Qatar Airways to acquire 25% of Virgin Australia

[RooFlyer]

With the increase of flights both QR & VA (wet-lease) could QR open its own lounge in places such as MEL or SYD

Wouldn’t it be great if that happens. Knowing the quality of QR lounges it would really be a great option other than the Qantas lounges if you’re flying OneWorld.

As noted above it will possibly only be for Qr J and QR PC high status holders ( and prob VA flights) which would suit me fine too.

A motivation for them to do something like this would be their usual pride in offering a top class offering to their premium passengers.

 

[HS-TQE]

And as stated previiusly VA 1.0 had never operated any international lounges directly in mainland Australia.

VA only paid their contractors to put their logo on the front door of the contractor lounges (EY was the other airline who paid the same contractor to also put their logo on the front door) in the international terminals.

 

[justinbrett]

Wouldn’t it be great if that happens. Knowing the quality of QR lounges it would really be a great option other than the Qantas lounges if you’re flying OneWorld.

As noted above it will possibly only be for Qr J and QR PC high status holders ( and prob VA flights) which would suit me fine too.

A motivation for them to do something like this would be their usual pride in offering a top class offering to their premium passengers.

No, I don’t think they can do that under oneworld rules, and it’s not how the current lounges operate.

They can restrict to J & F, but it’s all oneworld J & F. Not just QR J & F.

It will be quickly overrun (if it’s good) with all of the QF and other oneworld premium pax.

 

[simmomelb]

For those interested, here is one of the pages from the October survey, sent to selected customers.

 

[tmdl]

I'm sure QR & VA would find a way around it or it may make QF to boost their offering in international lounges

 

[jase05]

I just can’t see QR investing in their own lounges for a couple of flights per day. Much easier just to organise lounge access via third party lounges.

Interestingly Mrs Jase had a good chat with a QR crew member on our recent flight and she exchanged phone numbers with us and offered to show us around Doha if we had time. We went out to tea with her on the first night there and she commented on how excited the staff were about the potential take over as many of the staff love being rostered on to the Australian routes so potentially a lot more opportunities for them. We told her to drop us a line next time she’s in Adelaide

 

[justinbrett]

I'm sure QR & VA would find a way around it or it may make QF to boost their offering in international lounges

Sure, if QR leaves oneworld.

 

[jrfsp]

I just can’t see QR investing in their own lounges for a couple of flights per day. Much easier just to organise lounge access via third party lounges.

Agreed, QR only operate 5 outstation lounges for premium routes with high frequencies. The contract NZ (or QF) lounges are more than adequate.

 

[tmdl]

Sure, if QR leaves oneworld.

But look at Air NZ and Singapore, both have lounges within MEL, It would be nice to see QR make some head way here

 

[RooFlyer]

No, I don’t think they can do that under oneworld rules, and it’s not how the current lounges operate.

They can restrict to J & F, but it’s all oneworld J & F. Not just QR J & F.

There are existing exceptions to observing the OneWorld lounge access rules - that’s what QR does in Doha ( they provide an alternative “platinum“ lounge for Oneworld Emeralds not flying with them) and is why I suggested they might do it here. And the Concord room at Heathrow is only for BA F passengers not all OneWorld Emerald.

But hey, if they were really determined they could set up a contractor lounge, whack QR out the front and admit who they like with exactly the same lounge offering.

 

[MooTime]

No, I don’t think they can do that under oneworld rules, and it’s not how the current lounges operate.

They can restrict to J & F, but it’s all oneworld J & F. Not just QR J & F.

It will be quickly overrun (if it’s good) with all of the QF and other oneworld premium pax.

Yes QF status pax would jump at the opportunity to use another lounge over their own sub-par lounges.

There'd be way for QR VA to operate a lounge and keep the QF riff raff out.

 

[jase05]

There'd be way for QR VA to operate a lounge and keep the QF riff raff out.

The only way to do that is for VA to open its own lounges and I reckon the chances of that are 0.000001%
QR may have unlimited funds but I just can’t see them throwing money around for lounges that get used a couple of times per day.

