Query on Qantas Club and business lounges

[dalereardon]

Hi,

Just joined the Qantas Club recently and just did a trip from Hobart to Canberra via Melbourne and saw a variety of different standard Qantas club lounges - loved the pancakes for breakfast in Canberra.

I noticed there seem to be three standards of lounges - Qantas Club lounge, Qantas business lounge and Chairmans Lounge.

I understand the top and bottom ones but what do you have to do / achieve to get into the business lounge and what is the difference - perhaps some exhalted privileged members who have seen inside it could enlighten me:->

I actually have a guide dog, and my wife was travelling with me also. We have often flown Jetstar in the past - Qantas was just way superior in service and attitude to me - Jetstar just panics at the mention of a guide dog and the whole process is a struggle. Qantas was way more accommodating and it was a really enjoyable experience.

Dale.

 

[opusman]

Business lounge - you need to be travelling business or first class, be a Qantas Platinum or above, or One World Emerald.
The difference - not a huge amount, marginally better food at times and marginally better wines, and often (but not always) quieter than the Qantas Club.

 

[serfty]

I'd say the difference at certain times between a QP and an adjacent JL can be more than marginal, especially with the hot breakfasts.

 

[Deleted member]

Forgive my ignorance, but as I have never encountered a pax traveling on a plane with a guide dog, how is said dog accommodated? Does the dog have its own seat? .......
PS. From my avatar you can deduce I am a dog lover. In my case "Westies"

 

[Flying mermaid]

I also think the food can be much better particularly hot offerings - soup and cold stuff is pretty similar. I wouldn't be desperate to get to the J lounge vs QC but I much prefer what it offers vs the pasta dishes in QC.

 

[Shelf]

IIRC the airline or passenger provide a mat for the dog to use on the floor.

 

[flyingfan]

There's slightly better food in the Business lounges - instead of scooping yoghurt and muesli out of communal bowls in the QC in the morning, there'll be individual glasses of what's essentially the same thing. There'll also be scrambled eggs and a couple of other hot options, whereas with the QC it's pretty much just toast and cereal - although I must admit it's been some time I looked at the QC buffet closely.

During lunch and dinner times, above and beyond the QC's do-it-yourself cold meats and salads, there will also be a hot option like a chicken and vegetable stir-fry or a curry, with rice. For sweets you might also get something like a macadamia brownie or berry tart. I don't really drink alcohol so can't speak of the differences in liquor.

There's also 'Island Dining' - see this thread for more.

Here's a shot from the SYD business lounge - I thought I had more but can't for the life of me find them at the moment.



Best way to satisfy your curiosity is to use points for an upgrade to business class on a sector and see for yourself, preferably from SYD. Obviously don't do it from HBA since there's no business lounge there. Also don't do it from CBR - when I visited the only difference was the angle of view from the windows.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Also don't do it from CBR - when I visited the only difference was the angle of view from the windows.

good summation but i disagree with you. The J Lounge in CBR is one of the best around.

 

[flyingfan]

good summation but i disagree with you. The J Lounge in CBR is one of the best around.

But the J upgrade I was suggesting would be wasted coming out of CBR seeing how similar it is to the QC next door IMHO as well as the lack of wide-bodies flying out, compared to say SYD.

 

[dalereardon]

Hi,

In terms of my guide dog the airlines provide an extra seat free of charge and place an absorbent mat that they provide on the floor. Their theory is that it would contain any accident but the mat is so small that it would just be pointless.

In the good old days both Ansett and Qantas upgraded both you and your companion to business class free of charge to provide extra space and comfort. The instant that Ansett went bust, Qantas stopped this policy and you just get an extra seat in economy now.

I will praise Qantas though as they are the only domestic airline to offer what they call the companion carer discount ticket. You get 10% off your ticket and your carer gets 50% off their ticket. Just recently they extended this scheme to red e-deals so it is an excellent offer to help out. You need a scheme membership card and doctor certification initially but it is a great community service attitude from Qantas. Only applies domestically not internationally.

Back in the very early days when I had my first guide dog (back around 1990) they made the dog travel in the hold and not on the plane but thankfully after lobbying the rules changed.

It is possible to take your guide dog internationally as well but there are a multitude of quarantine rules to comply with - rabies vaccines etc and it gets very very expensive with vet charges.

Dale.

 

[Kangol]

I don't really drink alcohol so can't speak of the differences in liquor.

There are a couple of extra spirits on offer in the J lounge that are not in the regular QP.
Actually, the only one I know of is Baileys as I have that pretty much every time. I *think* there may be Kahlua but I've never asked for it nor had it in the J lounge before.

