I recently flew with Virgin Australia on its last flight for the evening from Melbourne to Canberra – a flight I book regularly. My flight was originally scheduled to leave at 9.10pm, but ended up being delayed by almost an hour.
I wasn’t annoyed. That’s just a normal part of travel, and delays aren’t unusual when you’re on the last flight for the day. I was comfortable waiting in the Virgin Australia Lounge, which I could access through both my Business Class ticket and Velocity Platinum status. That was, until Virgin abruptly closed the lounge and kicked everyone out…
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Why did Virgin Australia kick us out of the lounge?
The Virgin Australia website states that its lounges are open “daily from 60 minutes before first Virgin Australia flight departure until last scheduled Virgin Australia flight is called for boarding”.
At 9.20pm on this particular evening, there were still two Virgin flights that hadn’t started boarding yet. As well as a late flight to Brisbane, the operating aircraft for my delayed Canberra flight hadn’t even arrived in Melbourne yet. Despite this, the lounge receptionist made an announcement advising that the lounge would close in the next 10 minutes.
Then, at 9.25pm, Virgin made three consecutive announcements in the lounge:
- The first one was to request passengers on VA359 to Brisbane to proceed to the gate “in preparation for boarding”
- Immediately after, there was a second announcement for passengers on VA291 to Canberra to head to the gate “in preparation for boarding”
- Finally, there was an announcement that the lounge was now closed, and that everyone needed to leave as all remaining flights had been called.
In reality, when I got to my boarding gate, the passengers from that plane’s previous flight hadn’t even started disembarking yet. My flight was nowhere near ready for boarding. I’m sure Virgin knew this, but they wanted to close the lounge…
At this point, there were still quite a few cleaning staff in the lounge. There was another 20 minutes or so until my flight would start boarding.
Perhaps a reasonable compromise could have been for Virgin to ask all the remaining passengers on delayed flights to sit in a particular corner of the lounge, and to just keep a minimal bar service running. That way, the staff could still get on with cleaning the rest of the lounge, without kicking out paying customers who’ve already been inconvenienced by the airline delaying their flight.
Qantas has done exactly the same thing
Last year, in almost identical circumstances, I was sitting in the Qantas Business Lounge at Melbourne Airport waiting for a delayed flight to Canberra. This was also the last service to Canberra for that evening. It had a rolling delay due to a mechanical issue with the plane.
Qantas similarly advertises on its website that this lounge is open from “one hour before each Qantas operated service until last Qantas departure”. Yet, well before the flight actually started boarding, Qantas closed the lounge and kicked everyone out into the terminal.
It’s not just Virgin and Qantas…
A few years ago, I was in the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge in Montreal, waiting for a scheduled 9.15pm Business Class flight to Calgary. This was during the 2022 post-COVID travel boom, when Air Canada’s network (along with many other airlines) was in meltdown. Air Canada had delayed my flight, and several others, until well after midnight.
The staff at Air Canada’s lounge could not have cared one bit. They promptly shut the lounge right at the scheduled closing time of 9pm and went home, leaving us to wait in the terminal for what ended up being another five hours or so.
In fairness to Air Canada, though, they advertise specific lounge opening times rather than a promise to keep the lounge open until the last flight has boarded.
Airlines do sometimes keep lounges open for delayed flights
I’ve given you three examples of airlines that didn’t extend their lounge opening times for delayed flights. But that’s not to say this is necessarily the norm. Qantas does, for example, keep at least one of its Singapore lounges open if it has to delay one of its evening departures to Australia or London.
In general, I’ve found that airlines are often more willing to extend their lounge opening hours if there is a widespread disruption and many flights are delayed, rather than just one or two. And it seems to depend how “important” the delayed flight is. A long-haul international flight will probably get priority over a domestic one.
I do also find that airline-operated lounges are much more likely to remain open during irregular operations than third-party contract lounges.
What do you think?
I understand both sides of this. On one hand, the lounge staff are rostered to work at specific times. They probably want to go home on time.
It also costs the airline money to keep the lounge open. They would have to pay the staff overtime and provide lounge services (including food and drinks) for a longer period.
On the other hand, if the airline itself has delayed your flight, I think many passengers who’ve paid for lounge access (either through their loyalty to the airline, a paid membership or buying a Business Class ticket) would expect to be able to wait there. After all, one of the key perks of lounge access is that it’s a more comfortable place to wait during disruptions such as extended delays.
Where do you stand on this? You can share your thoughts on the AFF forum!
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