Review: Etihad Business Class Lounge Heathrow T4

December 24, 2015

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This is the second post in an Etihad to Abu Dhabi trip report.

I got a text from the Etihad chauffeur company at 6:40am to tell me my car had arrived and was waiting for me outside. They were 5 minutes early. Still, it was 6:40 in the morning and not 5:30 in the morning as they had originally intended so I wasn’t about to complain.

The car that had been sent was a black BMW 5-series and, not only was it pretty new, it was also pristine inside. The driver, Muhammad, was friendly but appreciated the fact that, at that early hour of the morning I didn’t really want to have a conversation with anyone (I’m extremely anti-social before around 9am) so he left me alone.

We got to Heathrow in under 20 minutes and, although departure wasn’t for another two and quarter hours, the Economy Class check-in lines were already huge so, if you’re ever traveling in Economy Class on Etihad, you may want to bear that in mind. In direct contrast to the Economy Class lines the Business Class check-in was devoid of passengers so, five minutes later I was checked-in and in the Fast track security line (which wasn’t that fast thanks to a few passengers not understanding how the scanners work).

The Etihad lounge is by Gate 10 at Heathrow Terminal 4 and, while that’s handy for departures (Etihad’s A380 leaves from gate 10), is about as far away as you can get from Fast Track security.

The Etihad Lounge agents at the front desk were very friendly, smiley and welcoming as, it turned out, were all the staff in the lounge. Once they checked my boarding pass, I was asked if I’d like the WiFi password for the day (yes please) and was asked if I’d visited the lounge before (no). One of the desk agents then escorted me into the lounge and gave me a brief overview of where everything was.

The Etihad Business Class Lounge Heathrow T4

The lounge itself isn’t very big…at least not compared to the BA and American Airlines lounges in T3 and T5…but that didn’t really matter too much.

Note: There were quite a few people in the lounge by the time I arrived so taking photos was tricky – bear that in ind when you wonder why the photos here aren’t the best.

There are three main parts to the lounge (excluding the First Class area which I didn’t go into…for obvious reasons)

Firstly, as you walk in, on the left is a bar with an a la carte dining area and a sofa/sofa chairs by the entrance:

Etihad Business Class Lounge Heathrow T4

There were a fair few more tables and chairs in the a la carte area…just there were guests sitting at them and I wasn’t about to photograph people eating their breakfast if I could help it 🙂

To the right, as you walk in, is a larger seating area with various sofas and chairs:

Etihad Business Class Lounge Heathrow T4

The bathrooms and Spa are off this area of the lounge.

Lastly, to the left of the a la carte dining area, was a separate room with a more relaxed set of chairs:

Etihad Business Class Lounge Heathrow T4

Alongside all the reclining chairs in the room was a small cubicle which passes as a “business centre” with an iMac, phone and a fax/copier/printer:

Food & Drink

There were two options for breakfast, buffet or a la carte and as I still wasn’t really awake enough to talk to anyone I opted for the buffet option.

The buffet was housed in the room with all the recliners and was simple but perfectly ok:

Etihad Business Class Lounge Heathrow T4

Behind the closes serving platters were:

Scrambled Eggs
Chicken Sausage
Turkey Bacon
Hash Browns
Mushrooms

In the cold-food area they had:

Cereals
Yoghurts
Fruit
Min-Sandwiches
Juices

Not 30 seconds had passed after I sat down with a plate of food before one of the smiley servers came up to ask if I wanted anything to drink and, 5 minutes later I was presented with a latte and a chocolate…..

Etihad Business Class Lounge Heathrow T4

I know it’s small and insignificant thing but I like the presentation and I liked being asked what I wanted to drink. It was service with a smile and it felt good. It’s in stark contrast to most other Business Class lounges out there where everything is self-service and, in the case of most US lounges, guests are treated as more of a nuisance than a customer.

After finishing breakfast I wandered over to the other side of the lounge to see what it was like and, once again, a few seconds after I’d sat down a member of staff came up to ask if they could get me anything. As I was still in need of caffeine and I didn’t want to fall asleep on the plane another coffee was ordered….and a fruit plate from the a la carte menu I was handed:

Etihad Business Class Lounge Heathrow T4

It wasn’t the biggest pineapple, melon and berry fruit plate in the world but, after the breakfast I’d already had, it was more than enough.

A few minutes after I’d finished my coffee, one of the Spa staff came up to me and asked if I wanted any treatments. I was about to auto-decline but stopped myself and took up the offer off a 15 minute head, neck and shoulder massage….which ended up being quite invigorating!

The remainder of my time in the lounge was just spent relaxing but I couldn’t help noticing how the staff attended to everyone’s needs promptly. There wasn’t a used plate, cup, glass or silverware left on a table for longer than a couple of minutes. It was like watching a well-drilled army 🙂

Bottom Line

This was my first experience of Etihad service and staff first-hand and I was impressed. All the staff seemed to be going out of their way to smile, to be friendly and to see if they could make the guests’ stays in the lounge a little bit better. Everything was proactive rather than reactive and it made a refreshing change to what I’ve been used to over the past few years.

Th food was perfectly ok if nothing special but the coffee was definitely better than in a lot of lounges.

The Etihad Business Class lounge may be a lot smaller than the British Airways and American Airlines lounges at Heathrow (which I seem to frequent the most) but the staff made up for that and more. It really had me looking forward to what the onboard Business Class experience would be like on the A380 – if the flight attendants were as good as the lounge staff this was going to be a good flight.