Well having visited this lounge during the day, with the whole place to myself, then heading off to CXs wing/pier, I started to wonder what the attraction to the latter lounges was:
Things might change with the new QF/BA lounge having opened. Certainly it was not a bad lounge IMO but I still like the CX Wing better. To be fair, however, the F part of the QF/BA lounge hadn't opened whilst I was there, so I couldn't try that. Being a WP (
oneworld Emerald), I was able to access both the J and F parts of the CX lounges, which is reflected in my responses below.
- Yes you can order a dish of noodles, but the food at the QP is always the same, at least theres some kind of change between breakfast lunch and the evening at the QP from what I found.
I'm sure both the Wing and Pier (at least the Wing) J section has a buffet selection of some sort. It's not as nice as the F sections, and not as nice as the QF/BA lounge (with the exception of the noodle bar, but for those not really liking noodles you might tire of it quickly).
- Unless you're in the QP for QF 128/29/30 etc... (well, most probably are) the CX lounges are often more packed (save G16, which reminds me a bit of the old QP at HKG). Yeh sure theres more PCs and a nice view but with heaps of people it sometimes becomes circa MEL/SYD Dom QPs on Friday arvo, fight for a seat (correct if wrong) in the CX lounges.
I was in the lounge area around mid-morning to mid-afternoon. Had no trouble finding a seat, although yes there were people in the lounge. Not sure about the computer situation, but free power point sockets were able to be located. Again, talking about the F section here. J section definitely more crowded, but I wouldn't go to the extent of our big two QPs on a Friday arvo.
The CX service desks though are a major asset.
I agree - they were really, really nice.
I think CXs bathrooms win (just), QF does have nice showers but the Dermologica products in CX beat the ones on offer at the QP.
I didn't try the showers in the CX Wing J section, if there are some (I assume there are). I got a cabana in the F section, which was nice. I also had a shower later in the CX Pier, can't remember which section I was in though. No cabanas at the Pier, but the shower suites nonetheless were quite large; larger than the QF/BA J ones. You can also request a whole range of additional accessories in the CX lounges. I'm reserving judgement about Dermologica - Elemis has a nice smell to it, although CX is the first lounge to actually stock separate face cleanser, which is Dermologica. Full points there.
unless you like Sushi or speak Japanese, IMHO don't bother with the JAL lounge.
Good to know. I didn't make it to the Sakura lounge before their closing time. I'm more surprised they had sushi; if I had to hazard a guess, I'd be expecting not much at all - perhaps some biscuits, drinks and that's about it. I can speak a bit of Japanese but I'd be extremely surprised if someone could not manage the lounge without knowing Japanese.
I dont see why they chose MACs.
I'm not a Mac fan either, but they're starting to pop up in various QP"s around the place. Syd Dom J has them, as does another lounge that I can't recall at the moment.
I think there are some simplistic reasons for Mac v PC:
- Macs look better than most PCs; certainly as far as "off-the-shelf, standard mass stock" computers go, Macs beat PCs hands down. (You'd need to put in a lot of effort to make a PC that looks as good or better than a Mac.)
- Macs are usually much more stable than PCs.
- Although it is increasingly becoming a naive observation, Macs are still less likely to be attacked by viruses and particular software exploits. (Virus writers should really think about making their attacks cross-platform
)
- Since more people use a PC compared to a Mac, if they are faced with a Mac then they are less likely to attempt to do stupid things on the system (unless you have the knowledge). This is why every PC in a QF lounge needs policies and the like to stop people from accessing areas that they shouldn't (e.g. Control Panel). With Macs - in conjunction with being a *nix based system - the controls are much easier to achieve and the fact that "it's a Mac and not a PC" will probably dissuade a lot of people straight away.
I've not had a pay rise in 7 years. In fact, I took a $45k pay cut when one company made me redundant. The only way i've earned more is to change jobs, which isn't really technically a pay rise 
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