Neil Scrivener reviews the Etihad Lounge in London Heathrow’s Terminal 4, available to passengers flying with Etihad in Business Class, First Class, or Etihad Guest Members

Terminal 4, London Heathrow Airport, United Kingdom

Introduction

This is my review of the Etihad Lounge in Heathrow’s Terminal 4, which I visited flying on the 13:55 to Abu Dhabi with Etihad.

The lounge is fairly modest in size, but otherwise excellent in quality!

Visited

January 2025 at 12:00

Entry Conditions

I am still getting my head around the Etihad offering and their services, but I believe I am correct in saying you can get access this lounge when:

• Flying First Class with Etihad
• Flying Business Class with Etihad
• You are an Etihad Guest Platinum Member
• You are an Etihad Guest Gold Member

I believe I am right in saying this lounge is not shared with any other airline – and given its modest size it would be very crowded if it was.

How to Get There

When you are out of Security, make a right hand turn towards Gate 10.

Once you get to Gate 10, you’ll see the entrance to the lounge on the right hand side. The Lounge entrance is co-shared with the Plaza Premium Lounge, and before you get to the Plaza Premium you’ll go down in the elevators (or stairs) to the entrance of the Etihad Lounge.

Layout

The Layout of this lounge is fairly modest in size.

There is a nice lounge area, which is (all) low seating and (all) low tables. This is great for a lounge area, but quite annoying when looking for somewhere to work!

There is a bar area, with more low/lounge seating – and of course the bar!

Then you head through to the restaurant area, which has around 20 or so tables.

There is also a First Class area, which I didn’t visit.

All in all the size of the lounge if fairly modest – Etihad fly an A380 from Heathrow to Abu Dhabi, and I’d be interested to see how busy the lounge gets then!

Food and Drink

Drinks

There a couple of coffee machines dotted around the lounge – but all of the drinks come from the bar.

Surprisingly (at least for me) all of the drinks service is a waiter service. On each table there is a drinks menu – with plenty offered at the bar. One thing I noticed they had was Guinness 0% – as well as lots of champagne, wine, spirits, soft drinks, etc. All in all very good!

Food

Heading into the restaurant, there are two options for food.

One is the self-service buffet which has a range of salads, hot foods, breads, desert items, etc.

On the other hand, there is A La Carte dining – where there is an all-day menu.

I had some starter items from the buffet before ordering the burger and sticky toffee pudding from the menu.

All in all the food and drinks experience was very good – and I have to say the waiting staff were excellent, and I was greeted like an old friend!

Wifi

The Wifi in the lounge I found to be reliable and fast. I had quite a few work things to do, and the Wifi was perfect for that purpose – albeit that there was no desks to work from!

Showers

There are around 6 or so showers in this lounge. The showers were very good quality, but the only thing missing for me was somewhere to put my clothes! The toilet seat was an angled slidey one – and there was nowhere else to put them!

Conclusion

Following BA’s announcement to change to a spend-based Tier Point system, this was sort of a ‘revenge flight’ – and to a degree I still felt like I was ‘cheating on BA’ – but the second I was in this Business Class lounge it was clear Etihad’s lounge offering in Heathrow is miles ahead of BA’s at a Business Class level.

A La Carte dining, waited drinks, friendly and efficient service to your seat – this is not even what is offered in BA’s First Class Lounge – let alone Business Class lounges!

My only annoyances about this lounge were (a) there were no places to work on a laptop from as the tables were too low; (b) the showers and nowhere to put your clothes; and (c) no printer!

Other than that, this has to be one of the best lounges in Heathrow!