My flight from Sydney landed at Terminal 3, and from there I had to walk to Terminal 2, which is the international terminal out of which Virgin Australia operates. That was roughly a 10 minute walk, and required exiting the sterile area.
Continue reading: Review: Etihad Lounge Melbourne Airport
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
"It’s soft of funny that the two Gulf carriers have lounges right across from one another."
As opposed to the hard type of funny? 😉
It's sad to see Etihad cutting sit down dining, it was what set them apart from all the other business lounges... I'm surprised they didn't just reserve it for first class and just kick business and frequent flyers out.
@Aaron Tan No, it isn't true. I was in Japan for a month and never had anyone do something like that. Where'd you find that? Someone's screwing with you....
Virgin Australia don't actually use the Etihad lounge for all their international flights. Flights to New Zealand for example must use the domestic lounge before their flight. There has been no word so far about which lounge Hong Kong flights will use. Go figure.
Definitely agree about the annoying trend of having to walk through Duty Free. Auckland does that, among other airports. What's especially annoying is when a plane disembarks, a huge volume of people gets squeezed through this narrow walkway. Sometimes bottles of booze precariously line the sides.
Having recently flown the MEL-AUH-LHR business class, evening departure, I used the lounge, which i found a bit of challenge to locate, when approaching from gate 10 side of the concourse. This could have been due to some Melair maintenance work that was underway at the time though. I did think that the preflight food offering in the buffet was somewhat pared back, with only a small selection of cheeses and crackers with minimal dried fruit on offer. I wondered if it was due to the late departure time, and they were winding back for the end of the day. If not the case sure felt like it. Whilst I agree some stunning styling elements and quick wifi, and overall a pleasant lounge, I think I prefer the equivalent product from EK.
Is the lack of a menu due to the morning hours? or the cost cutting?
I was there for dinner last October and there was definitely a menu back then.
Try adjusting white balance to improve your photos. Probably no point to fix these ones but a lot of your hotel photos have a yellow bias which does do the interior design justice.
@Lucky when you get a chance you might want to update readers about the Qatar bound flights being basically off limits for all gulf based airlines as of...well immediately.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40155829
Flights transiting (gulf airlines only currently) via Doha are suspended as of Tuesday morning local time. Not sure if the State Dept here in the US is going to issue any travel advisories in light of this.
@Jim
I also don't think it's cost cutting, but the fact that Lucky passed through when there weren't any Etihad flights scheduled to depart soon (the lounge looks almost completely empty in the photos).
My wife transited through Melbourne last month and ordered a burger off the menu and had a barista made coffee before her flight.
Off-topic but:
Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, and Bahrain have cut diplomatic relations with Qatar. All flights between those countries and Qatar have been suspended. Look into it.
The truth is - kick out all the partners, 3rd party airlines bookings and only allow etihad first, business and gold, platinum frequent flyers.