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Executive Traveller exclusive
Barely two years after the Qantas Hong Kong Lounge was declared permanently closed, shuttered and gutted in the midst of the pandemic, the popular haunt of business class travellers and frequent flyers is back.
Executive Traveller can confirm the Qantas Hong Kong Lounge is now welcoming lounge-worthy travellers in ‘soft opening’ mode ahead of the official ribbon-cutting to be held on Wednesday May 3.
Visitors to the ‘new’ Qantas Hong Kong Lounge will see the same space, which has sat eerily empty since March 2020 – and while there’s some new furniture in place, everything else looks comfortingly familiar, albeit refreshed.
The ‘new’ Qantas Hong Kong Lounge looks pretty much like the original one…
Mark Obusan, Facebook
Qantas took advantage of the lounge’s ‘clean slate’ to give it a fresh new look, Phil Capps, Qantas’ Executive Manager of Product & Service, previously told Executive Traveller, saying that “by and large, the lounge was in excellent condition.”
The updating was “primarily the furniture and some of the carpet, and we’re taking the opportunity to do some repainting,” Capps added.
The original Qantas Hong Kong Lounge.
Visitors to the Qantas Hong Kong Lounge can look forward to the familiar char siu Chinese barbecued pork bar and the yum cha trolley of pre-flight delights such as dumplings and mango tarts.
The Qantas Hong Kong Lounge is rooted in its former location in Terminal 1’s Northern wing, which is at the opposite end to the Cathay Pacific check-in counters and Cathay’s The Wing lounges but of course conveniently close to the check-in counter used by Qantas.
The lounge itself overlooks gate 6 and backs onto Cathay Pacific’s The Deck (which may well tempt some Qantas passengers across to sample the delights of its Noodle Bar).
Cathay Pacific’s The Deck lounge.
Current opening hours for the Qantas Hong Kong Lounge are 2.30pm through to the 7.40pm departure of flight QF128 to Sydney, so at the very least it’s another option for travellers on late afternoon and early evening Cathay Pacific flights, as well as the nightly departures of Oneworld members Finnair and Qatar Airways.
The Qantas Hong Kong Lounge welcomes the following travellers:
- business and first class passengers on Qantas and Oneworld partner airlines
- Gold, Platinum and Platinum One members of the Qantas Frequent Flyer program, along with Qantas Club members
- Oneworld Sapphire and Emerald members
- members of the invitation-only Qantas Chairman’s Lounge program (and any Oneworld equivalents)
Executive Traveller will be visiting the Qantas Hong Kong Lounge for its official opening on May 3 for an update of more photos and details.
When Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce announced the closure of the lounge in mid-2020 he remarked the airline had “looked at everything that we needed in individual markets” in planning its post-pandemic recovery, and “in Hong Kong we’ve come to a relationship with Cathay to use their premium lounges there… and we think that’s the best arrangement.”
As a result, since the January 30 restart of Qantas flights to Hong Kong the airline has been sending most of its lounge-worthy passengers to Cathay Pacific lounges, with Qantas Club card-holders heading to the independent Plaza Premium Lounge.
Of course, Qantas has to pay a per-passenger fee to Cathay Pacific and Plaza Premium – and as its flights to Hong Kong ramp up, so will those costs.
Executive Traveller understands that reduced leasing rates at Hong Kong airport have become a positive factor in balancing the books to support what is only a handful of daily Qantas flights.
However, in the years since it first opened in April 2014 the Qantas Hong Kong Lounge was also patronised by contracted airlines such as Finnair, Japan Airlines, Air France and KLM, amounting to an extra revenue stream for the Flying Kangaroo.
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