Trip Overview
- Lounge Review: British Airways Lounge San Francisco Lounge
- Flight Review: British Airways First Class – Airbus A380 San Francisco (SFO) to London (LHR)
- Lounge Review: British Airways Concorde Room London Heathrow Terminal 5
- Hotel Review: Le Méridien Stuttgart, Germany
- Flight Review: British Airways First Class – Boeing 747 London (LHR) to San Francisco (SFO)
The old British Airways Lounge at SFO was closed for quite a while and re-opened in mid-2019. The lounge space was completely redone. I had the chance to visit the lounge on my flight from San Francisco to London.
But I wasn’t off to a good start. You can find out more about it on my flight review of my first ever A380 flight. After I was finally able to get a boarding pass, it was a breeze getting through security as I was 4 hours early. I was the only one in the TSA PreCheck lane and all my heavily loaded carry-on bags made it through as well without secondary inspection.
By the way, if you have some extra time before your flight, check out the Outdoor Observation Deck at the G Concourse. To get there you have to clear security at G-Gates again and then come back to A-Gates and clear security here as well. Make sure you have enough time to do so.
Location
The entrance to the lounge is located between the gates A5 and A9. SFO recently redid their gate-numbering at the airport. Basically you will pass the first boarding area which has an escalator going down one level. In between this boarding area and the next one, is the entrance to the British Airways Lounge. Once entered, you have to show your boarding pass and I.D. and you will take the elevator down to the second floor to the lounge space.
The main part of the lounge offers plenty of seating and is split in two areas. The first part is the main dining experience which offers plenty of tables to sit down and enjoy a meal. This area also has a hot food buffet besides snacks. Here you also find the biggest selection of drinks. Everything from water to spirits is available here and of course complimentary. The food choices include fresh seasonal salads as well as a selection of local Sonoma County cheeses and sweet treats.
In the second part of the lounge, you find more seating places. Most of them don’t have a dining table, rather than just a small area to set down something to drink and some snacks. This area comes with a cold buffet plate and also offers a big selection of drinks. However, the bigger selection is in the first part of the lounge. An office area with option for wireless printing is located in the second part of the lounge. The office area comes with plenty of spots to set up your laptop and the corresponding power outlets. Over 80% of the seats have access to a power outlet. This is great, especially if you have long waiting times before your flight departs.
At the very end of the lounge is a First Class Dining Room which offers a-la-carte pre-flight food options. You have so many options, you can get full even before you depart. I only went with an entree to save some room for the inflight foodservice. There is also a specific wine selection just for the First Dining Room. Previously, there was a separate First Class section to which also OneWorld Emerald members had access. The new First Dining Room is exclusively available for the people flying in First Class. The service at First Dining was outstanding. The staff here really took care of the passengers. There are not many first-class seats on the flights and therefore the amount of people actually dining here is very small and it doesn’t mean that everyone will show up.
If you don’t fly on an Airbus A380, you can board your plane straight out of the lounge. It has access to both boarding areas (A5 & A9) on either side of the lounge. Unfortunately the A380 is to big and can’t park at the backside of the terminal building, therefor you have to take the elevator up again to the main concourse level and walk to the gate, which is usually A6.
A PA system plays a curated playlist of calming music throughout the lounge. The volume is just perfect to give a great background ambient music while you still can have conversations.
Peter has a passion for Traveling, Photography, and Geocaching. These are the best ingredients for amazing adventures all over the globe. “Traveling is fun, no matter if you stay in a luxury hotel or travel like a backpacker.” Peter shares his experiences on his Blog www.gatetoadventures.com
Some of Peter’s photos are published on corporate websites, in-flight magazines, travel guides, and much more.