I was first in at Heathrow’s new ‘remote’ lounge. Should you book it? - The Times

My lounge experience doesn’t get off to a great start. The driver of my luxury chauffeured Audi — part of the service — isn’t sure where he is going, and when we reach the World Business Centre 3, on Hounslow’s Newall Road, the car park barrier doesn’t open. This ordinary glass office block is one of a few on this stretch of road owned by the hotel tycoon and Heathrow expansionist Surinder Arora — and my first thought is, am I even in the right place? With the roar of jets hammering down the northern runway barely 150m away, I am left to trot through a nondescript glass revolving door and sign in as if I’m here for a meeting.

I’m here to see what claims to be world’s first “remote” airport lounge. Remote, meaning it’s not actually on airport property, but rather as close as you can get to it without hopping the perimeter fence. If you know Heathrow, it’s right by Bath Road, where all the airport hotels are clustered — the Radisson Blu is behind it.

This unique wheeze is run by DiamondAir, which promotes itself as a global airport concierge company providing meet-and-greet services for 600 airports around the world, including Heathrow and Gatwick in the UK. It’s the sort of firm you turn to if you need extra help moving through the airport, offering services such as remote luggage check-in and access to VIP areas such as Heathrow’s Windsor Suite, which deals with royals and politicians.

I’ve seen all manner of airport lounges, from Manchester’s private Aether terminal, which allows flyers to feel like VIPs even if they’re flying Ryanair, all the way up to the super premium, aforementioned Windsor Suite, via independent airside operations such as Plaza Premium or British Airways’ Galleries lounges. But a remote lounge in a Hounslow office block is a new one for me. To state the bleeding obvious, the main issue is that it’s outside the airport entirely, so it doesn’t solve the problem of needing somewhere to hang out in the liminal space between security and boarding. And it is just a lounge: unlike Aether or the Windsor Suite, the Lounge by DiamondAir doesn’t deal with security or immigration. With DiamondAir’s meet-and-assist service that you need to book on top of lounge access, you’re fast-tracked through the airport, but there’s no private workaround that means you can skip the queues entirely.

The price is pitched accordingly. It’s £195pp for access to the lounge, plus £145pp for the meet-and-assist required to get you from Newall Road through the airport to the gate. You can book a private chauffeur here, which costs about £150 from central London, or you can arrive in your own taxi (it’s not as easy by public transport, involving a bus from either Hatton Cross or Heathrow Terminals 2 and 3). It’s best described as a mid-range option between a paid-for airside lounge, which typically start from about £25pp, and a VIP terminal for thousands. 

Conceivably, as it’s outside Heathrow property, you could book to come to the lounge just for the food and drink and runway views — no flight required.

Back to World Business Centre 3, where I’m met in the lobby by a concierge who directs me to the lift. The 3,500 sq ft Lounge by DiamondAir is on the top floor, and with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the airport. Terminals 2 and 3 are straight ahead, Terminal 5 is to the right and Terminal 4 is tucked behind the southern runway. For plane nerds like me, the views are extraordinary: I watch a British Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliner leave for New Orleans and a Saudia Boeing 777 depart for Riyadh, plus a titchy Airbus A321 arrive from Milan Linate on the southern runway in the distance.

The lounge is configured with round tables separated with curved wooden slatted dividers, which feel sociable but still relatively private. My favourite bit is the area dubbed “planespotters’ row” right next to the windows, with comfy armchairs overlooking the runway. Houseplants such as palms, mother-in-law’s tongue and Swiss cheese are dotted around to make the space feel brighter, while the carpets have been upcycled from fishing nets in the Philippines, the DiamondAir chief executive Christina Lawford tells me. The bar is at the back.

Like the Windsor Suite in Terminal 5, there is art for sale on the walls. But rather than Picassos and Warhols, there are elephants painted in neon pink and butterflies fashioned out of old razor blades, with un-jaw-dropping prices to match: £450 compared with ten times that for the pieces available in its VIP cousin. But unlike the Windsor Suite, here there are bathrooms complete with showers. Plus the KarmAir “spa”, a single treatment room that mainly does jet lag-busting massages, as well as a handful of meeting rooms and private relaxation areas with crushed velvet sofas and wooden tables. Only 30 people can be accommodated in the lounge at any one time, which in theory should mean it never feels overcrowded.

Swerving the sad buffets that are commonplace in paid-for airport lounges, DiamondAir has made food à la carte, and the menu spans easy eats such as sandwiches (salt beef Reubens are the highlight) and salads (heritage tomato, burrata, regular green). Reassuringly, there’s free-flow Veuve Clicquot and posh wines such as Pouilly-Fumé, as well as soft drinks, a proper coffee machine and cocktails including gin gimlets and bloody marys, although the bartenders insist they can knock anything up.

DiamondAir has a fleet of electric vehicles including Teslas and Jaguar I-Paces that it uses to take guests from the lounge to the airport as part of the meet-and-assist service. It’s under five minutes’ drive to Terminals 2 and 3, ten to Terminal 5 and about fifteen to Terminal 4, says Lawford. Once in the airport itself, passengers are whisked by electric buggy to check-in, through fast-track security and then taken by a buggy straight to the gate, where they can board at leisure.

Given we’re off site, how long does the process from kerbside to gateside take, I ask. Lawford insists that based on modelling, plus DiamondAir’s intel into traffic on the perimeter road and security queue times, that guests can leave the lounge’s clutches 50 minutes before their flight. Despite being a frequent flyer, I think this all sounds a bit squeaky-bum time. British Airways, for example, requires passengers to pass through security 35 minutes before a flight departs and closes its gates 15 minutes after that. Boarding often starts an hour before a long-haul flight, which could conceivably mean you’re still downing a bloody mary miles away as other passengers are being loaded onto the plane.

But you can arrive early at the Lounge by DiamondAir to make up for it. Lawford recommends passengers turn up about three hours before a flight. The space also operates as an arrivals lounge for those fresh off a long-haul intercontinental service, for example, who want a shower, proper breakfast and to quietly catch up on emails before they can check into their hotel. This feels like the most sensible use of the place. 

I’m not sure I have the backbone to while away the hours before a flight in a nearby office block that isn’t within the airport system itself — however nicely I’m catered for. But for a day when I’m not flying, paying under £200 to eyeball planes taking off in front of me, with champagne and sandwiches on tap, without having to go through the airport itself? That’s an idea I can get, ahem, on board with. Cathy Adams was a guest of DiamondAir, which has lounge access from £195pp (diamondairinternational.com)