Free Business Lounge Upgrades for Qantas Club Members

If you’re a Qantas Club member or Gold frequent flyer, you can access Qantas Club lounges at 24 Australian domestic airports.

The six largest of those airports also have Qantas domestic Business Lounges. These are premium spaces normally reserved exclusively for Business Class passengers, as well as Platinum, Platinum One and Oneworld Emerald frequent flyers.

If you normally just have Qantas Club access and want to get into a domestic Business Lounge, one option could be to upgrade your Qantas flight to Business Class – either using Qantas Points or money. But if you happen to be flying at the right time, and with a bit of luck, there is another way…

Qantas domestic Business Lounge locations

The following Australian airports have Qantas domestic Business Lounges:

• Adelaide (ADL)
• Brisbane (BNE)
• Canberra (CBR)
• Melbourne (MEL)
• Perth (PER)
• Sydney (SYD)

The Qantas Club sometimes shuts during quiet periods

During busy periods, like Monday mornings or Friday afternoons – or pretty much any time during school holidays – both the Qantas Club and Business Lounges at these airports are often both packed.

But during particularly quiet periods when demand is low, the airline sometimes chooses to close its Qantas Club and redirect everyone who’s eligible for lounge access into the Business Lounge instead. This is typically done at off-peak times when the number of passengers can all comfortably fit into just one lounge.

If you turn up to the entrance of the Qantas Club during a quiet time when the lounge has closed early, you’ll typically find that the entrance is blocked and there’s a sign advising Qantas Club members to “Please proceed to the Business Lounge”.

(You’d think that’s fairly hard to miss… but I have seen people walking into the Canberra Qantas Club on a weekend who’ve then taken a surprisingly long amount of time to realise that the lights are off, the buffet isn’t set up and that there’s absolutely nobody else in the lounge!)

If you’re trying to access the Qantas Club using a lounge invitation, the Business Lounge will also usually accept these if the Qantas Club is shut under these circumstances.

When does Qantas redirect Qantas Club members to the Business Lounge?

Qantas doesn’t advertise this or publish a list of times when it will keep only the Business Lounge open.

And just because a Qantas Club lounge is closed at a particular time one week, doesn’t necessarily mean it will be closed again at the same time in the following week. The number of passengers passing through the airport in the following week could be a lot higher, so the airline may choose to keep both lounges open then.

It’s less likely, for example, that Qantas Club members would be sent to a domestic Business Lounge during school holidays.

That said, Australian Frequent Flyer members have noticed a few patterns. According to posts on our forum, times that Qantas often redirects Club members to the Business Lounge include:

• Canberra on weekends (especially outside of parliamentary sitting weeks)
• Sydney in the late evening (e.g. after 9pm, and sometimes earlier on days other than Friday and Sunday if it’s quiet)
• Melbourne in the late evening (e.g. after 8pm on days other than Friday and Sunday)
• Brisbane on Saturdays and after 8pm on some weekdays
• Perth in the late evening, ahead of the red-eye flight departures to the east coast, as well as Sunday mornings

If you’ve been lucky enough to get an “upgrade” from the Qantas Club to the Business Lounge at another time of day, let us know in the comments!

What’s the difference between the Qantas Club and domestic Business Lounges?

While there isn’t a huge amount of difference, the domestic Business Lounges often have more elevated dining options and some better wines.

For example, the Melbourne domestic Business Lounge has a spice bar serving a la carte dishes that are usually very tasty. The Perth Qantas domestic Business Lounge similarly has a pizza bar, while the Sydney lounge has a panini bar.

Some of the domestic Business Lounges also have a slightly nicer ambience and a better view – particularly the Melbourne lounge. That said, the opposite is the case in Canberra where the Qantas Club has a great runway view and the Business Lounge overlooks the airport carpark.