A Heathrow Airport lounge with free food and drinks, where you can enter if you pay

The swanky Quantas lounge at Heathrow is now open to anybody who is flying on any aircraft but willing to pay the entrance fee. Expensive, yes, fifty five pounds.

What's In It For Me? (WIFM)
What do you get for your money? Fifty five pounds for a meal. And drinks.

And a shower.

And wifi.

More privacy. More importantly, more security for your carry on luggage than sitting in an open place with people milling around.

Reasons Against
Why would you spend so much, regularly, or once off? After all, you will get free food on the plane.

Reasons For
Maybe for a birthday, or a honeymoon. Maybe for a business meeting, or when you are on expenses.

I would be more inclined to use if if I were flying to Australia. You feel you are leaving England when you see the scones. You feel you have started your journey to Australia when you see the lunch or dinner buffet includes Pavlova.

Pavolva
Pavlova is a hard meringue formed into a circular bowl with a raised edge and hole in the centre for fruit. The dish is claimed as a national dish by both Australia and New Zealand. From a tourist's point of view the good thing is that you can find it in both countries. When I first went to Australia I tried to track it down to the hotel in Perth where it is said to have been invented and named the Pavlova to honour the light dancing of ballet dancer Pavlova. I imagine her wearing a white tutu. New Zealanders had a similar recipe printed, they claim earlier.

Another topic you could bring up in conversation. In either country. Australia. Or New Zealand. Or England.

Watching Your Flight Times
Another advantage of the stop in the lounge is that you are more likely to keep in touch with other passengers on the plane and see when they start leaving for the flight, regardless of whether any announcements are made. The staff are more likely to be able to tell you how long you need to allow to reach your departure gate. Or to call for assistance if you are late or too tired to walk a distance.

Other Advantages
I can imagine having a business meeting, or any meeting, in a lounge, using Heathrow in transit.

If you don't meet anybody until you arrive in Australia, at least you have something to talk about on arrival. The lounge. And Pavlova.

Useful Websites
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7887675/Qantas-opens-luxurious-airport-lounge-London-Heathrow-Airport.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ico=taboola_feed
https://www.qantas.com/sg/en/promotions/100-reasons-to-travel-in-2020.html?alt_cam=sg:dg:omd:sem:gg:new-year-sale:

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Travel Tale Detectives - are you one?

Problem
A member of my family takes a trip to Changi airport with a friendly chatty taxi driver. He says he travelled to London several years ago. He can't remember the airline or the airport name. London has five airports. Which one was it?

Answers
My relative asks: "Was it a direct, non-stop flight?"

"Yes, it was direct."

"Only three airlines fly direct and non-stop between Singapore and London. They are Singapore Airlines, British Airways and QANTUS."

"It was Qantas."

"They fly from Heathrow. So you flew into Heathrow on Qantas!"

When you go to London, photograph the statue of Sherlock Holmes outside Baker Street Station. How many clues can you pick up from your fellow travellers? This great fictional detective was based on a Scottish doctor who could deduce several facts about a patient the moment they walked in and said hello.

For example, a farmer might have dirt under his fingernails.

My late father was an optician. He said that when somebody walked into his shop, he knew what they needed. A teenager without glasses probably had myopia, short sight, and needed his first pair. An older person with a frown, wearing a pair of glasses, was probably a reader and needed an updated stronger prescription. A middle aged person wearing glasses probably had glasses for myopia, short sight but had developed presbyopia, age related long sight in later life and wanted bifocals.

We were on holiday in Spain and my father said of a couple looking in shop windows nearby, "They are British."

I asked, "How do you know? Did you hear them speak?"

"No," said my father. "They are wearing National Health Service spectacles. "

*** 

Have you ever made deductions about people you meet on your travels? Were you right or wrong? How often do you find that 'the clothes make the man' and 'no smoke without fire'? How often do you find that 'you can't judge a book by its cover' and 'handsome is as handsome does'?

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourites posts.