Oh - the J lounge tea could be considered "better" - Dilmah exceptional vs regular Dilmah (no more Lipton)

For official eligibility rules, see here:

Eligibility and Access to The Qantas Club Lounges | Qantas

 

[legroom]

Forgive my ignorance, but as I have never encountered a pax traveling on a plane with a guide dog, how is said dog accommodated? Does the dog have its own seat? .......
PS. From my avatar you can deduce I am a dog lover. In my case "Westies"

I saw a guide dog once from a NRT SYD flight.

The dog was super quiet, resting / sleeping on the floor in front of its owner who sat in a bulkhead row on a 747.

You would not hear even a whisper.

Having said that, I do not know if (1) it has to be fed / watered and (2) it had to "relieve" sometime during the flight, and if so, how could that be accommodated?

The pax and his dog was first to leave the whY section I was in (maybe related to the above ??)

 

[anchew]

I sat next to a pax with a seeing guide dog once between CBR and MEL. We were in row 4 of a 738 so there were ample room. The guide dog and pax were in 4A&B while I was in 4C. I was certainly impressed by the way the FA interacted with the pax. When the meal was given to the pax, the FA explained that at 9 o'clock is the chicken and mayo panini, at 2 is a small chocolate bar and at 4 is a bottle of water. They seem to have been well trained. Gave me a warm fuzzy feeling

 

[dalereardon]

Hi,

My guide dog, and all previous ones I have had can go comfortably for 5 to 8 hours without a toilet break. I have also done the overnight Melb / Sydney train which is around 12 hours and no break required.

Sometimes will give a drink on a long flight but it is normally better to have them a little thirsty rather than busting to go. I also give mine some treats on takeoff and landing as he was a terrible flier his first couple of flights but is much better now.

And yes the guide dogs appear like little angels most of the time and really well behaved when working / in harness. However just taken mine to the park and when they are off duty they can go crazy and just like a normal dog.

The real painful part about toileting the dogs at the airport is that you have to go outside security area and then go back through security all again. Internationally it is even worse as at some airports you have to actually enter the country through customs/immigration and leave the airport building and then enter again.

Dale.

 

[11sjw]

Forgive my ignorance, but as I have never encountered a pax traveling on a plane with a guide dog, how is said dog accommodated? Does the dog have its own seat? .......
PS. From my avatar you can deduce I am a dog lover. In my case "Westies"

Off Topic: We have a Westie and he's a great dog, very low maintenance.

On Topic: Flying mainly Perth-Pilbara I don't get to experience J Lounges too often so it was a treat using the BNE J Lounge for breakfast last week. The Bircher Muesli was much nicer than the standard QP offering. The overall offering was of a much higher standard. If they had a J Lounge in Perth I'd fill up there and skip the Q Link offering on my way to the next red dirt patch I'm off to.

 

[JohnK]

There is not a great deal of difference between a Qantas Club lounge and a Business lounge. In fact at certain times I would rather be in the Qantas Lounge than the Business lounge.

 

[bodog]

In fact at certain times I would rather be in the Qantas Lounge than the Business lounge.

What times would they be? - when you're feeling lonely and want lots of company maybe? - the Qantas Pub would be good for that I guess...
Seriously I can't see why you'd want to step backward and spend your time in the QP if you have the option to be in the Business lounge

 

[anchew]

Sometimes they have better food in the QP and I only notice it when in Melb. One day they had sticky date pudding in the QP but the usual berry tart in the J lounge. So naturally, I walked out to the QP, grabbed myself a bowl of sticky date pudding, a large scope of custard, then proceeded back into the J lounge.

 

[JohnK]

What times would they be? - when you're feeling lonely and want lots of company maybe? - the Qantas Pub would be good for that I guess...
Seriously I can't see why you'd want to step backward and spend your time in the QP if you have the option to be in the Business lounge

The BNE business lounge can get extremely messy and loud.

Sometimes the Qantas Lounge has better hot food options for me.

Sometimes I feel the atmosphere in the Qantas lounge is much better than the business lounge.

 

[Deleted member]

Off Topic: We have a Westie and he's a great dog, very low maintenance.

On Topic: Flying mainly Perth-Pilbara I don't get to experience J Lounges too often so it was a treat using the BNE J Lounge for breakfast last week. The Bircher Muesli was much nicer than the standard QP offering. The overall offering was of a much higher standard. If they had a J Lounge in Perth I'd fill up there and skip the Q Link offering on my way to the next red dirt patch I'm off to.

Per off topic. I lost both of my westies last year. Quite a wrench , still have sad moments