Many of us enjoy using airport lounges when flying. Lounge access is a great way to grab some food, freshen up with a shower, get some work done or simply relax before departure.
For Business and First Class passengers, as well as frequent flyers with elite airline status, lounge access is generally complimentary. But if you’re flying Economy and don’t have status, you can still pay for lounge access.
One option is to purchase a lounge membership such as Priority Pass or a discounted Qantas Club membership. But some airlines also sell one-time lounge access to Economy passengers. Qantas has been doing this on an invitation-only basis for a while, with prices varying from $39 for domestic Qantas Club entry up to $99 for top-tier international Business lounges. Meanwhile, Virgin Australia offers lounge entry at the door for $65 per person.
Emirates and Etihad Airways have also started to sell entry to their premium lounges at Dubai and Abu Dhabi airports, respectively. Emirates and Etihad both charge USD100 ($139) for access to their Business class lounges. Now, Emirates is expanding the offer to include other airports.
This week, dajop received a similar offer to pay for lounge access to the Emirates Singapore Lounge, ahead of an Emirates flight to Melbourne. The email from Emirates quoted a price of SGD137 (which is also equal to $139) per passenger.
Now, the Emirates Lounge in Singapore is a great lounge. It has an excellent range of hot and cold food, beverages including champagne and spirits, comfortable seating with tarmac views, fast internet, clean bathrooms and showers… in other words, everything you’d need in an airline lounge. But is it really worth paying $139 to use this (or any) lounge for up to 3 hours before departure?
Our members almost universally feel that the asking price is too high.
Yeh, you’d really want to have a few drinks (and mainly champagne) to get your money’s worth. And time in lounge is limited to 2.5 hrs (i.e can access lounge 3 hrs before departure).
But some may take up the offer if they were celebrating a special occasion or just want to experience a taste of luxury.
If you have no status, but want for some reason to make the trip special, then in those circumstances you may pay.
If you wanted to pay for lounge access, there are many other third-party pay-per-use lounges at Singapore Airport with much lower entry prices. The Emirates Lounge may be nicer than most of these, but as a paid option, these third-party lounges could be a good middle-ground.
There are certainly heaps of pay lounges available at Changi, the going rates seems to be $58 SGD (which is still on the high side).
Actually for $137, could get a lot of food and drink at the airport, or even go to the buffet at Crowne Plaza for $70 or so…
Would you pay $139 for lounge access? Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: How much would you pay for “top tier” J lounge access?
