For those of us lucky enough to fly into Heathrow on Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Service there is one final treat in store for us. Vigrin’s Rivalas Lounge at Heathrow Terminal 3. With most of Virgin’s FLights coming into the Airport in the morning hours, the Revivals lounge offers you the chance to rejuvenate and refresh before heading off on whatever the day has in store for you. Often Hotels do not allow check-in yet, traffic is a mess as it’s often rush hour, you may have had a couple too many From Virgin’s excellent bar menu and you just need a place to relax a while and refresh. These spaces are thin in the ground and the Revivals lounge offers the perfect spot to recoup.
The Pandemic wrecked so many Travel Plans and lounges were really hard hit, with many very slow to reopen. The Revivals lounge was one of the last to do so with Virgin’s customers screaming out for the reopening of one of their favourite little Virgin Treats. Many, including us, feared the Revivals Lounge was to be one of the many long-term casualties of the pandemic meaning another perk lost to the cost-cutting that has been ongoing as the Airlines recover.
However, this is not the case, and Finally, the Revivals Lounge is back open for business and this little Shangri-La for Upper Class passengers is once again welcoming us in for a glass of bubbly, a hot shower, or just a nice cup of tea before our onward travel.
What Is Virgin Atlantic’s Revivals Lounge?
The Revivals Lounge is simply an Arrivals Lounge. It’s a place you can go after your flight to rest recuperate, get some refreshments, do some work, read a newspaper, catch up on your socials, and just generally re-adjust to the real world after being coupled up in a tin can for several hours.
Where to Find The Revivals Lounge
The Lounge is actually pretty tricky to find. Or at least it feels that way. You are almost outside of the Airport before you get to it and it feels like you may have missed it.
As you head through Customs and then Baggage reclaim you will leave the Airside of Arrivals through the “anything to declare” lanes. You then need to head to the left following the signs for Arrivals Lounge past the Rental Car Booths. You need to head up to the First floor and we find the best way is using the lifts as these are clearly marked for the Virgin Arrivals Lounge. But there are also stairs.
You then follow the branded walkway until you get to the reception. It’s quite easy really but it just feels like you might have missed it as you really are almost outside before you get the lifts. You definitely have to be looking for it and are not going to get here by accident!
Here is an interactive map to help guide you, but following signs should suffice.
How To Get Into Virgin Atlantic’s Revivals Lounge?
Entry is severely restricted to same-day Virgin Upper Class or Delta One Customers, Virgin Gold Members, only when arriving same-day on a Virgin or Delta Flight, along with certain Card holders and Member Statuses
- Passengers traveling in Virgin Atlantic Upper Class
- Flying Club Gold members traveling with us
- Passengers traveling in Delta One
- Delta SkyMiles Diamond Medallion cardholders
- Delta SkyMiles Platinum Medallion cardholders
- Virgin Australia Velocity Club Platinum cardholders
- Virgin Australia Velocity The Club cardholders
However, remember you must be arriving on a Virgin or Delta Flight the Same day to gain access. These requirements are subject to change also. Up-to-date list here.
Why Do You Need An Arrivals Lounge If You Sleep On The Flight?
As the Lounge is reserved mainly for those in Upper Class you may wonder what the point is. Those in Upper Class have had Lie-Flat beds, Endless food and beverage options, a comfortable and relaxed space, and generally should be getting off the flight more refreshed than when they boarded.
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This is never really the case, however. While flying in the luxury of Upper Class really helps with the tiredness and Jet Lag it does not really cure it and after a long flight, often overnight you still disembark feeling pretty rough. Take our recent flight from New York. We were in the air for less than 6 hours and left the plane still in the dark with a body clock time of 3 am after 2-3 hours max of rest. We felt pretty awful, probably better than if we had been stuck in economy, but still pretty awful. So the lounge was a really welcome addition to our trip.
We usually also get the feeling of being abandoned by Upper Class Travel. You are welcomed to the departure airport with a special check-in desk, fast-track security, your own special lounge, waited on hand and foot on the plane, and then, just booted out the other end to fend for yourself. This is an odd complaint we know, but it can be a really rude awakening. The Revivals lounge helps soothe that just a little.
As Flights often arrive at Heathrow early morning, then there is also the issue of what to do. You are unlikely to be allowed to check into a Hotel yet, if you have a long drive you may well need more time to come around from the flight, you may be quite sticky and grimy from the long flight and longing for a shower, or maybe you just want that one last treat from the Virgin bar! There are loads of reasons that you might require, r just like, a little extra piece of luxury.
Admittedly those stuck in the back of the plane are probably far more in need of this kind of amenity, but their ticket was probably a tenth of yours so they miss out, sorry guys.
