My review of Goldair and Skyserv Lounges Athens, and a BA upgrade

After a nice week in Athens I’m setting off to the cold London. I used my Avios for an economy flight, and thanks to my BA status I could still use the fast track facility.

All non-Schengen flights depart from Hall A, and you pass border control first followed by the security check. Massive queue for non-EU passport, but I went through fast track in a breeze!

There are a few lounge options, all next to each other.

Aegean operates their own (Star-Alliance) lounge, and other airlines work with one of the three third-party lounges. British Airways partners with Skyserv, but after having read some reviews I decided to try out the Goldair Handling Lounge instead.

The lounge is a massive hall itself.

It is quite bright. There appears to be an outdoor area but that’s for emergency exit only. Here is the working zone:

And let’s have a look at the food and drinks:

Hot food of the day include:

• Orzo with mushrooms
• Turkish meatballs
• Vegetable soup
• Rice

Desserts look quite tasty.

I’m quite impressed by the fact that they have a dedicated shower & bathroom facility right across the alley. To be honest it looks even fancier than the lounge itself.

As I had enough time, I went for a sneak peek into the Skyserv Lounge as well. They do accept both Priority Pass and Dragonpass too.

A few random pictures:

It’s actually more beautiful than the Goldair – the different tones of blue and wavy decorations make you feel like in the Aegean sea. It is however a lot busier, probably because of its broader range of airline partners.

The buffet area is a quite small selection, with the following hot items:

• Turkish burger
• Veal with peas
• Rice

Having visited both lounges I made my way to the gate. The flight was slightly delayed so I checked BA’s app again to make sure. At this point I noticed a change to my assigned seat – I got upgraded to Club Europe!

It was a pretty full flight, so the upgrade made sense. But in case you didn’t know, the business class setup on intra-Europe flights is laughable – it’s basically exactly the same seat, but with the middle seat blocked.

There are *12* rows of business class on this flight, and I’m seated at row 7. My original seat at the exit row would have been better.

Good news is I’ve got free food and drinks for this four-hour journey. BA’s upgrade strategy is intriguing: I have been upgraded three times (the previous two on long-hauls) as Silver and Bronze, but never once whilst being Gold!