New Qantas Lounge Heathrow Terminal 3

[Princess Fiona]

Well the QF lounge opening has been pushed back to September/October. I wasn't expecting it would be ready next month when I fly out of Heathrow but now I know for sure.

I'll be there from late September until early/mid October. Hopefully it's open then. I have multiple sectors through LHR but I think only my QF10 departure will be from T3.

I have my fingers and toes crossed

 

[esseeeayeenn]

I will pop my head in when I am there in March. But if it is a combined lounge I won't be staying long.

I was in both HKG and SIN last week and didn't bother with the QF offerings.

You mean "enhanced lounge".

 

[neilmeister]

Bugger! I will be in Heathrow in early July and was counting on the QF lounge being open. I have the full entourage with me (partner + 2 kids) so I know I will get access to QF.... not so sure in CX or AA, and definitely not in BA. Having said that the AA & BA lounges are horrible and if it was any airport other than LHR I would almost prefer the terminal.

Any other WP or P1 had success getting partner + 2 kids into CX?

 

[DavidFlynn]

I will pop my head in when I am there in March. But if it is a combined lounge I won't be staying long.

It's definitely a combined 'premium' lounge, and always has been promised & promoted as such. The adjacent CX F lounge may well top it.

 

[mviy]

Under OneWorld rules kids would count as guests so I don't think you'll get them into the CX lounge.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Bugger! I will be in Heathrow in early July and was counting on the QF lounge being open. I have the full entourage with me (partner + 2 kids) so I know I will get access to QF.... not so sure in CX or AA, and definitely not in BA. Having said that the AA & BA lounges are horrible and if it was any airport other than LHR I would almost prefer the terminal.

Any other WP or P1 had success getting partner + 2 kids into CX?

Never tried at LHR but it was a bit tricky at HKG with CX until I pointed out to them that as everyone was in J we would have access to at least that lounge as an alternative to the F lounge. We were then allowed into the F Lounge.

 

[Jousams]

Looks like this lounge will be open on, or after, the 15th of September if this Accor job ad is anything to go by. Pity, as i will be travelling through on the 13th.

https://www.accorhotels.jobs/Job-va...tas-lounges-by-accorhotels,j,1,258087,en.html

 

[DavidFlynn]

Looks like this lounge will be open on, or after, the 15th of September if this Accor job ad is anything to go by. Pity, as i will be travelling through on the 13th.

Well spotted!

Staff typically start before the lounge is open, for purposes of training, so even if the job's start date was become Sept 15 I'd suggest the open date would be at least one week later... all the same, if the LHR lounge team has been able to accelerate the timetable to open at end of September instead of early October, that'll have been quite a feat when measured against more recent expectations.

 

[mviy]

If the lounges in BNE are anything to go by the opening date could keep slipping. Thinking about heading over to LHR again later this year, but next year or the year after is more likely. Will be nice to be able to try the new lounge though I may visit it after dining in CX F if I still have access.

 

[Princess Fiona]

I depart T3 on 9th October so fingers and toes crossed it's open by then

 

[JessicaTam]

If the lounges in BNE are anything to go by the opening date could keep slipping. Thinking about heading over to LHR again later this year, but next year or the year after is more likely. Will be nice to be able to try the new lounge though I may visit it after dining in CX F if I still have access.

As long as it doesn't slip past the end of March next year!

 

[esseeeayeenn]

If the lounges in BNE are anything to go by the opening date could keep slipping. Thinking about heading over to LHR again later this year, but next year or the year after is more likely. Will be nice to be able to try the new lounge though I may visit it after dining in CX F if I still have access.

At least the CX F lounge will have champagne. The new enhanced QF "premium" lounges only serve sparkling Australian wine.
I left the CX F Wing lounge in HK to try the QF lounge but turned around and retraced my steps as soon as the barman told me this.

 

[DavidFlynn]

At least the CX F lounge will have champagne. The new enhanced QF "premium" lounges only serve sparkling Australian wine.
I left the CX F Wing lounge in HK to try the QF lounge but turned around and retraced my steps as soon as the barman told me this.

The QF lounges maintain a stash of 'real' champers, but it's not available to all flyers

 

[serfty]

The QF lounges maintain a stash of 'real' champers, but it's not available to all flyers

P1 and CL generally get Champagne on request.

One could say that in general P1 have the revenue behind them to have paid for it.

I am not a fan of contemporary Qantas' lounge philosophy so tend to approach the news of the lounge's opening with "...meh ...".

I'll duck in in November if it's open but will likely spend more time in the CX / BA / AA F versions.

 

[DavidFlynn]

Agreed, the CX lounges are going to be the go-to for savvy travellers - CX have set the bar pretty high for LHR T3, even their J lounge is impressive.

 

[mviy]

imo they should give real champagne to WP to be competitive with real F lounges. If QF had done a separate F lounge at LHR then WP would've been able to get champagne.

 

[Sdtravel]

I cant wait to visit the CX lounge next week. Shame the QF lounge isnt open. I was planning to make a visit to both on my way thought.

 

[Altair]

imo they should give real champagne to WP to be competitive with real F lounges. If QF had done a separate F lounge at LHR then WP would've been able to get champagne.

Why do they need to compete against real F Lounges when they have gone the combined lounge strategy? A OWE will choose the best lounge available to them and having real champagne for WP and above is really not going to bring QF more revenue for their flights rather it may have a marginal impact on their lounge profitability. If QF really saw WP access to First Lounges as profitable then they would have created their own First Lounge, of course with only 1 flight a day now have QF First, (4 EK flights as well), there clearly was insufficient demand for a First Lounge to support the same number of First Seats available.

 

[dairyfloss]

I'm going to piggy-back this topic to ask a little advice on the reality of a possible lounge crawl at LHR, hopefully including this new QF lounge, if open by the time I'm there in the latter part of September.

I'm flying BA into LHR T5 arriving on the 21st Sep, around 6AM. I connect to a BA codeshare from T2, 3 hours later. Coming back, I arrive on the 25th Sep into T5 around 5PM, and depart 3 hours later from T5, on BA. I was hoping to visit this new QF lounge and the new(ish) CX F lounge in T3, preferably on the evening departure. Is this feasible, or do I need to wait until I have something departing T3 to try CX/QF? On past visits, I've not had any any real inspiration to leave BA Galleries First in T5, so I don't know how complex it is to move between terminals, airside. If it helps, I'll just have a shoulder bag or backpack with me.

Cheers,
Matt.

 

[DavidFlynn]

imo they should give real champagne to WP to be competitive with real F lounges.

In terms of 'competitive', I'd suggest that the lack of 'real' champagne is going to cost QF very very few passengers – basically, just a handful here and on other websites/forums who are savvy to the use of non-QF lounges at LHR T3, and who will decamp to the CX or BA lounges. And those people will still be flying QF of course, so the only real cost to QF would be the charge-back for QF passengers using the BA/CX lounges (unsure of the BA charge-back fee, I'v got the CX fee somewhere here, will see if I can dig it up).

That said, it could be argued that the cost of one lounge-swapping passenger would represent a few bottles of decent bubbly (at trade prices), so there'd be room for some number-crunching as to cost of serving bubbles to all WPs to mitigate lounge-hopping and measured against cost of said lounge-hoping, but that veers into WGAFF territory (ie "Who gives a flying ****?") because I honestly don't see it as THAT big an issue.

If QF had done a separate F lounge at LHR then WP would've been able to get champagne.

Likely so, but there's no room at the available LHR T3 space to do separate F and J lounges, and to my knowledge even an upstairs/downstairs split would be uneconomical and inefficient.