I’ve just kicked off a busy few days of travel, where I’ll be sampling Virgin Atlantic’s 787 premium economy, Qatar Airways’ 787 business class and Qatar/LATAM’s A350 business class within four days. I’ve flown Virgin Atlantic’s premium economy before, but the latter two products will be new to me. I was really excited about this week, and I’m hoping to get a lot of coverage for the blog.
As part of my routing from London to Hong Kong to Doha to Munich, I hopped on my Virgin Atlantic flight back to Hong Kong last night, but one of my main goals was to visit the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse, which premium economy passengers can pay into with £60. £60 is a lot of money, but I was willing to splurge, just to see what the lounge was like.
Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse London Heathrow Entrance
Last time I tried to enter the Clubhouse I wasn’t allowed in as I was a year below the minimum entry age for people traveling alone, though as a newly minted junior year student, I was able to get myself a cash card and buy my way in.
I’ll have a full report soon, though as of now I’d like to put down some of my initial thoughts.
The Virgin Atlantic lounge is huge. There’s quite a bit of demand for business class travel out of London, so there were a lot of people in the lounge. Despite that, due to the number of sections the lounge had, I never felt like it was crowded.
Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse London Heathrow
The decor is so fitting for Virgin Atlantic’s brand, which I love. There are many different sections each presenting their own colour theme, with one of my favourite sections pictured below – a wood-laden area with bright green finishes. The entire lounge seems to fit with the “clubhouse” theme – if I had one minor complaint, it would be the music. While I loved the music playing throughout the lounge and it wasn’t too obtrusive, others with less of an appreciation for 90’s music or early EDM might want a space without it.
Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse London Heathrow Seating Area
There’s so much you can do in the lounge. You can choose to sit down for a nice meal, have a few rounds of drinks, have your hair done, soak in a hot tub (which I didn’t get a picture of, as I carelessly overlooked it), or do some work in some legitimate work cubicles. There’s such a huge variety of seating, which I loved so much.
Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse London Heathrow Work Area
There’s such a large variety of comfortable seating – restaurant-style seating, bar seating, comfortable chairs of all sorts, etc.
Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse London Heathrow Loft
Should you opt to sit down and have a nice meal, the food quality at the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse London Heathrow is simply excellent, with a large menu to choose from.
Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse London Heathrow Food
If you want a drink, you’re stocked at the Clubhouse bar. However, for fellow young travelers, you need not worry – the amazing bartenders will whip up tasty mocktails for you.
Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse London Heathrow Drink
Speaking of the bartenders, all staff were amazingly friendly throughout the lounge. Many of them were soon onboard with my photo taking and were glad to accommodate (and they had some fun with it, too). For example, the waiter serving me at dinner jokingly offered to pose with the menu before he presented the options to me. I did find the service more formal than I was expecting for an airline with such a “young” vibe, though everyone was lovely, courteous, and contributed to the great time I had at the lounge.
Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse London Heathrow Bar
By the time I was done with my meal and a couple of mocktails I needed a shower after a day of goodbyes to wash away the part of me that had died inside refresh myself for the flight, and the lounge had me covered as well, with great shower rooms featuring great water pressure. The shower rooms also double as steam rooms, though I didn’t have the need for that during my stay.
Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse London Heathrow Shower Room
Bottom Line
There’s no questioning that the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse is one of the world’s best business class lounges. I need to do a little bit of thinking to see how this lounge measures up against Cathay Pacific’s The Pier or Swiss’ Dock E Panorama lounge, though I’d like to wait until I visit Qatar Airways’ Al Mourjan business class lounge as well, as it’s also known as one of the world’s best business class lounges.
I’m so happy I had the opportunity to visit The Clubhouse, and while I’ll have a full report soon, you should definitely arrive Heathrow early if you ever find yourself finding Virgin Atlantic Upper Class out of London Heathrow so you can spend more time at The Clubhouse.