Middle Eastern airline Qatar Airways extends its Arabic hospitality to the British capital, with its signature lounge at Heathrow’s Terminal 4 offering travellers a unique private club experience, discovers Nick Walton.
For anyone that’s travelled through Heathrow over the years, I’m sure you’ll testify that Terminal 4, with its wide-open spaces, floor-to-ceiling windows, and ample seating, is a refreshing touch. So too is the terminal’s newest business and first class amenity, Qatar Airways’ Premium Lounge, located on the departure level of Terminal 4. With the distinctive air you’d usually associate with a revered private members club, and all the amenities busy
business and first class travellers require the new lounge is the perfect extension of the airline’s Premium Terminal experience in Doha.
A narrow vestibule, diligently guarded by immaculately dressed airline staff armed with iPads, leads to an open meeting and lounge space dubbed Palm Court that is punctuated by an Arabic fountain and, on the afternoon of my visit, is lit with ample late afternoon sunlight – a welcome change from the usual dark, demure, and subterranean-esque lounge experience offered at most airports.
Like many lounges, the space is a sum of its parts; there is a line of comfortable armchairs that leads to table settings
reminiscent of an English garden party but with distinctive Arabic touches, including olive trees, calligraphy-laced walls and ornate tiled floors wreathing a wine and martini bar. The circular bar is the epicenter for the lounge on the day of my visit; businessmen and women surf the web and chat over glasses of Chablis and bowls of Niçoise while bartenders shake up a storm beyond.
I decide to settle into the sophisticated and serene Bistro, an elegant space off the main bar area where a la carte meals are matched with old and new world wines. An open kitchen concept at one end allows diners to see the action in the kitchen, while at the other, a screened-off area affords groups a little more privacy, further extending the
private members club persona.
In fact, the service staff, headhunted from top hotels and restaurants in London, are phenomenal and help give the sense that the Bistro is a restaurant with a rather elaborate waiting area, rather than simply a dining room
within an airline lounge. I order a martini from the bar, and soup and salad from the kitchen, and almost forget I’m preparing to fly halfway across the world – which I guess is the whole idea.
Of course, not all travellers have the luxury of time; many arrive in the lounge after a long workday, eager to dress down and get home. Fortunately, the lounge also has business travellers well covered; there are power sockets and high-speed WiFi throughout, as well as a business centre with printers and PC work stations. Private
and spacious shower suites with heated floors and hotel-style amenities also help ease the process from the boardroom to business class seat.
The only catch is who gets to enjoy the perks of the new lounge. Open to Qatar Airways and One World first and business class passengers, top-tier members of One World airline loyalty schemes not travelling at the pointy end will be directed to the terminal’s SkyTeam Lounge instead.
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