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Where to rest during a 9 hour layover in Heathrow Terminal 5 flying longhaul economy in and out

We (2 of us) are looking where to rest in Heathrow Terminal 5. We would like to pay up to about $100.
We arrive from the US on BritishAir flying economy at 10am on a Monday.
We fly out to South Africa at 7pm the same day on BritishAir flying economy.
We are at Ruby level (American Airlines Gold) for frequent fliers.
This is the first time we have flown through using Heathrow Terminal 5.
Unbelievably, it looks like BritishAir/Heathrow did nothing for economy passengers in Terminal 5. In August/September we fly thru Heathrow but on Business/First Class tickets, so no issue. I am relearning why we have avoided Heathrow (and BritishAir) for the last 20 years.

The best bet so far appears to be taking the Hoppa Bus (16GBP rt) to a day room at a nearby hotel (50GBP (Novotel) plus).

Other items we have considered:
On air side:
BritishAir lounges not available, even for paying, for Ruby level.
As far as I can tell, there is nothing else. We made a mistake, I think, flying through Terminal 5.
On land side (past security)
Nothing in terminal 5, so have to budget time to get to/from other terminals
Yotel (which we have used in the past) in terminal 4 is a definite possibility. 35GBP for 4 hours for a bed for one. Hoopa Bus hotel buys us a couple more hours with a pool and exercise room and larger bed. That is probably worth the additional cost.
Many Airport Lounges in terminals 1-4. Would use if they were in terminal 5 air side.
Sofitel Terminal 5 Day Room-can walk to-but room is 130GBP.
Visit Windsor (only one of us is willing so that is out)

Any other suggestions? Hopefully I am missing something.

Posted by
1 posts

Yotel is a great place to stopover, especially if you want to get some sleep. You can take a shower, use wi-fi, and just relax in privacy from 4-8 hours. And you don't even have to leave the airport! You can get a berth or a room with double bed, desk, tv, etc. This is a wonderful option which we tried a few years a go and well worth the price as we were on a long trip to the middle east and had more travel ahead of us. Highly recommended.

Posted by
3 posts

We did use Yotel a few years ago (Terminal 5 was being built) flying to India and liked it (4 of us shared a larger room). A definite possibility. I still can't believe nothing was put in Terminal 5 airside for economy transits. All our other trips to the Middle East/Europe/Africa have avoided Heathrow on purpose, because one runs into this kind of problem at Heathrow--which has been designed to be a problem (Terminal 5 is relatively new), it is not a problem of overloaded infrastructure, which one hears as an excuse. I'm just posting this in case I've missed something.

Posted by
7280 posts

This wasn't necessarily a place to rest, and I did it several years ago, before there was a Terminal 5, when the Denver-London flights arrived at Gatwick Airport, but from Gatwick, I headed into nearby Crawley, to a movie theater. I killed a long layover by seeing movies in air-conditioned comfort until it was time to head back to the airport for my connecting flight. Of course, people can do much of that now on a smartphone or tablet device, sitting at the airport, if watching movies was on the agenda.

Or, do you have spare AAdvantage points or Avios that you can cash in for lounge access at Heathrow?

Posted by
3 posts

We do have spare AAdvantage points. I did not know they could be used for access to the BritishAir lounges. I'll look into that.