Jet Set Go!

In the beginning air travel was the luxurious preserve of the few.

You needed serious money and your fingers crossed (to prevent from a fiery death) to fly. Now things are different, you can fly pretty much anywhere in the world for a dollar plus tax; the airlines are basically giving it away, upselling the add-ons, food and other services. Because of this, air travel has become a horrid, commoditised experience – everything is the lowest common denominator, with all the original luxuries stripped away so that you can travel around the world for the price of a crappuccino.

To keep business passengers sweet, and away from the great unwashed that now clog our congested terminals, airlines invented the ‘lounge’. These exclusive branded hang-outs offer free drinks & food, and are pitched as quiet (zen-like) spaces, designed to help premium passengers escape airport madness and start enjoying their trip before they’ve even left.

Unfortunately most of them *suck*.

You’ve just shelled out $6,000 for a business class ticket and all you get is some pretzels, a free beer and a view of the runway. Hmm. Most airlines have lounges, but only one has remembered that the journey is part of the holiday, and that an airline lounge should be much more than just a glorified waiting room.

Say hello to Virgin Atlantic’s Heathrow Clubhouse. It’s so good you really won’t want to leave. I’ve just spent the whole day here, connecting in from San Francisco to Cape Town (on a 22,000 mile, 7 day bonanza) and it’s been an absolute joy.

Everything here has been designed to be radically different from the usual airline lounge: typically an unexceptional, joyless and cramped space. The Clubhouse is simply huge, offering several different distinct areas across 25,000 square feet, in which you can eat, drink, play or relax – all free and all delivered with the typical Virgin panache and attention to detail.

The design is super-glamourous: it’s filled with classic Eames, Aarnio, and Columbo furniture, Arco lights and sweeping spaces that set them off beautifully. What’s present here, and absent in many of Virgin’s competitors is a sense of fun and style. There’s a free hair salon, a spa, garden, even a pool. It’s much more like a private member’s club than a waiting room, more Soho House than Holiday Inn.

My day in the lounge.

I arrived at the lounge around midday, having just flown in from SFO – I used the Arrivals Lounge to shower and change before checking in and using Virgin’s new dedicated security channel at Heathrow’s Terminal 3, which, apart from check in itself, is exceptional.

I had lunch in the restaurant and then repaired to the ‘Office’, a dedicated work area, to get on with my day job. Several thousand emails later I Twittered my friends to see if anyone was at the airport that day and fancied a drink. Adrian Sevitz, an ‘internet friend’ answered the call and joined me for a brace of excellent Manhattans before his flight to JFK. One of the great things about the Clubhouse, and most other lounges, is that you can invite guests to join you (as long as they’re on the same airline) – it’s always more fun to enjoy them with friends.

After Adrian left I repaired to the bar, tag-teaming glasses of champagne and the final emails of the day. At 7.30 they called my flight, VS 603 to Cape Town. I reluctantly packed up and took the short(ish) walk to the departure gate, waving goodbye to the excellent waiters, bar staff and other folk who’d looked after me so well during my stay.