No. 1 Lounge, Heathrow Airport Review

I recently flew from London to Los Angeles, and of course I wanted to relax before my flight by visiting a lounge! I got a free pass to visit the No. 1 Lounge in Heathrow Airport as part of my premium Trusted Housesitters membership; this post is an overview of my visit and my experience within the lounge itself.

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What's In This Post

Lounge Info

Location: Terminal 2 airside, after Security Checks, across from Gate A18.
Membership accepted: Priority Pass, Lounge Key
Can also buy day passes for £40 GBP.
Open daily from 5:00 am – 9:00 pm.
You can stay in the lounge for 3 hours before your flight, and purchase extra time if needed.
Website!

No. 1 Lounge Directions

This lounge just opened recently, so they don’t have a lot of official signage around the terminal yet. To make things more complicated, my pass had slightly incorrect directions! I wandered around a bit before finally spotting a sign pointing me to the right entrance.

To find the No. 1 Lounge, starting from the security area:

Head straight into the main part of the terminal until you see Louis Vuitton. Turn slightly left and go towards Gate A18.

You should see a set of elevators and a sign that says No. 1 Lounge. Take the elevator to Level 2.

The lounge entrance is there! You made it!

Lounge Review

This is the first lounge I’ve been to in Heathrow, and the first No. 1 Lounge I’ve ever been to! Unfortunately, it’s not my favorite lounge I’ve been to. Despite having very friendly staff, a clean buffet area, and a decent range of drinks, there were a few issues that made it hard to relax in the lounge.

But first I’ll break it down into separate topics:

Food

Buffet line-up with departure tracker on the wall

Pretty typical food selection, half hot food and half cold stuff. The hot stuff was mostly soup, and then they had things like chicken roll sandwiches, salad, cheese and crackers, cookies and small snacks.

I tried some of the sandwiches– they put rocket in the chicken roll-ups which made for a very unpleasant pointy feeling while chewing. The cucumber salad was VERY astringent. And the cheese was a cheap white cheese that tasted like nothing.

So not very exciting choices, and overall kind of bland, but that’s almost to be expected in a lounge. They DID do a good job at refilling the plates of food and keeping things looking fresh.

Drinks

I was flying early-ish so I didn’t get an alcoholic beverage, but they did have a staffed bar area. They also had soda, a large selection of tea, and very fancy coffee machines that made excellent lattes.

Seating area

This is one of the things that I didn’t like about this lounge.

It’s a relatively huge space, with TONS of places to sit, including some interesting nooks called “TV rooms.” There’s tables, small couches, and armchairs to choose from. Lots of different seating options for people and lots of space for travelers to hang out.

On the other hand, it felt weirdly crowded– even when the lounge was mostly empty– because of all the furniture. Like, the tables are VERY close together. Moving between them to find an open seat, especially if you have a carry-on suitcase with you, feels like trying to squeeze down a narrow fun house hallway.

This isn’t a business lounge so there aren’t any dedicated desks for laptop-users and the tables are either slightly too high or too low to use comfortably while typing, but it’s okay for catching up on emails or doing some writing. There ARE plugs next to nearly every table, so you can charge your laptop or other devices, too. And of course there’s free lounge-only wifi to connect to.

Other stuff

There’s a separate bathroom for lounge guests which was very nice and clean.

One thing that stood out to me was the lack of staff roaming around. My first impression was first: lots of empty seats, then: LOTS of used plates and cups sitting on tables. It took about an hour for a staff member to start collecting them. I’m hoping it was just an issue of perhaps staff going on lunch breaks and not a standard practice for the lounge to only clean the area once an hour.

Final Thoughts

Overall, while this wasn’t my favorite lounge I’ve ever been in, it was a nice place to hang out before my flight and it was great to have access to coffee and snacks while I worked on some blog posts. The staff were very nice, which is important as well.