Qantas Auckland Lounge Upgrade: The End of an Era

The current Qantas lounges at Auckland Airport are a relic from a bygone era
The current Qantas lounges at Auckland Airport may be a relic from a bygone era, but they bring back nostalgic memories. Photo: Matt Graham.

Qantas announced last week that it will soon finally commence the long-awaited upgrade to its Auckland Airport heritage site lounge precinct that was first announced in 2018, but delayed by the pandemic.

The current separate Business and First Lounges in Auckland will be combined to create a single Qantas International Lounge, similar to the one in London.

Qantas International London Lounge
The Qantas International London Lounge. Photo: Qantas.

Qantas promises that the redesigned lounge will become a “modern pre-flight oasis” showcasing the best of local New Zealand design, food and wine. The new Qantas International Lounge in Auckland will also include new amenities designed for people travelling long-haul.

The new lounge space will be larger than both of the current lounges combined, as its footprint will also be expanded into an adjacent space. The total capacity of the new lounge will be 340 seats, which is around a 40% increase.

Qantas says the design process will begin soon and that building work will be staggered so that the lounge remains operational throughout the construction phase. Ideally, the new space will be up and running in time for the launch of Qantas’ new Sydney-Auckland-New York service in mid-June 2023.

This lounge upgrade is long overdue

Clearly, the upgraded Qantas lounge in Auckland will be a huge improvement. The current offering is just no match for Air New Zealand’s flagship international lounge at the same airport, let alone the neighbouring Emirates Lounge.

Air New Zealand international lounge in Auckland
Air New Zealand international lounge in Auckland. Photo: Air New Zealand.

The Air New Zealand lounge even includes an open-air patio, perfect for getting some fresh air before or after a long-haul flight.

The outdoor seating area in the Air New Zealand international lounge was open
The outdoor seating area in the Air New Zealand international lounge. Photo: Matt Graham.

By comparison, many AFF members affectionately call the existing Qantas First Lounge in Auckland the “First Class closet” due to its size and lack of amenities. Prior to the pandemic, it even become a running joke among some Platinum frequent flyers that the shower in the Auckland First Lounge was always out of order. Some suspected that the room was being used as a cupboard, as this was not fixed for over a year.

I’ll still miss the current lounges

At the same time, on a personal level, I’ll be sad to see the current lounges go.

As a child in the 1990s, I often travelled on Qantas with my family to visit relatives in Auckland. This was a totally different era, with Boeing 767s and Boeing 747s gracing the skies across the Tasman. Some of my earliest memories are of flying with Qantas to Auckland at a time when in-flight movies were played from a video projector and I was kept entertained by kids activity packs featuring Wallace & Gromit and Max Altitude playing cards.

Over the following couple of decades, the experience of flying Qantas across the Tasman has totally changed. But one thing hasn’t changed – the Qantas lounges in Auckland.

Qantas has made a few minor improvements to its Auckland lounge over recent years, such as replacing a few items of worn-out furniture. When the lounge reopened after the COVID-19 shutdown on 30 June 2022, Qantas also added a barista coffee cart in a corner. But this lounge still features that distinctive 1990s design that was common at Qantas lounges all over the world at the time.

One by one, the rest of the lounges in Qantas’ network have since been refurbished, upgraded or permanently closed. But the Auckland lounge is one of the last places on the Qantas network where I really feel like I’m stepping back in time – in a good way. I feel a great sense of nostalgia every time I enter the Auckland lounge as it reminds me of how great it was flying Qantas in my childhood.

Perhaps the only other lounge in the Qantas network that still feels like it belongs in the 1990s is the one in Honolulu. The Qantas Honolulu Business Lounge is currently closed while a “light refresh to furniture and amenities” is completed. While this is definitely needed, there’s a small part of me – for nostalgic reasons – that hopes this refresh will indeed just be a very light one.

Qantas Business Lounge in Honolulu
Qantas Business Lounge in Honolulu. Photo: Matt Graham.

 

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum.

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.
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Not sure if this has been answered elsewhere but are they retaining the same space?

If so I imagine there is going to be a significant period of time where QF sends their lounge eligible pax to either Air NZ or maybe the Strata if it ever reopens?

