Athens British Airways Galleries Lounge – Hold it in!
In a surprise move to no one, the BA Galleries lounge in Athens airport closed last year. It kept going on a downward spiral very, very fast. In addition to old, dirty, jaded and flat out humiliating furniture for a major airline, things didn’t really improve from then on. But one of the more surprising things about this lounge isn’t the disgustingly bad furniture or the horrible service. In fact, its lack of one basic feature was in my opinion, part of its downfall.
Just take a look at the furniture in this disgusting excuse for a lounge.
Shitty Furniture
More Shitty Furniture
When we had had enough coffee and water, we dared ask to use the toilet. We were then told they had none. Yup, none. No toilets in a British Airways Galleries lounge in Athens, the capital of Greece, which received over 18 million passengers in 2015.
BA Galleries Lounge Athens
Now, don’t get me wrong, we have been to really amazing lounges like this one, some crappy ones like this and even quite possibly the worst lounge ever, but in those cases it was either a shared lounge for multiple airlines or one for a struggling African carrier, but in this case we’re talking about British Airways.
I’m pretty sure an airline whose parent company reported in 2015 $22.7 billion in revenue, $1.3 billion in profit, and has assets for $28.6 billion can definitely afford to replace their lounge furniture. Or have a bathroom!
It turns out, when one needs to go, one actually needs to go out of the lounge and into the general area, then into the muggle’s bathroom, that’s shared with a few other gazillion people. That sure makes one feel very elite. It almost makes me want to start a gofund me page to get the BA Athens lounge some new seats. Or maybe they could send a few from the giant lounge at Heathrow?
Maybe even one of the $8,500 giant black horse-lamps?
Moooi Horse Lamp, from Lumens.com
May 24, 2017
I don’t think it is that unreasonable to not have toilets at an outstation lounge. And Athens is hardly a major BA market, let alone a premium market.
By way of comparison for years the BA lounge at Edinburgh airport did not have internal toilets (it does now). And Edinburgh is a HUGE premium market for BA with shuttle customers.
May 24, 2017
Hi David. Athens is certainly not a premium market for BA, but they do offer a premium service and a premium lounge. This is 2017 after all, and I do not think a bathroom is unreasonable to expect. Come to think of it, when I think of premium, what comes to mind is the opposite of having to hold it in…