The UK Government has removed the need to self-isolate before receiving a negative day two COVID test. This relaxation means that passengers arriving in the UK are no longer required to go directly from the airport to the place they will isolate. In response, both Virgin and BA have said they will reopen their Heathrow arrivals lounges.
Arrivals lounges are customarily open to business and first class passengers arriving on long haul flights. You can usually also get access if you have a frequent flyer status/level that allows lounge access. The lounges serve breakfast and have a large number of showers, so you can be ready for the day ahead. Arrivals lounges tend to open for the first flight arrivals on the day and close around lunchtime.
British Airways’ arrival lounge is located in the landside arrivals section of Terminal 5. You can read about one of our visits to BA arrivals lounge. Virgin’s arrivals lounge (called the Revival Lounge) is located after customs in Terminal 3. It has been closed on a the times we’ve traveled through T3, but hope to share a write-up from one of the flights we take this year.
If you’re on a Oneworld flight going into Terminal 3 at Heathrow, you have the option of using the American Airlines arrival lounge. At the time of writing this lounge was still closed and reopening plans hadn’t been announced. With other carriers announcing they will reopen their Heathrow arrivals lounges, we don’t expect AA will be far behind. We’ll update once we hear more.
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