding up all the times we used the lounges it works out to be a worthwhile perk.
Before our trip to New York for our summer holiday we debated what airport lounge we should goto. We were flying Virgin out of Terminal 3 at Heathrow. We had flown Virgin in June for our quick trip to NY. That meant we had already gone to a lounge in Terminal 3. We did not know if we should return to the Aspire lounge or somewhere new. In this case the No1 Lounge was our other option.
The girls are now old enough to start providing their opinion on subjects like this. Their opinion was they liked the lounge in Gatwick the best. That feedback was helpful however not in the context of where to go for this trip. That simply meant that anywhere we went in Heathrow would not meet their expectations! M was trying to remember if she liked the Aspire Lounge in Heathrow Terminal 3 or not. I liked it. They had the best breakfast buffet of a lounge we have gone to so far. What won me over, eggs and proper sausages in a buffet.
I had been to the No1 Lounge before. It was when i was by myself for work. I did not stay very long. The wait seemed long at the time so I had a drink and left. It looked nice though.
After more discussion than was likely necessary on the topic we settled for the No1 Lounge. We were curious.
The place was crowded. At first it looked like the lounge would be a total bust. M and I both were asking staff if there was anywhere to sit. Finally someone suggested we sit in the movie room. So we did. It was a nice sized room with chairs that had trays on them to eat off of. They were playing Despicable Me 3 or something. The girls loved it. M and I were happy since at first there was no one in the movie room. It was quiet. We ordered our food. The food came pretty quick. I liked my sandwich. The buffet was pretty good. Overall a huge win. Since they have since asked if they were going back there I think they have a new favorite lounge.
I am glad this is the biggest debate we are having:)