Refurbished Qantas Lounges Open in Sydney & Adelaide

Qantas has expanded its domestic Business Lounge at Sydney Airport, extending it into (what used to be) the neighbouring Qantas Club.

The airline also recently opened a brand new Qantas Club lounge in Adelaide, and work is underway on a new Business Lounge there as well.

Qantas’ domestic Sydney Business Lounge refurbishment

At Sydney Airport, Qantas operates three lounges in the domestic Terminal 3. In addition to the invitation-only Chairmans Lounge, there’s the Qantas Club and Business Lounge.

The Qantas Club is open to paid-up Qantas Club members, as well as Qantas Gold and Oneworld Sapphire frequent flyers. You can also get in using a single-use Qantas Lounge invitation.

In Sydney, the Qantas Club used to be a much larger space than the Business Lounge. Yet, the end of the Qantas Club towards the Business Lounge was often under-utilised. Meanwhile, so many people now have Qantas Platinum, Platinum One or Oneworld Emerald status – or are flying Business Class – that the Business Lounge was often quite crowded.

Sometimes, the most obvious solution is the best one. To remedy this situation, Qantas last month knocked down the old wall between the Qantas Club and Business Lounge, shifting it back by around 20 metres. This has created room for around 50 more seats in the Business Lounge.

Qantas has also added a staffed food and coffee station in the new part of the Business Lounge, and stolen a set of toilets from the Qantas Club which are now part of the Business Lounge. When I visited last week during the afternoon, the new food station was serving freshly made sandwiches. (There are no changes to the original bar and buffet area.)

The refurbished Qantas Club in Adelaide is now open

Qantas has also recently opened its new Qantas Club lounge in Adelaide. This used to be a combined lounge for Qantas Club, Gold, Platinum and Business Class flyers. But Qantas is currently constructing a brand new Business Lounge in Adelaide which it plans to open in mid-2025.

In the meantime, the new Qantas Club temporarily remains a shared space. It’s been completely redesigned with brand new furniture and finishings.

Numerous AFF members have already visited the new Qantas Club in Adelaide and shared their thoughts and photos on our forum. So far, the reviews are positive.

Due to capacity constraints while the construction on the Business Lounge (and new Chairmans Lounge) continues, Qantas is not currently accepting single-entry lounge invitations in Adelaide.

Other Qantas lounge upgrades in the pipeline

Qantas originally announced its plans for a new Business Lounge and upgraded Qantas Club in Adelaide in August 2022. As part of the same announcement, Qantas said that its new regional lounge in Rockhampton would open in November 2022, while it would complete work on a new Port Hedland lounge by 2023. It also re-announced the refurbishment of its Auckland lounge at the time.

The new regional lounge in Rockhampton did indeed open in November 2022, but Qantas’ lounge in Port Hedland is still closed today. And construction hasn’t even started yet on the Auckland lounge redevelopment. The Auckland upgrade was originally supposed to be finished by 2019 – before the pandemic.

In February 2023, Qantas further announced $100 million worth of upgrades to lounges at another six airports. These included a new First Lounge in London, set to open in late 2025, and the reopening of the popular Qantas Hong Kong Lounge.

The Qantas Hong Kong Lounge did indeed reopen on schedule, as did the upgraded Broome Regional Lounge that Qantas announced last year. But there doesn’t appear to be any progress yet on the Melbourne International Business Lounge upgrade that was supposed to start in late 2023, nor the Sydney International Business Lounge works planned to commence in “early 2024”.

As you can see, some of Qantas’ lounge upgrade timelines can be a bit… fluid. The upshot, at least, is that Qantas’ lounge upgrades are usually worth the wait!

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.