TOP TIP – The Breakfast on our last flight was absolutely ghastly. This is not always the case, but even so, you need to be woken up early to get an onboard breakfast, and they never really go down too well even when they are better cooked than ours. Ask the Cabin Crew to leave you snoozing, and instead grab something from the excellent Revivals menu instead. It’s better cooked, and fresher, and you get that extra hour of snoozing!
What To Expect in Virgin Atlantic’s Revivals Lounge?
Space
The Lounge is really quite small. At least the main lounge area is, the overall space is pretty huge, but well over half of it is taken up with the 20 Shower cubicles on offer.
After checking into the lounge there is only limited seating options. The tables and chairs are Cafe Style with sofas running around large parts of the lounge. There is limited bar seating, but most of the options are table and chairs tye of affairs. The lounge is probably only good for 40 or so passengers so if there are a lot of arrivals it can be tight, and it is always possible you are not permitted access if full.
There is no view as such, but the Windows are outside facing, however, the View is over the top of a roof area and not particularly exciting so it is largely kept behind frosted windows that allow a small amount of natural light in. Honestly, as a revival lounge, we would prefer more natural light to help bring us around, but we do understand the limitations.
Overall it’s a nice space, just a little small and…well not dingy, but just could be brighter.
Food
Food is a cut-down version of the Clubhouse Menu. Breakfast Items are excellent and all freshly prepared. You can go for a full English or something a little lighter if your stomach is not quite ready for that.
We made the mistake of eating on the plane and were really not hungry at all.
Drink
The Bar is more limited than at the Clubhouse but really that is no bad thing for an Arrivals Lounge. It’s mostly limited to Tea, coffee, Juice, and of course, free-flowing Bubbly. I was on driving duty so stuck to the Tea, which after 4 weeks in America was heavenly, but Kate managed a cheeky glass of Bubbly, and our companion who we had acquired on the flight was making full use of the flowing bubbles!
Amenities (Lots of Showers)
As the Lounge is past Baggage collection and past the point of no return you will have all your luggage with you which is a pain. However, they have full baggage storage so you can get rid of anything you don’t need in the lounge.
There is also a Clothes press service. We had no need for this so can’t vouch for it personally, but if you have a meeting that you were flying in for and your shirts are mangled up in your bag, a Nice Freshly pressed shirt would go down a treat!
And finally, there are the showers. These take up well over half the total space of the lounge with 20 cubicles available. You need to book in but as there are so many showers and not that much space in the lounge we never had anything remotely resembling a wait. We just got directed straight to the appropriate number.
The Showe hallway is a thing to behold as it seems to run off endlessly into the distance, more like a hotel hallway, with showers on either side. The Cubicles themselves were pristine, smelt fantastic, and were highly cleaned and polished.
The White Tiling was a nice touch and the water pressure strong and powerful. It’s hard to describe how amazing this felt after being on the go for 20+ hours with two airports of grime seeping into our pores.
The Showers were stocked with Virgins Partner Tolitry Brand Ren, which adds a really nice luxury touch.
Service
As ever with Virgin Atlantic we found the Service to be fantastic. The Staff were all super polite, friendly, and welcoming. Orders can be taken at the bar or via the App. A quick scan of the QR code and your order worked its way over in a couple of minutes.
We very rarely have any complaints about the fantastic Virgin Atlantic Crews and Staff, They just seem to match our style of traveling, fun, friendly, and un-stuffy.
Overall – Summing up The Arrivals Lounge
Overall, we love the Revivals Lounge. It adds that final layer of indulgence to your Upper Class flight and really sets you up for the day. As we say the Upper/Business Class experience seems to normally just end as you leave the plane so having this final flourish really helps.
It is also really quite useful. We killed a couple of hours here, as we landed so early we really had nothing to do. It was cold and miserable and we were nowhere near fit to drive the 4hours back up the Motorway to Manchester. We had a Hotel Booked in Richmond for an overnight but check-in there was midday at the earliest (paid for early check-in). This would have been a long time to kill in the rain without the lounge. We can also think of many other use cases where the lounge is the perfect stop-off for those just not in a rush to get onto their forward travel or experiences.
Yes, the actual lounge area is pretty small and it can get busy, but Virgin has gauged the throughput quite well and it’s not often full. Most people have plans and just get on with their day, but for those willing to take an extra beat and just make full use of everything the Upper Class experience has to offer the Revivals Lounge is the last stop and should not be skipped…even if it’s just for an amazing Cup of Tea!
Have Your Say
Have you visited the Revivals Lounge at Heathrow recently? What did you think of the Lounge, Food, Amenities, and Services? What were the reasons you stopped by? And how did you find the occupancy levels? Whatever you have to say about the Lounge, just drop us a Comment and if you have any questions just fire away in the comments.