For the last portion ofmy round the world trip with dad, we flew Qantas’ Airbus A380 first class from Sydney to Los Angeles. Prior to our flight, we spent several hours in the Qantas First Lounge Sydney, which I’ll be reviewing in this installment
Continue reading: Review: Qantas First Lounge Sydney Airport (SYD)
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Did you by chance ask if you could try any of the items on the lunch/dinner menu? Just curious if they'd make an exception for first class passengers. I'll also be departing on a morning flight in first class and was hoping to try some of the non-breakfast items during my visit. Thanks!
It says 5.09am! @lucky, sleep in?
I love those boards too. I also love the old school boards they used to have at Sydney train stations up until 2000ish. Manually rolled by the station managers.
Can’t believe you didn’t order the eggs Benedict. That eggs plate you got looked like something out of a priority pass lounge.
The spa is fake news. Every time I’ve been there for the AA flight to LAX all appointments were booked up the night before by Qantas first class passengers.
Love the departure board, the lounge overall and your dad's breakfast choices throughout the trip. Super job, Lucky.
It's a beautiful lounge. Accessed it on QR F earlier this year. A couple of note:
- That self-serve drinks area does have wine/champagne was well later in the day (post noon, I presume).
- You did miss the best meals! The famous Salt & Pepper squid. The breakfast looked good, though.
- The entire layout is modelled off the wing of a plane, as if you are "in" it.
- Service can be a mixed bag but is generally good.
I do love the lounge. No super fancy high end liquor or wines but a functional, beautiful, bright lounge with a full restaurant and plenty of space. I look forward to returning!
The wooden “beams” are designed to theme that part of the lounge as though it were the inside of a wing from the Short Empire flying boats QANTAS used on their Empire Service flights from Australia to Britain in the 1930s. The wood accents are designed to look like the wing ribs that would have been present inside those aircraft’s very thick wing.
I’ve accessed this beautiful lounge twice flying Qatar First to Doha. Evening flyers are out of luck on the spa. Although my massage at the Al Safwa lounge in Doha was worth the wait
Qatar sends people to the packed New Zealand lounge probably cause it’s close to the Gate.
Next SYD trip is the Private Room B4 Suites to Singapore
What does "fun decor" and "fun layout" mean? It's not a child's bedroom. As to the library, what's a library normally? It's a quiet place. The roped off area is also for Qantas platinum one members. And what's the obsession with pictures of urinals and toilets? Not necessary mate.
I’m a fairly regular flier out of SYD - generally flying economy, and 75% of the time I can get a spa treatment. Might just depend on time of day and how much time you have in the lounge. If you’re rocking up with only an hr to spare you’d probably struggle to get in.
Only if you have a connecting international flight as arrivals into Sydney have to go out through customs and immigration.
You need to score an invite to the domestic Chairman's lounge. This licorice allsorts would be neatly placed in the jar!
Yes, that's just weird that QR sends pax to the NZ lounge. I read it's because QR & QF don't get along, but not sure how true that is...
@Ben the roped off area for dining is to ensure there is always a table for First passengers
I guess I'm in the minority as the curved area of the lounge is giving me 90s cruise ship realness. And that isn't a compliment.
Usually Qantas have a choice of 3 champagnes listed as well (prior to covid it was often 4!) surprise these aren't listed now seeing as bubbles with breakfast is more common than a full-bodied shiraz? There no doubt were several passengers wanting to have some Perrier-Jouet even at 9am.
While onboard QF isn’t as good as pre covid, the F lounges are still great and the service is generally very good.
I prefer the smaller MEL lounge as I find the service more attentive and more peaceful than the SYD equivalent
Usually that roped off area is where they put Qantas First Class passengers, so they can easily locate them for personal boarding alerts. Last time (pre-COVID) I travelled First Class on the Qantas A380 to London via Singapore, they asked us during the whole greeting process when we wanted to board - first, last, or anytime in between. They placed us in the roped off area, and alerted us when boarding was delayed by 15 minutes, and then came and got us when boarding started.
Yep, that's right. Qantas First Class passengers get priority. As they should.
It doesn't hurt to ask, but keep in mind they have to prepare everything for the Lunch/Dinner menu (incuding prepping ingredients, changing the flow of the kitchen, etc.), which may not be ready if you are there in the morning.
So much nicer than the pre-oneworld tiny first class lounge from the mid-90’s that was down at ground level
Malaysian sends its passengers to the no name lounge. I asked why not Qantas biz lounge and they said to go there. So weird.
It is indeed spectacular on every level (well, except the carpet which makes me nauseous, though it's the same they install globally).
