Review: Qantas Lounge Hong Kong Airport (HKG)

During my long journey to Abu Dhabi, I had the chance to visit several lounges at Hong Kong Airport. Many of the best lounges at Hong Kong Airport are run by Cathay Pacific, including The Pier First Class Lounge, The Wing First Class Lounge, and The Pier Business Class Lounge.

However, there’s another oneworld lounge that’s often overlooked, which is definitely worth a visit — I’m talking about the Qantas Lounge Hong Kong. This is also an exceptional business class lounge, with the best coffee at the airport, friendly service, and a modern, open design. Let’s get into the review.

Qantas Lounge Hong Kong location

The Qantas Lounge is located in Hong Kong Kong Airport Terminal 1, near gate 5. If you’re originating in Hong Kong, after clearing the north immigration checkpoint, just make a sharp right turn before even going down to the concourse level. It can be easy to miss the lounge, as there’s just one sign pointing in the direction of the lounge, without much other signage or branding.

After turning right, just keep walking down the long corridor, and then you’ll find yourself at the entrance to the lounge.

For what it’s worth, the Qantas Lounge is in the same general area as Cathay Pacific’s The Wing Lounge, with The Pier Lounge being at the other end of the terminal.

Qantas Lounge Hong Kong hours

The Qantas Lounge Hong Kong is currently open daily from 7:30AM until 11PM. While this doesn’t cover all oneworld departures from the airport, it does cover all Qantas departures. You’ll typically find that the lounge is extremely quiet in the mornings, given that it seems to primarily be Qantas flyers who use this lounge, and those flights are in the afternoons.

Qantas Lounge Hong Kong entry requirements

The Qantas Lounge Hong Kong is a standard oneworld Sapphire and oneworld business class lounge. In line with oneworld lounge access policies:

• The lounge can be accessed by oneworld Sapphire and oneworld Emerald members traveling in any cabin on a oneworld flight
• The lounge can be accessed by any same day oneworld business class or first class passenger, not only on Qantas, but also on airline partners

Qantas Lounge Hong Kong layout & seating

The Qantas Lounge Hong Kong is roughly 2,000 square meters (21,500+ square feet), and can accommodate 290 travelers. This is one of the larger outstation lounges out there, as that’s a pretty huge space. The lounge is entirely open-air with the terminal, as it’s one level above the concourse, and overlooking it.

The entire lounge is along one main corridor, with the bar and seating on one side, and bathrooms, showers, and the buffet, on the other side.

As you enter the lounge, there’s one seating area right by the entrance, mostly with chairs around tables, plus a booth. I love the lounge’s modern aesthetic, which continues throughout.

Next up is the bar, which features a ton of high-top seating, and it’s where you’ll get cocktails, barista coffee, etc.

Behind the bar is an area set up with about a dozen cafe style tables, each seating two people. You have a view of Hong Kong Airport in one direction, and a huge picture of the Hong Kong skyline in the other direction.

Then there’s another small sitting area, as well as some booths in a slightly darker, more enclosed room.

Then in the next part of the lounge you’ll find a lot more tables — there are communal tables, as well as more tables that can each accommodate two people.

At the very back of the lounge there were some plants blocking access to the rest of the lounge, as the lounge is much bigger than the above, but part this part seems to remain closed for much of the day. I’m not sure if this just opens up to everyone during peak hours, or if this area is reserved for elite flyers on Qantas. Does anyone know?

As mentioned above, the lounge has views primarily of the terminal, but there are also views of aircraft in the distance, and even Hong Kong’s awesome Sky Bridge.

There are a few other things I wanted to mention about this lounge, before I continue.

First of all, I found this lounge to have the nicest staff of any lounge I visited at the airport. Everyone working here just seemed proud of the lounge, and was extremely friendly, in a way I didn’t experience at other lounges (even though service was good at other lounges as well).

Next, the lounge is very much not optimized in terms of charging ports. While some airport lounges have charging at every seat nowadays, this lounge most definitely doesn’t. Quite to the contrary, you’ll have to be deliberate with your seating choice if you want to charge.

Lastly, in the mornings this lounge seems to stay very quiet. For example, when I visited for around an hour, there wasn’t a single other guest the entire time. As you’d expect, most non-Qantas passengers choose to use Cathay Pacific’s lounges, but this could be a great alternative.

All-in-all, I think this is a great business class lounge in terms of design. It’s modern and bright, and is just an all-around very nice lounge space.

Qantas Lounge Hong Kong food & drinks

The Qantas Lounge Hong Kong has a buffet in the back right corner of the lounge. I visited over breakfast hours.

While the food was exclusively available from a buffet, I appreciated that there was a menu describing what everything is.

The cold breakfast selection included danishes, croissants, muffins, chia and coconut milk pudding, bircher muesli, fresh fruit salad, yogurt, and cereal.

Then the hot breakfast selection included scrambled eggs, hardboiled eggs, pork sausage, baked beans, mushrooms, and miso soup.

The self-serve drink selection at the buffet included an espresso machine, a selection of Dilmah tea, water, and even the ability to make your own fruit and vegetable juice.

There was also a selection of wine, beer, and soda, that guests could help themselves to.

Then the bar back near the entrance has a proper drinks menu, including some signature cocktails, as well as mocktails, beer, wine and coffee.

I had a flat white to drink, and this was by far the best coffee I had at Hong Kong Airport (and I had some pretty good coffees in Cathay Pacific’s lounges). So if you’re a coffee freak like me, you absolutely have to stop here for that reason, if nothing else.

In terms of food, it’s my understanding in the afternoons (prior to Qantas flights) there’s a small menu with some “plate of the day” options that guests can order off of, to complement the buffet. That didn’t overlap with my visit, though.

Qantas Lounge Hong Kong bathrooms & showers

The Qantas Lounge Hong Kong has both bathrooms and shower suites, and they’re located inside the entrance and to the right (near the cute little neon sign seen below).

The men’s room had several sinks, stalls, and urinals, and was clean (as you’d expect, since I was the only guest in the lounge, and I wasn’t making a mess!).

The lounge then has 12 private shower suites, which are nicely appointed. They feature a sink, a toilet, and a walk-in shower that has a glass shield.

Toiletries are from Li’Tya, which I don’t think I’ve seen in any other airport lounge?

Bottom line

I’m a huge fan of the Qantas Lounge Hong Kong. It’s a beautiful, spacious, modern lounge, with friendly staff, amazing coffee, and decent food. Ultimately oneworld flyers are spoiled with choice at Hong Kong Airport. While I wouldn’t say that I like this lounge more than Cathay Pacific’s The Pier Business Class Lounge, I think it can be fun to visit both, as they’re so different in terms of design, food, drinks, and more.

What’s your take on the Qantas Lounge Hong Kong?