Heathrow layover question

You would have to leave the secure area and also go through immigration to get to the arrivals lounge. It is not something I would consider, personally.

But with First Class tickets you have access to the very nice BA Concorde lounge. It is possible they have showers. I will see if I can find out.

Apparently there are showers available in the Concorde Room and the Galleries First lounge. But it is not clear to me whether your tickets will qualify for entrance, since you are transiting passengers and have completed the actual First Class flight.

I will try asking on Flyertalk for you when I have time. In the meantime here is a review:

https://thepointsguy.co.uk/reviews/ba-concorde-room-lhr-t5/amp/

He does mention in the Galleries South lounge as well ( for business class pax) so maybe that is an option.

Here is a review of the Galleries South lounge, post-pandemic. It says passeangers are able to shower in the Elemis Spa, which from what I have rest elsewhere you can book as you entervthe lounge.

https://upgradedpoints.com/travel/airports/british-airways-galleries-south-lounge-heathrow-t5-review/

You will have access to this lounge if your tickets to Vienna are in Club Europe, which they should be.

However, if your Vienna flight departs from T3 instead of T5 where the Seattle flight lands, you may need to look into lounges available there.

thank you all so much for your help! It does look like there is also a BA lounge after security in terminal 3 with showers so we'll plan to head there for our layover.

So your Vienna flight does depart from T 3?

That is correct. My first flight arrives from Seattle to terminal 5. I have a six hour layover and my flight to Vienna then leaves from terminal 3. So from all your advice I think I should head to terminal 3 and the BA lounge there also has showers and snacks for our long wait.

Heathrow has a webpage about connecting flights - in most cases you can use an internal connecting bus and remain airside so that you don't need to visit with the Border Force. You do need to go through security again.

Is the lounge you are looking at landside or airside?

https://www.heathrow.com/connecting-flights

The T3 lounge will be airside. There is an easy airside connection from T5 to T3. You just follow the purple”Flight Connections” signs thT direct you from the plane exit to a dedicated bus that takes you to T3. You will go through security in T3 and then can proceed straight to the lounge.

We fly BA from Seattle in business class using miles, but the one time we had to transfer to T3 for our next flight ( to Barcelona) our Seattle flight arrived so late they brought a special bus right to the T5 gate when we landed to rush the 16 Barcelona passengers aboard to T3. And provided an escort to move us to the front of the security line and then herd us to the departure gate. No time for the lounge!