The Qantas Lounge Hong Kong has officially reopened its doors as of today. This follows the lounge having been “permanently” closed in 2021.
In this post:
The Qantas Lounge Hong Kong’s closure
In 2014, Qantas opened a beautiful lounge at Hong Kong International Airport. The lounge has seating for roughly 300 people, and spans around 2,000 square meters (over 21,000 square feet).
The lounge closed around the start of the pandemic, given strict travel restrictions in both Hong Kong and Australia. In August 2021, Qantas announced that the closure of the Hong Kong lounge would be permanent. Instead customers would be directed to the lounges of oneworld partner Cathay Pacific, as the Hong Kong-based airline has quite a lounge footprint at its hub.
At the time, the plan was that this would be Qantas’ only international lounge that wouldn’t be reopened — even when things were still looking bad, Qantas had plans to reopen its lounges in London, Los Angeles, and Singapore, in line with demand.
Qantas Lounge Hong Kong now reopened
Qantas had a change of heart regarding its Hong Kong lounge, or perhaps regarding the importance of Hong Kong overall. As we first learned a couple of months ago, Qantas has backtracked regarding the lounge’s closure, and there’s now an exciting update — the Qantas Lounge Hong Kong had its official reopening as of today, May 3, 2023.
The lounge is open daily from 2:30PM until the last Qantas departure. It’s located in Terminal 1, near gate 5. If you’re originating in Hong Kong, just turn right after immigration, and it won’t be a very long walk to the lounge. This is a standard oneworld business class lounge, so it’s open to all oneworld first and business class passengers, as well as oneworld Emerald and oneworld Sapphire members.
Interestingly Qantas shipped all the lounge furniture back to Australia when it decided to shut this lounge permanently. As a result, the lounge largely got new furniture. That worked out, since the lounge was due for a refresh anyway, given that it opened almost a decade ago.
While I prefer many of Cathay Pacific’s lounges in Hong Kong, more lounge capacity is always a good thing, so this is a positive development.
The economics of airport lounges
The economics of airline-run airport lounges are interesting. At outstations, airlines generally have two choices — they can operate their own lounge, or they can use a partner airline or contract lounge.
There are a few considerations when deciding whether to open a lounge:
- Does the airline care about offering its “own” experience on the ground? Emirates is known for operating lounges at outstations even with limited service, because the airline cares about offering a consistent experience door-to-door, down to having chauffeur service
- Is it cheaper to operate a lounge or send passengers elsewhere? Obviously the fixed costs of operating a lounge are high, but the alternative is paying for each passenger who accesses a partner lounge, and that can add up at a busy outstation
- How much revenue can be recouped through admitting others? Airlines take different approaches to this, but in some cases an airline can operate a lounge at a profit by participating in something like Priority Pass, or even by having other airlines send its passengers there
In the case of the Qantas Lounge Hong Kong, a few things come to mind:
- All Qantas premium cabin passengers and eligible elite members can also access Cathay Pacific lounges, given that both airlines belong to oneworld, and those lounges are largely superior; it’s not like Qantas operating its own lounge in Hong Kong is materially improving the passenger experience, and I’m also curious how many Qantas travelers choose to visit the Qantas Lounge rather than those of partner Cathay Pacific
- While Qantas had some agreements to sell access to its lounges, it certainly hasn’t gone all the way in maximizing revenue, in the sense that the lounge has never partnered with Priority Pass or a similar program
- The way I see it, the lounge isn’t a huge differentiator for the airline in terms of passenger experience, and probably cost the airline a lot of money
I think Qantas reopening its lounge in Hong Kong reflects that the airline believes Hong Kong will make a full recovery, or else I can’t imagine this would be happening.
Bottom line
The Qantas Lounge Hong Kong closed at the start of the pandemic, and at the time the plan was for that to be permanent. However, the airline has backtracked, and the lounge has reopened as of May 2023. It’s interesting to see this development, and it shows how much has changed in both Australia and Hong Kong since 2021.
What do you make of Qantas reopening its Hong Kong lounge?
Agree with the comment about the inclanation of most passengers. I don't think the difference matters much to most. "Qantas had a change of heart regarding its Hong Kong lounge, or perhaps regarding the importance of Hong Kong overall" and this statement I would disagree with. It has nothing to do with this and has to do with the demand for their lounge and air service to and from Hong Kong.
