iMAC's in QPs and Lounges

[david870mdg]

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:

- 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.
- 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.
- Personal gripe (MACs at QP :? not the best of systems with firewall.
- The LONG bar is a winner for me. Sorry QF. Although the QPs self serve fridges are ALWAYS fully stocked, despite a small lack of variety in the offerings.
- Australian/British/HKG newspapers at QP but there's also plenty of worldwide offerings at CX, including more foreign language ones.
- Friendly staff at both lounges on the front desks (must have left the lounge dragons back in AUS).
The CX service desks though are a major asset.
- 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 can't comment on the F section (yet) of CX Wing/Pier/Arrival.
But just some thoughts for those who may have a long transit - and unless you like Sushi or speak Japanese, IMHO don't bother with the JAL lounge.
One upside is a prime view of the gates/aircraft with not many peopel to annoy you.

David

 

[samh004]

Re: HKG Qantas First/Business Class Lounge

- Personal gripe (MACs at QP :? not the best of systems with firewall.

What activity could you require in a lounge that requires a firewall, on their computers

Slightly off topic, but what system are the iMacs running? Snow Leopard, or just Leopard? And are they the absolute newest machines (21.5” and 24”) or an older generation, as I can imagine the upgrade would have been planned for some time and they might have just bought the cheapest.

 

[david870mdg]

Re: HKG Qantas First/Business Class Lounge

What activity could you require in a lounge that requires a firewall, on their computers

Slightly off topic, but what system are the iMacs running? Snow Leopard, or just Leopard? And are they the absolute newest machines (21.5” and 24”) or an older generation, as I can imagine the upgrade would have been planned for some time and they might have just bought the cheapest.

Like I said personal gripe against apple.
Not just the firewall.

I dont see why they chose MACs. No other QP ive been in has them.
Anyway I like the HKG lounge, its better than the old QP IMHO, except the old lounge had daylight / gate aircraft views.

 

[Mal]

Re: HKG Qantas First/Business Class Lounge

I dont see why they chose MACs. No other QP ive been in has them.

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.

 

[straitman]

Re: HKG Qantas First/Business Class Lounge

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.

SYD F lounge has some also.

 

[Mal]

Re: HKG Qantas First/Business Class Lounge

SYD F lounge has some also.

Indeed - thanks for the recollection.

 

[david870mdg]

Re: HKG Qantas First/Business Class Lounge

SYD F lounge has some also.

Really? I was there both DOM and INT in Nov and there wasnt any MACs or maybe I was just ignoring them. Getting a bit O/T now.

 

[anat0l]

Re: HKG Qantas First/Business Class Lounge

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.

 

[simongr]

Re: HKG Qantas First/Business Class Lounge

- Personal gripe (MACs at QP :? not the best of systems with firewall.

Just trying to work out what problem you would have using a Mac vs a PC in a lounge.

Most people seem to use the computers to surf the net - which works equally well on a Mac or a PC (the lounge firewall is not a Mac issue).

Most of the macs I have seen in the QPs are the aluminium Intel based macs and around 19in so all in all a fast, reliable and good looking piece of kit.

Also a lot easier to maintain as people wont be downloading coughpy files to install.

The only issue I can think of is if you are using *.docx or *.xlsx documents and they dont have office for Mac 2008 running... but then again that presumes they would be using Office 2007 on PCs which is not a given...

 

[serfty]

I have a USB drive from which I can easily run Firefox on the QP XP boxes. This loads along with all my shortcuts etc. for more efficient browsing.

I have yet to work out how to do this on a Mac.

 

[simongr]

Re: HKG Qantas First/Business Class Lounge

I have a USB drive from which I can easily run Firefox on the QP XP boxes. This loads along with all my shortcuts etc. for more efficient browsing.

I have yet to work out how to do this on a Mac.

Portable Firefox OS X — FreeSMUG

I think that has the software you need.

My suggestion would be to export your bookmarks from your Windows based Firefox and then run the OSX based firefox and import the bookmarks.

 

[serfty]

I use FULL firefox - not the attenuated "portable" version ...

 

[drewbles]

Re: HKG Qantas First/Business Class Lounge

Like I said personal gripe against apple.
Not just the firewall.

I dont see why they chose MACs. No other QP ive been in has them.
Anyway I like the HKG lounge, its better than the old QP IMHO, except the old lounge had daylight / gate aircraft views.

Macs are in quite a few J lounges now.

And as a Mac user, I say get use to it. It's better than windoze

 

[drewbles]

Re: HKG Qantas First/Business Class Lounge

I have a USB drive from which I can easily run Firefox on the QP XP boxes. This loads along with all my shortcuts etc. for more efficient browsing.

I have yet to work out how to do this on a Mac.

If you want a hand with this serfty, just yell. Am happy to do it for you (just need to put it onto a USB stick for you).

 

[oz_mark]

Re: HKG Qantas First/Business Class Lounge

Macs are in quite a few J lounges now.

And as a Mac user, I say get use to it. It's better than windoze

Not if you have a one month old Mac that has decided it doesn't have an airport card. May as well be an anchor.

 

[djfuzz]

Re: HKG Qantas First/Business Class Lounge

Not if you have a one month old Mac that has decided it doesn't have an airport card. May as well be an anchor.

Taken the anchor back to the store to get fixed yet?

I've lost count of how many computers I've had early hardware issues with (both PCs and Macs - haven't come across any 'MACs' though, I thought they made cosmetics only). Tends to happen with electronic devices and systems mass produced in factories.

How long it's taken me to get those issues fixed, and how much trouble it is, is another thing entirely.

And what's with all the OT? Serfty usually slaps me down and splits the thread when I do it.

 

[oz_mark]

Re: HKG Qantas First/Business Class Lounge

Taken the anchor back to the store to get fixed yet?

It's been there since Tuesday. I just hope they are faster than Nokia in fixing stuff.

 

[simongr]

Re: HKG Qantas First/Business Class Lounge

I use FULL firefox - not the attenuated "portable" version ...

I use the portable version on my work computer and have no issues with it at all - works just like firefox at home...

 

[anat0l]

I use Firefox Portable (PC version), obtained from portableapps.com; it runs slightly slower, even if I copy it to the hard drive first.

It may have to do something with the fact that caching is turned off...

 

[serfty]

...
And what's with all the OT? Serfty usually slaps me down and splits the thread when I do it.

YWIMC

... but this will have to suffice for the slap: