Found this https://www.oneworld.com/ffp/lounge-access

I didn't know these club rooms existed , but asked my wife tonight who works in the NT and she said there are signs about the lounges for BA passengers , and that the No1 traveller lounge is available and the Club Rooms are for First and Gold card holders . So it looks like I will be trying to find a space in the No1 in 10 weeks time as I'm flying Club Europe and am just a lowly Silver !! Not to worry though , I'll get my champagne on the flight , my sister seems very happy at getting a bacon butty in the No1 , I will report back how the lounge is when we travel , we are flying out just after midday , so will interesting to see how busy the lounge is , I guess its busiest early morning ?? This also leads me to think that the new lounge in the South opening Jan 17 will have a separate First / Gold area , they have this new concept of making a Concorde Bar for exclusivity , they have done this at Singapore and more recently Dubai , perhaps Gatwick will get the same ? I was in the new Dubai lounge a month ago and it was really nice , but our next flight from there in November we will flying First so will get to use the Concorde Bar instead . If you click the link and enter Gatwick , it gives the list of lounges available !

Hi Andy,

Thanks for your reply.

Having been reading BA Flyer Talk, it seems that this new lounge opened 4/5 days ago and it does appear that it is just for First and Gold. Given that our flight to Jamaica (with Thomson) will be 10am, and we are staying overnight at the airport, think we will be giving the No1 Lounge a miss due to the reviews, and will make the most of our time in the hotel!

Our flight with BA (CW) is late Sept ... will we then have access to other lounges other than the No1??

Kind regards,
Pat

Hi Pat , if I was in your shoes I would probably give it a miss when you fly to Jamaica , if the flights at 10 then you really need to be at the gate 9 onwards , I would have breakfast etc at the hotel , and then go through security ( I assume you will have done day before check in ? ) and if you have a bit of time in the dept lounge for shops / drinks etc and then to gate , I wouldn't get up extra early to sit around in the no1 lounge for a hour or 2 ?? !! In regards to September , the situation will still be the same , I think we will all just have to grin and bear it ! Lol but when the new lounge opens in the south I'm sure it will be a vast improvement on the old lounge , for a start they are taking over the old V room , the no1 lounge as they have relocated and the former frankie and bennys , so it will be much bigger and I hope more updated . On another note I've just booked a day trip to Jersey in May and it was a HBO fare , but as we are both silver we can use the no 1 lounge before we depart , and therein lies the problem , the no1 lounge is busy with their own paying customers , and now BA customers travelling in CW or CE and all the status customers ( gold and silver ) who are flying economy or even HBO !! I will report back what it's like as we will be in there around 6 to 7 am

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the info, and yes, will be giving the lounges a miss.

On another note .... I'd just like to double check something with you, before making any calls. Our Sept holiday to the DR is booked with Blue Bay Travel and as you know have booked CW seats. We are thinking of paying the balance off on the flight part of the holiday and paying the additional cost to book our preferred seats. Given that we are flying in CW will we have access to book our seat number straight away once our seats have been ticketed (within 24hr I assume) and am I right in thinking that certain seats will be held back?

Also, don't want to be in seats where we have to climb over people to get in/out, so looking at the seat plan of the 777-200 (3 series) I'm assuming that seats to choose would be either 11J&K (which we had last Oct) 11E&F, 5J&K or 5E&F? I take it that seats 2J&K and 2E&F will be held back for people who have status?

Many thanks again,
Pat

Hi Andy,

Just spoke to BA ... everything is as clear as mud now!!

Regards,
Pat

Hi Pat , I assume if your flights are paid in full and you have an E ticket number you can reserve seats for a fee , not sure how it works as I only book flights through BA.com and they come up in my exec sign in and I can select seats via MMB , I'm assuming you will be given a booking reference from your agent to sign in and do the same ?? The seat map I have found for a 3 class ( no First ) LGW 777-200 is this. http://www.thebasource.com/seatmaps/b777-200er/40j24w219y.html They do have 2 other 777s that have 48 seats in CW , I don't know for sure , but the last rows usually have a bassinet seat and these are blanked out until -72 unless they are taken also row 2 ( first front row ) would be blanked for Golds I don't know if both row 4/5 and 11 will bassinets ? Maybe only one of them . Bit frustrating that when you phoned up they couldn't explain it properly , perhaps try again ?? If you can endure any more minutes of Flower Duet !! Perhaps the travel agent could advise that if you pay for the flights in full then they can give you the 6 digit BA booking reference ?? And then you can do it via MMB , hope you get it sorted

Hi Andy,

Eventually managed to get through to somebody in BA who gave me all the info I needed. I basically wanted to know if we paid the remaining balance on the flight, and then went on to pay for our seats would we have access to book the seats straight away and what % of seats would we have access to book. They advised ... yes, would be able to book straight way after paying and seats have been ticketed and would have access that we would have access to 75% of the seats.

Have since sorted it all with BBT (who we booked with) and should be able to have access to book our seat numbers between 24/72hrs.

I'm assuming that we will be flying on a 777-200 (3 series) as we did last Sept with BA to the DR ... this one had 2 separate CW cabins, but not sure how many seats it had without looking at the plan. I assume that when the seat plan is open to us within the next day or so, we will find out then??

