Qantas has reopened 8 more domestic airport lounges, including the Qantas Business Lounge at Melbourne Airport. It comes as all three of Australia’s major domestic airlines report a surge in demand as Queensland and other states reopened their borders.
In addition to the Melbourne Qantas Business Lounge, Qantas Club lounges have now reopened in Brisbane, Sydney, Perth, Devonport, Gold Coast, Hobart and Launceston.
Qantas will also reopen all six of its invitation-only Chairmans Lounges next week. The Chairmans lounges in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Sydney will open their doors on 7 December, with Canberra to follow on 9 December. Once this happens, 30 of Qantas’ 35 domestic airport lounges will be back in service after all were forced to close in March.
The Qantas Club lounges in Melbourne and Canberra will remain closed until further notice. But passengers will just be sent to the Business Lounge instead, which is a nice little upgrade. (It’s not uncommon for the Qantas Club in Canberra to remain closed over the summer holiday period anyway, due to low passenger numbers at this time of year.) These lounges will likely be back once sufficient demand returns to these airports.
The Qantas Club lounges in Port Hedland, Rockhampton and Darwin also remain closed for now. The lounge closures in Port Hedland and Rockhampton are due to airport construction work taking place. Meanwhille, the Qantas Club in Darwin is undergoing a very deep clean after it became infested with mould when Darwin Airport turned off the airconditioning for several months while nobody was travelling.
All Qantas international lounges remain closed.
Qantas has made some changes to its lounge services in response to COVID-19. There’s no more buffet food, tables are further apart and the showers are closed, among other changes. But Qantas is providing new plated menu options instead, and the service in some ways is now better than before.
Having already reopened its Brisbane lounge last month, Virgin Australia has now announced that it will reopen its Melbourne and Sydney lounges on 15 December 2020. The Gold Coast lounge will be the next to open, followed by Perth and Adelaide in early 2021. But no specific reopening dates have been announced yet for those lounges. Virgin Australia has not yet decided whether to reopen its Canberra lounge at all, and all other Virgin Australia lounges will remain closed permanently.
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Qantas Opening MEL Lounge 2nd Dec