Melbourne is the exact same, though smaller... which I prefer. Awesome ramp views, but usually only have views of smaller aircraft on the intersecting runway.
What has never been mentioned is Brisbane. No international terminal F lounge as they don't fly F class from there (so the offering is very basic)..but the Domestic F lounge is the best in the world, and FAR outclasses both SYD and MEL equivalents by a million miles...it might as well be an international lounge. It's outstanding.
One only need ask and the champagne is popped at any hour of the day in the F Lounges in both Melbourne and Sydney ...... and once one bottle is popped, it is extraordinary the number of other breakfast guests who are suddenly requesting a flute of bubbles. The other small hack is to ask what red has been decanted as it is often a superior offering.
Admittedly I’ve not visited it so perhaps it looks better in person but I can’t say I love the decor from what I’ve seen in pictures. I find the QF business lounge in Sydney is run down to the point of feeling shabby and it will soon be getting a much-needed refresh I believe; I wonder if they’ll do anything to the First lounge as part of the broader lounge upgrades.
Haven't visited this lounge since a few years ago when I was travelling with my family and got access as dad is platinum and they always let all 5 of us in which is nice as your technically not allowed that many guests.
A favorite of mine as well. To be pedantic, in the day most people would refer to them as ‘Solari Boards” after the inventor/company. One of my favorite jobs as a student summer worker for LH in JFK was to update the board. The controller was a physical model of the big board and you had to turn little wheels for each individual letter (late 80s).
I miss the clackity-clack sound and every head in the ticketing/departures hall swinging around at the same time to see the updates!
Last time I flew DFW to Sydney, I had a 2 hour connection on a regional airline to Melbourne. After that 15 hour flight in coach, I needed a shower to perk me up. No first class lounge for me! My travel companion and I asked around and found clean showers for use in the business offices of SYD airport--a little bit of a walk, and certainly an adventure through the labrynths of hallways. The showers were not as spiffy as those in the First class, but it did the trick waking us up for the rest of the day's travels.
Yeah, forgot about Perth. I don't remember the domestic F lounge, but the international F is unique amongst the QF lounge network...great airy design and offerings...to sure howe they were able to carry off such a great design being below the ramp level
I found TPR a real let down on my visit last month; it was the first time I have been there since the refurbishment and it felt quite sterile.
The food menu was very contrived - for example I ordered the dumplings (as I always do in TPR) and the old presentation was perfect. Steamer basket, sauces and chopsticks. Now, there is an oblong plate with a giant swoosh of nondescript sauce on the plate. The dumplings are on the cold plate (so get kind of sweaty) ... really average.
This is just one example of how I think it has gone downhill. Other examples - there is now no view of the planes, just of the interior of the airport. There is no spa, only a shower suite. The whole thing felt like a giant missed opportunity.
Qantas First Lounge might be a bit dated, but makes up for it in every other way.
I flew around the world first class with Qantas and BA in 2015, in 2019, and then four weeks ago. I have to confess, I found the Qantas 1st lounge at Sydney (international/terminal 1) a little disappointing, mostly because it hasn't had an upgrade during COVID. For an airline that got a lot of government subsidy money during COVID, and has been making money hand over fist since reopening, you would think some of that would find it's way to their "flagship" 1st class lounge. The 1st class lounges in LA and especially in Singapore are far superior. I hate to say this, but even the BA Concorde Lounge at Heathrow is better than the 1st Class lounge in Sydney.
Additional to above: I have always found the QF first class ground staff and cabin staff exceptional: when I arrived in Sydney on this trip I needed a wheelchair, thanks to recent knee surgery. Two QF ground staff whisked me off the plane, through immigration and customs and onto the shuttle to domestic in no time. Two weeks later, when it was time to leave OZ, they wheeled me through immigration and security, over to the VAT refund area, and up to the aforementioned lounge. The cabin crews on all the A380 flights, as usual, were attentive without being obsequious (take note, BA) and no request was too much.
But the review was about the Sydney FC lounge, and that needs an overhaul.
Is QF enforcing access only within 3-4 hours of your departure time? I have a 10hr layover in Melbourne in April (arriving on domestic flight / departing on an Intl flight).
I recently achieved Platinum status does that give me access to this lounge with a +1? As my wife is still gold status. We will be travelling business class on a QF flight to LAX.
Great article i shall be reading the whole thing now !! Well done 🙂
The last time I visited the thing that struck me most was the noise. The lounge was quite busy and sound seemed to echo around throughout. But the library is pretty good (simply because it was empty).
Another gripe was the lack of respect for, or policing of, the 'no mobile phones' section.
BobG