The last time I flew business class on CX out of HKG (in 2019) I visited this lounge. I found it, as a business class lounge, to have a nice food selection and a casual uncrowded atmosphere. Much less crowded than the CX lounge nearby. I also enjoyed the decor and setup. No, it will not compete with CX's first lounges (especially the Pier), but from a business class perspective, worth a stop on a lounge hop at HKG.
"I think Qantas reopening its lounge in Hong Kong reflects that the airline believes Hong Kong will make a full recovery"
I'd say the 3x A380s that Qantas is operating into HKG weekly is a pretty firm indicator that they believe in it's recovery. I'm sure Cathay was grumbling at some point (given their recovery) about having to house up to 70 extra guests thrice weekly.
The Qantas lounge experience in Hong Kong is far superior to that of the Cathay Pacific lounges, at least before pandemic. The Qantas lounge was run by Accor group while the Cathay lounges were and continue to be run by Sodexo; it was far less crowded and the food offering way more palatable.
Was this a decision by Alan Joyce?
Alan Joyce is retiring in November 2023.
But he's probably too busy to decide when to re open or close lounges.
Likely someone few layers below him.
@Eskimo & Leo Liang,
More likely, Olivia Wirth, QF's wiz head of Loyalty and signed off by the senior Executive Management Committee within Qantas (which includes AJ as QF CEO).
@kimshep & Leo Liang
Sign off means Approved.
Approve doesn't mean Decide.
The Qnatas lounge has always been one of my favourite lounges in HK, certainly a better facility than the Wing at the same side of the terminal building. I presume there are enough premier transit traffic QF is feeding to Hong Kong, that sustains the demand for its own branded lounge.
Utter waste. Honestly. Cathay has some of the world's best lounges and they're oneworld and hence Qantas (1 flight a day only, soon 1.5) acessible.
Meanwhile HKG is still utterly crap otherwise and has ZERO, yes ZERO lounges for the world's biggest alliance. No Star Alliance lounge at all is open.
@Piero,
Qantas is a conservatively managed airline financially, especially when it comes to lounges, access and revenue. Under your "utter waste" statement, you'd consider that it would be preferable to gut and refurbish its international Business Lounge in Sydney, Austraiia (its own "home base") before opening HKG. SYD is a location that has been openly slated for a gut and refresh since 2018.
What you don't realize is that QF has significant marketing agreements with...
@Piero,
Qantas is a conservatively managed airline financially, especially when it comes to lounges, access and revenue. Under your "utter waste" statement, you'd consider that it would be preferable to gut and refurbish its international Business Lounge in Sydney, Austraiia (its own "home base") before opening HKG. SYD is a location that has been openly slated for a gut and refresh since 2018.
What you don't realize is that QF has significant marketing agreements with code-share partners such as Air France/KLM and Emirates among others, whose non-oneworld passengers are able to access the HKG lounge, where no other options are available.
Also, given Qantas terminated the lease of the HKG club during in early 2020 due to COVID, it is *highly* probable that QF gained the benefit of lower lease rates for the HKG floor space that has remained unoccupied ever since. These points alone would indicate that their internal revenue study would have confirmed the value of increased revenue proposition from (non-oneworld) partners let alone other oneworld carriers such as BA and AY.
Yes, CX has a large number of excellent premium lounges in HKG, that destination is their "home and only HKG base" - and CX tend to charge a cost premium to other airline's passengers, oneworld or other. Unlike QF who provides international Business Lounges in SYD, MEL, BNE, and PER (their "home" base - along with allied domestic Business Lounges and QF Clubs.
That is before we even start considering international high profile lounges such as LHR, HNL, AKL, SIN, LAX etc. BTW, Cathay sends its LAX passengers to the QF oneworld LAX lounge, which after 8-9 years has become a co-funded operation between BA, QF and others. "Utter waste?" Not likely, or even remotely accurate.
Qantas have not flipped flopped. They have said yes, then they have said no, then they have said yes and they have stuck to it.
Contrary to the inclinations of most readers of this blog, I suspect that most business class travelers will just default to the lounge of the airline that they're flying. I'll bet that the fraction of travelers who both understand what partner lounges they are allowed to use and think/know that an alternative is better, is pretty modest.
I flew QR from BKK-DOH last week. I'm Emerald with OW so enjoyed my lounge hopping. Started at Cathay for a champagne, DanDan Noodles and Wonton Soup. Followed that up at JAL with a Prosecco and fried chicken then finished at Qatar Airways with another champagne and a surf and turf main. FUN :-))))))