 

[MooTime]

The only way to do that is for VA to open its own lounges and I reckon the chances of that are 0.000001%
QR may have unlimited funds but I just can’t see them throwing money around for lounges that get used a couple of times per day.

What if it's QR funded and VA time thier other few international flights to coincide with the QR flights. Yeah named a VA lounge or whatever
Lounge open for say 4-5hours & covers 3-5 flights.
No need for it to be open all day.
Just a thought.

 

[justinbrett]

There are existing exceptions to observing the OneWorld lounge access rules - that’s what QR does in Doha ( they provide an alternative “platinum“ lounge for Oneworld Emeralds not flying with them) and is why I suggested they might do it here. And the Concord room at Heathrow is only for BA F passengers not all OneWorld Emerald.

But hey, if they were really determined they could set up a contractor lounge, whack QR out the front and admit who they like with exactly the same lounge offering.

But importantly QR doesn’t discriminate by airline. All of their lounges allow oneworld premium pax.

The Concorde room is open to AA as well, and who else flies F out of T5? Regardless they’d argue it’s a “room” of the F lounge, and nothing in the rules saying you can’t restrict parts of the lounge for certain groups (as QF does for P1 or AA for flagship dining).

Being contractor operated doesn’t mean anything. Sofitel runs a lot of QF lounges.

Yes QF status pax would jump at the opportunity to use another lounge over their own sub-par lounges.

Don’t let the Flounge door hit you on your way out then

 

[jase05]

Don’t let the Flounge door hit you on your way out then

Which are both excellent apart from allowing the JQ undesirables in
The bulk of the punters flying J though are stuck in QF’s pretty average J lounges though

 

[simmomelb]

Just putting it out there, but I'd be surprised if VA's lounge partner arrangement doesn't cover all VA "operated" international flights, meaning their own aircraft and wet-leased to Doha (+ any future wet-leased or dry-leased routes).
I don't see them offering lounge access on certain international routes out of Australia and not others.

Yes, this exists on partners now (that probably won't change), but this is very different to that.

 

[justinbrett]

The thing to remember, although you wouldn’t know it from Australian media and AFF (rightly focused on Australia), Australia is a small part of the QR network, and with a rumoured investment of only 750M in VA, that wouldn’t even buy you two A380s.

It seems odd to suggest QR will be doing crazy things here that they don’t do elsewhere, like bespoke lounge rules and what not. Even with their much larger investment in BA, BAEC doesn't get special access to Al Safwa. They’re treated no different to QFFP members. At airports like SIN, QR and BA have separate lounges.

I think QR will do here what it does at every other destination, anything special (if any) will be done under the VA brand, not QR.

 

[simmomelb]

It seems odd to suggest QR will be doing crazy things here that they don’t do elsewhere, like bespoke lounge rules and what not.

Sorry, perhaps I have misunderstood what you are saying (perhaps that was directed in others' earlier comments), but the talk of lounge access has nothing to do directly with QR, it's what VA will be offering for the wet-leased aircraft from QR, I don't expect QR to be involved in that in any form.

Which I think is also what you are saying

I agree that anyone suggesting QR will have any say in the lounge offering, well that is clearly not going to happen - 100% VA's decision IMO.

 

[justinbrett]

Sorry, perhaps I have misunderstood what you are saying, but the talk of lounge access has nothing to do directly with QR, it's what VA will be offering for the wet-leased aircraft from QR, I don't expect QR to be involved in that in any form.

Which I think is also what you are saying

I agree that anyone suggesting QR will have any say in the lounge offering, well that is clearly not going to happen, 100% VA's decision.

No, more just commenting on suggestions up thread that QR would open a QR branded lounge that wasn’t like the other QR branded lounges.

I don’t think QR would open a lounge but if they did it would be just like the others. No special rules.

 

[simmomelb]

I don’t think QR would open a lounge but if they did it would be just like the others. No special rules.

Yep, I think there is zero chance of QR opening a lounge here.