I am traveling on BA from Seattle to Istanbul in May and have about a 6-7 hour layover at Heathrow between flights. I wanted to line up a massage and be able to take a shower during the layover but we are not in Business or First (we're doing economy plus) so as I understand it we can't even pay to use the Molton Brown spa at Heathrow--it's only open to Business and First class passengers. Is that understanding correct?

I had found a day spa in Terminal 1 where our flight to Istanbul leaves from called Rejuve, but it appears to have closed. Can anyone confim that? Are there any other options? Any hotels close by that have a spa, maybe? Of course that raises a question--will we be able to leave the airport and go back through security?
Thanks in advance for any ideas!

I can't be sure, but it looks like you can get into a Molton Brown spa by being a member of the Executive Gold club, which you can do by applying, and being accepted, for a Gold level credit card.

There also appear to be a number of other spas in or near Heathrow, as I found by googling |heathrow spa|.

One is Spirit Club Heathrow, http://spirit-fit.com/clubs/heathrow . Another is at the Runnymede Hotel.

Virgin Atlantic have a new spa, Cowshed, at their Heathrow Clubhouse. You need to be a member of Flying Club Gold. Good luck finding out how to do that on their website. With either VA or BA your best bet is to call and speak with a human, instead of a brain-dead web designer.

Your flight from Seattle arrives at T4. You can connect to T1 airside without going through immigration. Arriving passengers can't access any airside facilities at T4, except that non-premium passengers may access the T4 BA arrivals lounge, or the extensive T1 BA lounge facilities, if they're Silver or Gold members of the BA FF club. There may be similar access privileges for high-level membership of other One World FF schemes, but BA is generally very clear that AA, Qantas and JAL are serious competitors and don't like supporting competitive FF schemes. Owning a BA credit card gives you no access privilieges.

The security system prevents you from going airside (where virtually all lounges are) anywhere but the terminal you're departing from: in your case T1. So forget about Virgin, whose facilities are airside at T3.

Rejuve went bust last November.

You might be able to get access to the bmi lounge at T1 if you've high-level status on a Star Alliance FF scheme, though I think they insist you have to be on a bmi flight. It doesn't have showers anyway. If you transfer to T1 airside, there are public showers at the Flight Connections Centre. The only publicly-accessible private lounge at T1 (if you don't qualify for access to the BA or bmi lounges) is the Servisair lounge. This costs about £15, gives you a bit of quiet and doesn't have showers.

If you don't need a visa to enter the UK, of course you can go through immigration control and leave the airport, leaving your bags in the transfer system. Ensure you're back in time to go through security and get to the gate for whenever the flight closes. If you do this, there are shower facilities at T4: there are no showers available at T1 for passengers arriving from outside the airport, as you would be if you went to a nearby hotel.

Thanks to both of you. So it looks like our best options since we're not eligible for the BA or other airline lounges are either to shower at the Flight Connection Centre (does anyone know if these need to be pre-booked or how that works? The BAA-Heathrow website doesn't say), or exit the airport and go to one of the hotel spas for a massage (where I'm assuming we could use the facilities to shower after the massage as well).

It also looks like we could pay to use the Travelex Business Center which has showers if we go out of security.

You cannot be BA/VS gold member unless you've actually clocked up LOTS of miles at Business/First class.

Try 5-star hotels near Heathrow, such as Crowne Plaza, Hilton or Radisson. They should have spa facilities. Just make sure to leave enough time to accomodate possible flight delays/time for clearning passport controls/transfer to the hotels when you book for appointments.

Alternatively, you might want to try Frederick's. It's not at the airport, but 6-7hrs would probably do.
http://www.fredricks-hotel.co.uk/

Thanks. I'm leaning towards trying to arrange massages at the Spirit Club which is apparently at the Crowne Plaza. I've just sent them an email; we'll see what they say. But in the meantime if anyone has had experience recently using either the Flight Connection Centre showers or the Travelex Business Center, I'd be interested in hearing from you.

In case anyone else has a layover and wants to get a massage, etc., I finally found out some information about a new spa in T1 called Urban Retreat, http://www.urbanretreat.co.uk/default.aspx?PageID=221

I would imagine they probably took over the space Rejuve was in. I just emailed them to book massage appointments. My trip is in May so I'll report back when I return.

I know this is rather old post, but I'm wondering if someone (flanneruk?) can help me with the comment above about passengers arriving at T4 being able to go to T1 airside.

I am arriving at T4 and would like to go freshen up/get hair done at the Urban Retreat Spa at T1. Is is possible to do this?

Basically, I need a shower, but don't qualify to use the airlines' arrivals lounges.

Thanks

Ah the perils of the English language. And of a changing world.

Airside access at Heathrow terminals is restricted to passengers departing from that terminal. Some airside facilities are available to some passengers arriving at that terminal, and it can sometimes be possible to nip between bits of T1 and T2 airside - but otherwise, you have to be departing through a terminal to use its airside facilities.

Now NWWAnderer was departing from T1: because in those far distant days, that's where BA departures to Istanbul went from. So when I said "you can go airside at T1", I meant "you, Oh NWWAnderer" can go airside". I did not mean "you, as in any Tom, Dick, Harry or Cruisinred, can go airside there"

However, that doesn't mean you (in either sense) can't get a shower. Last time I was at T4 there were public-access showers on the arrivals level, after Customs, by the left luggage office. Heathrow's being "improved" all the time, and its website doesn't always keep up,so the fact those showers are still on the T4 map doesn't guarantee they're there today, never mind whenever you're planning to be there.

You might find emailing BAA will get a more definitive reply. Likelier though that you'll see a flock of pigs, in formation, hurtling down the runway, taking off and doing loop the loops over the Queen Mother Reservoir.

Where do you email Urban Retreat as they have many locations and nowhere I can see which one is the airport one?

"nowhere I can see which one is the airport one?"

There isn't one.

Heathrow's forever changing. Relying on a four year old post for a product as space hungry and in so little demand as a spa, in a place where every square millimetre is as valuable as LHR, is not a wise strategy.

But if you want to email someone with a website, the site's "Contact Us" or "Feedback" pages are always better places to start than random questions on someone else's site.

Well I was just searching and reading bits and pieces here and there - I got a response from you haven't I?? ;o)
Its just frustrating that a place like Heathrow where so many people have to hang for hours between flights, tired and all, can't even go to a massage parlour or spa or some place where they can relax a bit besides drinking coffee and eating and reading which you can just do for so long... and I did go to the "contact us" page, where as I said I couldnt find anything for Heathrow. http://www.urbanretreat.co.uk/Contact_Us.aspx
If a spa can't even last for more than a year I dont know... just frustrating.