Update: The new Emirates Lounge in Brisbane opened in February 2024.
Emirates recently reopened its Australian airport lounges in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. But Emirates’ other Australian lounge, at Brisbane Airport, remains notably closed for the time being.
At the moment, Emirates passengers in Brisbane who are eligible for lounge access are being sent instead to the Plaza Premium Lounge.
Eligible customers on Emirates and Qantas flights may also be able to use the Qantas international Business Lounge in Brisbane. The Qantas lounge might not always be open at the time when the Emirates flight departs in the evening, but generally would be right now as Qantas’ Brisbane-Los Angeles flight is currently departing 30 minutes before EK431 to Dubai.
Emirates Lounge “undergoing renovations”
There was no mention of Emirates’ Brisbane lounge in the airline’s recent announcement that its other Australian airport lounges had reopened. So, we asked Emirates what was happening and received this statement from an Emirates spokesperson:
Emirates is excited to welcome premium passengers back to its lounges across Sydney, Melbourne and Perth ā with all three lounges now officially open for use. The Emirates Lounge in Brisbane is undergoing renovations, and we look forward to welcoming back our passengers once these are complete in due course.
Emirates did not provide a specific timeline for when these renovations may be completed, but it doesn’t seem like the Brisbane lounge will be opening again this year. That’s a shame, as the Emirates Lounge was arguably one of the best at Brisbane Airport up until 2020.
Now, we can’t be certain whether there are actually active renovation works happening right now at the Emirates Brisbane Lounge. It’s possible that “renovations” could be a codeword for “we don’t want to reopen the lounge yet”. Perhaps Emirates has taken some lessons from Qantas, which somehow still hasn’t completed the renovations on its Rockhampton regional lounge that commenced in early 2020. š
But giving Emirates the benefit of the doubt here, this could actually be good news in the long run for frequent flyers if Emirates is working to make the lounge there even better.
Over in New Zealand, the Emirates Auckland Lounge also hasn’t yet reopened. In the meantime, eligible Emirates passengers are being invited into the Air New Zealand Lounge in Auckland.
Qatar Airways is also now sending its own passengers in both Australia and New Zealand to Air New Zealand lounges, rather than those of its own Oneworld partner Qantas.
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: EMIRATES Lounges in Oz – Current Status
