London Heathrow’s Terminal 2, which is the airport’s Star Alliance terminal, has five lounges available in the airport. The two Lufthansa lounges are located in the T2A part of the airport which is where the short-haul flights depart from, while the United, Air Canada, and Singapore Airlines lounges are located around a 15-minute walk away in T2B, where all the long-haul flights depart from. The lounges vary in quality, with United being the obvious winner in terms of facilities and service, but I thought it would be helpful to do a round-up post about them and my thoughts on each.
United Club Lounge – Terminal 2B, Level 2
The United Club Lounge at Heathrow is one of my favourite lounges. I love the complimentary cocktails at the full-service bar and the modern and spacious showers (and huge powerful shower-heads) with luxurious cowshed toiletries. The food is good and the lounge is contemporary and beautifully designed and although it can be a very busy lounge, it’s an excellent position for those travelling long-haul with Star Alliance airlines from Heathrow Terminal 2. There are plenty of places to sit with plug points and the WiFi speed is very fast even when the lounge is busy.
Lufthansa Senator – Terminal 2, Level 5
The Senator lounge would have had first place, if it had a shower and champagne. Unfortunately it has neither so is in second place behind United. It also gets very busy as it’s open to all Star Alliance Gold and Lufthansa Senator members and each member can take one guest. It isn’t open to either First Class or Business passengers (unless Gold/Senator members), so if you’re flying First or Business but not a Gold member you’ll need to use the Business Class lounge. However, the design is nice (I like the back-lit digital forest image on one of the walls) and the food is probably the best of all the lounges with a large selection of desserts and sweet foods.
Air Canada Maple Leaf – Terminal 2B, Level 1
Some may prefer the Lufthansa Business lounge to the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge, but I actually love the champagne selection and the design of the lounge is really very nice with high ceilings, a sweeping architectural design and a very modern feel to it. It’s a fairly quiet lounge with bog-standard lounge food that’s nothing to shout about, although they have waffles at breakfast time!
Lufthansa Business – Terminal 2, Level 5
Similar to Air Canada lounge in that it isn’t much to shout about, but the lounge is spacious with comfortable seats, and the food is probably slightly better than Air Canada. I love their dessert station and the bowls of candy and popcorn dotted around (they have this in their lounges in Frankfurt as well).
Singapore Airlines Krisflyer – Terminal 2B, Departure Level
Probably the quietest lounge on the list, it’s not my favourite purely for the fact it’s so dated and there isn’t really much in there. There are two separate parts of the Krisflyer lounge – the Business Class side and the First Class side. The lounges feel dingy and desperately need a refurbishment but it’s ideal if you need a quiet space to relax or get some work done. And if you’re a fan of Singapore Slings (they have both the cocktail version and an ice-cream version) and Tiger beer, pay a quick visit to the Krisflyer lounge for a pre-flight treat!
Final thoughts
If you have the choice I personally would avoid Singapore Airlines, and just visit the United Club (available to Business and First passengers) or Lufthansa Senator lounge. Or do a combination and use the Lufthansa lounge for dining and food (but the Air Canada lounge for waffles), and the United lounge for the showers and complimentary full-service bar for a drink pre-flight.