Club Aspire Lounge, London Heathrow T3: Packed at all times

For the first stage of this trip, I am forced to fly on Air France for scheduling reasons.

Here is the itinerary followed:

#	Type	Review
1	Diary	Back to school trips to Paris and the United States
2	Lounge	Club Aspire Lounge, London Heathrow T3
3	Flight	Air France Business, London Heathrow – Paris Charles-de-Gaulle
4	Hotel	Intercontinental Paris Champs-Elysées
5	Lounge	Air France Business Lounge, Paris Charles-de-Gaulle 2E-K
6	Flight	Air France Business, Paris Charles-de-Gaulle – London Heathrow
7	Lounge	British Airways Concorde Room, London Heathrow T5
8	Flight	British Airways First, London Heathrow – Chicago O’Hare, Airbus A380-800
9	Hotel	Kimpton Grey Chicago
10	Hotel	Kimpton Monaco Chicago
11	Hotel	Intercontinental Chicago
12	Lounge	American Airlines Flagship Lounge, Chicago O’Hare T3
13	Flight	American Airlines Domestic First, Chicago O’Hare – Charlotte, Boeing 737-800
14	Lounge	American Airlines Admirals Club, Charlotte Concourse C
15	Flight	American Airlines Domestic First, Charlotte – New-York La Guardia, Boeing 737-800
16	Hotel	Kimpton Muse, New-York
17	Hotel	Intercontinental New-York Times Square
18	Lounge	British Airways Concorde Room, New-York JFK T7
19	Flight	British Airways First Suite, New-York JFK – London Heathrow, Boeing 777-300ER

Today’s itinerary

Check-In and ground experience

I check-in online a little less than 30 hours before the departure of my flight to Paris via the Air France application.

Check-in was laborious because of the application which bugged, proposing the check-in of the return flight when it was not yet open…

But after some manipulations via the mobile site and not the application, I manage to check-in and get my boarding passes for Paris and back on mobile.

I arrive at Heathrow almost 4h30 before the departure of the flight to Paris. Indeed, I have a meeting that I can’t miss between 8am and 10am and I need to be in the quiet American Express lounge which has a number of private phone booths.

Having my boarding pass on my mobile, I go directly to the security controls, located on the mezzanine, then to the Fast Track.

The queues materialized for the summer peak are completely empty, and I access the Fast Track without waiting.

A few people are in front of me, but I am airside in less than 5 minutes. Too rare in terminal 3.

So I go to the American Express lounge that I know well. But there, it is like a cold shower: the access is possible only 3 hours before the flight, and the officer does not want to hear anything, in spite of the deployment of all my British phlegm.

Impossible for me to wait, my meeting starts in a few minutes, so I choose to go to the Club Aspire lounge, now used by Air France-KLM in Heathrow terminal 3.

Location and welcome

The lounge is located near gates 1 through 8 of Terminal 3.

The welcome is very cold and I am invited to enter the lounge.

Lounge design

The design is typical of airport lounges: a bit bland and soulless, but comfortable.

Rest areas, tables for eating and more private booths are available.

I would find a booth in which I would set up to conduct this meeting and eat.

Catering

The lounge’s catering offer is rather qualitative during my visit (breakfast).

A real English breakfast is possible, with scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon and hash brown. The coffee, on the other hand, is totally disgusting, as it comes from Nescafé machines (no, not Nespresso).

I’ll settle for mint tea as a hot drink.

Bottom line

A decent stay but so many people! The lounge is totally overwhelmed by the crowd, between Air France-KLM passengers and PriorityPass passengers, it’s hard to find a way!