In early 2023, Qantas announced plans to expand its network of first class lounges, by opening a new location in London. This is something that many of us have been excited about, especially since the opening was initially planned for late 2025, so it should be imminent. Well, there’s now an update. First let’s recap the initial announcement, and then we’ll go over the latest (which is bad news).
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Qantas First Lounge planned for London Heathrow
In early 2023, plans were announced for a new Qantas First Lounge to open in late 2025 at London Heathrow Airport (LHR). This was part of a larger announcement by Qantas about investing in its lounge network, though this was no doubt the most exciting development.
Qantas already has an excellent lounge in London, though it’s shared among all premium passengers, including those in first and business class, as well as oneworld Emerald and Sapphire members. The new Qantas First Lounge is supposed to give oneworld first class passengers and oneworld Emerald members a more exclusive lounge option.
The new Qantas First Lounge is supposed to be a completely separate space from the current lounge, so this will also significantly expand Qantas’ current lounge capacity at the airport. When this change happens, the current lounge will become the Qantas International Business Lounge.
If/when this lounge opens, London will be the fifth location with a Qantas First Lounge, after Sydney, Melbourne, Los Angeles, and Singapore. Qantas does a stellar job with its lounges, and they’re among my favorite oneworld Emerald lounges anywhere.
The investment in London makes sense, given that Qantas is launching “Project Sunrise” flights from Sydney and Melbourne to London. Qantas will have an all-new first class suite on the A350-1000.
Qantas currently flies from Perth to London with a Boeing 787, as well as from Singapore to London with an Airbus A380. It’s expected that those routes will continue to operate even when the new record-breaking flights launch.
Terminal 3 at Heathrow is an absolute delight for premium oneworld passengers. While the Qantas Lounge is great, I also love the Cathay Pacific Business Lounge and Cathay Pacific First Lounge, which are among my favorite outstation lounges anywhere.
Qantas First Lounge delayed, but still in the works
I’ve been very curious about the progress of the new Qantas First Lounge London Heathrow, given that it was supposed to open later this year. During my recent visit to the Qantas Lounge Heathrow, I asked the staff about any updates, and they said the new facility is delayed, but didn’t have any additional details.
I wanted to get an official statement on that, so I’ve followed up with Qantas corporate communications a few times over the past few weeks, and they haven’t given me a statement or responded to my question. However, Executive Traveller (who is a little more liked by Qantas) has an update.
The Qantas First Lounge London Heathrow is still in the works, but is a long ways off from becoming a reality… which is kind of what I expected. What I didn’t fully expect is how far off this is from becoming a reality.
According to Qantas Group’s CEO, Vanessa Hudson, the airline is “still searching for space in London because it’s a very constrained terminal,” and “we haven’t yet been able to secure a space that enables us to start to build a first class lounge, so we are looking at options.”
So there’s no updated timeline for the lounge actually opening, though it sounds like it’s a couple of years off at at a minimum (and more than likely a few years off, or even several years off).
I must admit, I’m a bit confused here. Maybe I’m just totally clueless, but I’ve generally operated under the assumption that when airlines announce planned lounges, they’ve actually secured the space needed to open said lounges.
I’d get if the announcement had been “we’d like to open a lounge in London at some point, but we haven’t been able to find the space.” But the announcement specifically pointed to a late 2025 opening, and stated the lounge would “feature direct access to boarding gates, sweeping views of the airfield, a focus on wellbeing features and an unrivalled dining experience.” That seems rather specific when there’s not actually any lounge space, no?
Bottom line
A new Qantas First Lounge was supposed to open at London Heathrow Terminal 3 in late 2025. The bad news is that not only has construction not started on the new lounge, but a space for the lounge hasn’t even been secured yet. The good news is that Qantas does still plan to open this lounge, assuming the airline can find the space.
It would be awesome if this actually happened, though in the meantime, I remain a bit confused about such a specific announcement for something that was nowhere close to being finalized.
What do you make of this Qantas First Lounge Heathrow development?
AeroB13a, aka ChatGPTim BA alter ego, would say who cares about QF lounge when you have BA to fly you LHR DEN.
Just within T3 BA lounge is the bestest best of the best of the best lounge.
CX is far away at the bottom with VS and not even close to anything BA. Maybe under his logic, only Club Aspire is better than BA.
He would rather have a Concorde room in Denver.
Anyone who disagree obviously never set foot on a BA plane.
Told ya.
The current business lounge at LHR and the first class lounge at LAX share a post-modern industrial decor and layout. Absolutely unimaginative and unattractive.
Ben, you may have heard about Heathrow news, the person in the UK in charge of the power grid has claimed that Heathrow did not need to shut down, there was enough power from other stations.
Meanwhile the news about the one in charge of Heathrow slept thru the night Friday.
Three substations serve Heathrow. Two remained operational. However, network reconfiguration was required -- but didn't happen -- to shift capacity to maintain Heathrow operations. An engineer for the grid was surprised that Heathrow doesn't have a sufficient UPS system for backup..
LHR are currently engaging with all the airlines about terminal reorganisation, Virgin are desperate to move to T2, there was a news article in January detailing possible scenarios, in short T2 hosts SlyTeam & partners, T3 OW and others, T4 Star Alliance and others with T5 BA OW and the development of the long awaited T5 D pier, until all the airlines agree to change or want to leave things as they are it would be foolish to spend money on new lounges.
Ax the Amex lounge in T3. Lease the space to an airline.
Virgin Atlanta to T2? Moving with its boss Delta?
And leave behind its limo check-in facility in T3?
I'm struggling to see the sense in such a move.
This information is incorrect. There is no way any Star Alliance airlines would want to move from T2 to T4
Just Google LHR terminal reorganisation, Sky News article broke the story and The Independent travel writer wrote the news article, it’s just a table top exercise atm.
Virgin do want to move to T2 but this would only happen after the terminal is substantially expanded which will only happen after the third runway is built which if approved would be at least 10 years away.
"However, Executive Traveller (who is a little more liked by Qantas) has an update." Gee I wonder why, and it's wouldn't be just because Executive Traveller is Australian. You'd be on the right track considering Executive Traveller is a bit more liked.
They also have a First lounge in Auckland! :-)
Would you consider getting on one of those inaugural flights just for the hell of it?! :D