British Airways Improves Lounge Benefits for Some Elite Members

- UPDATED: September 20, 2021

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Improvements to elite status lounge entry couldn’t have come at a better time after 18 months of mostly stripped-back flying perks.

As of Monday, September 20, 2021, British Airways is relaxing its restrictions on lounge access for Executive Club Silver, Gold, and Gold Guest List elite members.

Here’s what it could mean for you.

BA Executive Club Silver and Gold Members

The changes here will directly affect frequent transatlantic flyers.

All Silver and Gold members traveling in any class are now eligible for preflight dining in select BA lounges in the U.S.

This means that travelers can now enjoy a full meal before boarding their short red-eye flight to London. Gone are the days of waiting for meal service to complete on an overnight to the U.K. and only getting around 3 hours of sleep.

British Airways lounges with preflight dining options are Boston (BOS), Chicago (ORD), New York (JFK), and Washington, D.C. (IAD).

Hot Tip: Learn more about these specific lounges in our full guide to U.S. British Airways lounges, including locations, hours, and more.

BA Executive Club Gold Guest List Members

Gold Guest List members will be pleased to know that they will now be eligible for Concorde Room access irrespective of the number of Tier Points they’ve earned.

There are only 2 Concorde Room lounges in the world: London Heathrow’s Terminal 5 and New York’s JFK Terminal 7.

JFK Concorde Room dining — The kind of fare Gold Guest List members will now have access to in JFK’s Concorde Room. Image Credit: Daniel Ross

Realistically, the number of passengers who will benefit from this change is a very small percentage of British Airways flyers, but it’s certainly still worth shouting about.

Previously, Gold Guest List members only earned a Concorde Room Card after earning 5,000 Tier Points. This afforded them access to the Concorde Room no matter what cabin class they were flying. This is no longer the case.

First class passengers, irrespective of Executive Club status level, will continue to have access to Concorde Room lounges.

Final Thoughts

Lounge access is often considered one of the most valuable perks of having airline elite status. So, when efforts are made to improve passenger experience by improving these benefits, we like to celebrate it.

Given that British Airways has one of the strongest U.S. to London networks of the major transatlantic players, there’s a high chance that you could be making the most of these changes on your next flight across the Atlantic.