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Not sure if this has been answered elsewhere but are they retaining the same space?

If so I imagine there is going to be a significant period of time where QF sends their lounge eligible pax to either Air NZ or maybe the Strata if it ever reopens?

No, as per the article they’re doing a progressive refurb across the existing combined space.

Edit: actually this one says they’re using some adjacent space also - as per the article.

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Finally! That’s all I have to say to that.

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I will be sad to see the First lounge go. It had an intimate air to it rather tha barns that are Qantas Business lounges elsewhere.

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Ok, not including Mackay and Townsville, but at least the F lounge had better catering and facilities.

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I dont agree with you about the comparison with the Air New Zealand lounge. I always find this bleak and it often very busy and hard to find a seat. The outdoor area is nice, but I have only been there once that it was warm.
Food and beverage comparison, the QF F lounge is much better ( the Emirates lounge was the best in AKL) The Air NZ lounge has on ok range of food, but a surprisingly poor quality drink selection. We were having a chat about this and we all agree there is not a bottle that we would buy to have at home. One comment was the wine is so mediocre, they only have a beer in the lounge.
It will be interesting to see how the changes play out. I will be sad to see the champagne go.

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I dont agree with you about the comparison with the Air New Zealand lounge. I always find this bleak and it often very busy and hard to find a seat. The outdoor area is nice, but I have only been there once that it was warm.
Food and beverage comparison, the QF F lounge is much better ( the Emirates lounge was the best in AKL) The Air NZ lounge has on ok range of food, but a surprisingly poor quality drink selection. We were having a chat about this and we all agree there is not a bottle that we would buy to have at home. One comment was the wine is so mediocre, they only have a beer in the lounge.
It will be interesting to see how the changes play out. I will be sad to see the champagne go.

I wasn't impressed with the AIR NZ Int lounge either, for the same reason.

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I dont agree with you about the comparison with the Air New Zealand lounge. I always find this bleak and it often very busy and hard to find a seat. The outdoor area is nice, but I have only been there once that it was warm.
Food and beverage comparison, the QF F lounge is much better ( the Emirates lounge was the best in AKL) The Air NZ lounge has on ok range of food, but a surprisingly poor quality drink selection. We were having a chat about this and we all agree there is not a bottle that we would buy to have at home. One comment was the wine is so mediocre, they only have a beer in the lounge.
It will be interesting to see how the changes play out. I will be sad to see the champagne go.

I must agree there. The NZ lounge is all style over substance, reminds me of Virgin Australia. As you say, the booze is cheap and nasty and don't get me started about the food- post 2pm and all hot selections are taken away, wtf?

Agree, Emirates is lightyears ahead in Auckland but that's not really a surprise tbh. I'm for one am looking forward to the upgrade, it was time. And the lack of champagne can be made up once on board so not a biggie for me, especially if it's just a short hop over the Tasman.

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While an upgrade is obviously necessary, it’s a real shame to lose a separate lounge for WP pax. Even though it is a closet, it is *usually* much quieter than the J lounge which is something I really rate.

One of the best bits about travelling around the US in AA lounges is how peaceful they are due to very few AA pax being eligible and the lack of boarding calls.

These combined lounges end up with lower quality slop for food, bare minimum quality drinks and heaps of loud talking men and kids with their grotty hands in the liquorice all sorts.🤣

I’ll stick to the Emirates lounge when its open.

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I’ll stick to the Emirates lounge when its open.

It was hard enough to get past the dragons at times as a Qantas customer (against the rules, well documented on here) so I suspect access to the EK lounge might even get harder post the reno because EVERYONE will prefer the EK lounge.

But when talking EK lounge- that was often open only during the times when the Qantas booth was everything but peaceful. I was hopping back and forth between Auckland and Sydney for over a year (until getting locked into NZ for good thanks to a certain bug spreading) and my destiny was always the Friday afternoon departures from Auckland.

"Intimate" is not the first word that comes to my mind when thinking of those times- I'd actually prefer a bigger, more modern but J class lounge over this mess any day. It wasn't an Flounge like in Sydney or even LA, faaaar from it.

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