Kind regards,
Pat

Yes the seat plan will come up , there are 2 seperate cabin on the 777-200 , the front cabin has 3 rows and rear cabin has 2 rows , but there are also 2 777-200 registered to LGW that have 4 rows and 2 rows respectively , once you paid seat selection fee and chosen seats you can always have a look at -72 and change them if you want to , I've only flown in the aircraft that have 1 cabin with 6 rows , 48 seats and the 2 smaller cabins sound better , especially the rear cabin with a " front " row and " last " row , I'm sure less people mean less noise / disturbance , just a shame about the lounge situation on flying out from LGW at the moment . Will be a nice day time flight out though , plenty of room and comfort and good food and drinks , there's got to be worse ways to spend a day !!

Hi Andy,

Now have access to book seat numbers. Aircraft we are flying on is the 777-200 with 40 CW seats (24 in front cabin and 16 in rear) Have decided to book 11J & K on return flight and considering booking 4J & K on outbound flight. Any idea if 4J & K has a window?

Thanks again,
Pat

Hi. I thought it might be the 40 seat CW version , they have 5 regd 777s at LGW with this arrangement and only 2 with the 48 seat format . Looking on seatguru and from reviews on there it appears that 4K does have a window , it's on the 48 format that 5K does not have a window , it's near the galley , but I think that would be fine for a daytime flight , and row 11 on the way back would also be good ( the second row in the rear cabin ) to be completely honest I would book those seats myself . I did read through a couple of good reviews on seatplans about 4K , I think of flights to MCO , so Gatwick specific , rather than a LHR route / aircraft . Great you have been able to sort out seat booking , and very nice that you can sit together ! By being able to pre select in advance on a first come , first served basis

Hi Andy,

Thanks again for your advice:grin Have gone ahead and booked 4J & K outbound and 11J & K inbound. Funnily enough the only seats booked on the inbound flight are 4A & B and 4J & K are already booked on the inbound flight! I was actually surprised that all the seats were open to us, as having spoke to BA on the phone a few days ago, they told me that only 75% of the seats would be released for me to book!!

Good that you had a choice , and on viewing the seats available , if you didn't like any of them you could have decided not to pay to reserve and taken pot luck when the online checkin opens . I thought that the front row ( row 2 ) might have been blanked to book as I thought they might have been reserved for Golds , but then again I've only found that exit rows and row 1 have been reserved for Golds , hope you have a great flight and enjoy the experience .

Hi Andy,

Yep, could have taken a chance at T24, but didn't want to be stuck with seats where we would have to climb over people to get in/out. Friends of ours booked CW to Mexico about 3 month ago, paid upfront to reserve seating and were left with very little choice as most seats were already taken or held back?

Re row 2 ... I expected them to be held back too, but the only ones that were banked out were 2A & B on the outbound flight .... they were available to book on the inbound flight, but wasn't sure if those seats would mean climbing over anybody?

I guess certain routes attract more pre booking ? Perhaps your friends on the flight to Mexico found less seat choice because it had attracted some previous disgruntled ex Thomson passengers !
Whenever ive checked on MMB on seat choice I'm surprised at how much is left unreserved , but then again the cost is quite high , and strangely on some BA flights people don't even do the OLCI at -24 and leave checking in until the airport , so if you do get on to OLCI at exactly -24 there is still usually a good choice , but maybe not your specific choice ! If you were in seat 2A ( window seat ) then you would have to step over the person ( if they had the footrest down ) in seat 3B , if in seat 2B then no one would step over you , with your daytime seats then 4K ( window ) gets out unhindered and in seat 4J , the person in 3K would step over you if you had you feet up or were sleeping ! I guess an afternoon nap after all that food and wine will be needed !! Nice way to start the holiday .

Hi again Andy,

Re the above .... we did actually use the No1 Lounge prior to our flight to Montego Bay in June, and tbh was better than I anticipated given the comments on BA Flyer Talk. The lounge was pretty busy (approx 8.30am) and only seats we could initially get were 2 uncomfortable seats next to the buffet area, but within 10mins other seats became available within the 'cosy/comfy' area. Never had anything to eat as had breakfast in the hotel, so can't comment on food offerings ... only had coffee and orange juice. Overall, we were pleasantly surprise, but there again I suppose it may be down to time of day visiting the lounge.

Must admit thought, we pre-booked the Club Mobay Lounge in Montego Bay prior to our departure ... now the lounges in Gatwick would do well in taking a leaf out of their book ... food, service, drinks, seating, cleanliness and overall ambiance of the lounge was fab, and was money well spent:-)

Best wishes,
Pat

Hi Pat , I guess it's the expectation level !! If you think it's going to a bit poor with the reviews coming from flyer talk , it turns out not to be that bad ?? We flew out in June to Lanzarote and after we had checked in we went to Nicholas Culpepper for a late breakfast , it was very good in there , then after going through security we were sat around in the normal departure lounge , with some muppet shouting into his mobile phone !! We then saw the flight was going to be delayed about an hour , so we all popped into the no1 traveller , which was busy like you found , we had a table and had drinks and snacks and others ordered some food which was ok from the bistro menu , it certainly helped while away an hours wait . I quite liked some aspects of the no1 lounge , I think ordering food from a clear and concise menu at the bar and being given a table number flag , with prompt service is very good , rather than just a buffet area with random food offerings with everyone swarming round like they haven't eaten for 10 days !! I think the problem here is just the vast amount of people using these lounges in the UK airports , you have walk ups and pre bookers paying and then passengers from airlines who offer lounge facilities as part of a premium package , it takes away the exclusivity ? It's like Fasttrack , so many people qualify it becomes slow track . Good to hear the lounge in Mo Bay was a hit rather than a miss !