Lounge Review: British Airways Terraces Lounge Chicago O’Hare (ORD)

Apologies in advance, but you’re going to get another Cathay Pacific first class flight review coming up…

I flew Cathay first class out of Chicago on the midnight departure. The only oneworld lounge open at this time was the British Airways Terraces Lounge, which is a business class lounge. So no first class lounge for people on the midnight departure.

Given that this was the midnight departure, the lounge is essentially all passengers on the Cathay Pacific flight, since there are no other oneworld flights departing at that time. This also means that some of the other amenities aren’t open, like the First Dining section (although that would likely be reserved for British Airways first class passengers anyway).

This lounge isn’t great. For one, there are no windows. This matters less when you arrive at 11pm for a midnight departure, but I can imagine this getting depressing if you’re there during the day. Second, the food options are pretty standard for a US international business class lounge, which means they’re relatively meager. It’s not a lounge where you’re going to fill up before your flight so you can go to sleep immediately upon takeoff.

In terms of food, there were some sandwiches, snack jars, soup, chips, and fruit. I believe because of the Cathay Pacific flight, they left a couple of bowls of instant noodles in the corner. But they weren’t even classier brands of instant noodles like Shin Black. They also have an average drink selection.

I will remark that the service in the lounge was good. There were people going around and cleaning up and making sure that people had what they needed. But otherwise, this lounge is nothing special and not worth getting to the airport any earlier than you need to for your departure.