Article: Should Airlines Keep Lounges Open for Delayed Flights?

[AFF Editor]

Should Airlines Keep Lounges Open for Delayed Flights? is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

Should Airlines Keep Lounges Open for Delayed Flights?

Airlines have a habit of closing their lounges before delayed flights have actually started boarding. Is this reasonable or should paying customers who've already been inconvenienced by a flight delay expect more?

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

 

[DJTravels]

Of course it's a goodwill gesture to keep the lounge open, but I imagine the labour contracts are just not designed to offer such flexibility. The cleaning crew will be here at a set time, and they will clean and close the lounge.

I was travelling to HKG from HEL, and the flight was delayed until the early hours of morning. Lounge promptly shut at the scheduled departure time, leaving the dozen or so lounge-goers to fend for ourselves in the gate or at the sole cafe that was semi operating at 2am. Tough, but understandable from an operations point of view.

 

[AIRwin]

I remember the VA lounge in BNE stayed open for a delayed departure to MEL past midnight but that was back in April 2019

 

[Human]

When a flight is delayed, that's a cost to the airline. And keeping a lounge open undoubtedly adds a little to that cost ... but in terms of customer goodwill and customer satisfaction, surely that relatively small cost brings disproportionate benefits to the airline?

Conversely, closing the lounge would save the airline a little bit of money, but is that worth it in terms of the negative experience that the airline's top customers would then have?

I fully understand if the kitchen has to close and the lounge no longer offers food and beverages. But having a quiet and comfortable place to wait when a flight is delayed is very much appreciated (and remembered) by this passenger, for one!

 

[aaa99]

Was flying CX from Melbourne last week and we were delayed by 2 hours. Qantas kept their business class lounge open, but not their first class. I guess that is fair.

 

[PierreD]

Should Airlines Keep Lounges Open for Delayed Flights? is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

Should Airlines Keep Lounges Open for Delayed Flights?

Airlines have a habit of closing their lounges before delayed flights have actually started boarding. Is this reasonable or should paying customers who've already been inconvenienced by a flight delay expect more?

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

I have had this happen a few times in Sydney(VA Lounge) as the Canberra flight was delayed.
One time, they closed the lounge 90 minutes before our flight left, they should definitely do something about the keeping the lounge open, or maybe have a snack and water available as take away.

 

[conventdweller1]

Should Airlines Keep Lounges Open for Delayed Flights? is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

Should Airlines Keep Lounges Open for Delayed Flights?

Airlines have a habit of closing their lounges before delayed flights have actually started boarding. Is this reasonable or should paying customers who've already been inconvenienced by a flight delay expect more?

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

We recently had exactly this scenario. The last flight from Queenstown NZ to Melbourne on 1st May '25 was delayed , our aircraft was only just departing Melbourne at our expected departure time. However Qantas did the right thing by us and kept the lounge open until the plane arrived. The lounge staff were friendly and professional even though they were keen to go home.

 

[Kremmen]

A year or two ago my Qantas flight out of MNL was delayed by about 1.5 hrs. The (contract) lounge stayed open for us and seemed quite happy to do so. They started cleaning up, but they told us not to worry, we wouldn't have to leave until we could board the plane.

 

[Human]

The lounge staff were friendly and professional even though they were keen to go home.

The staff at the Manaia Lounge in Queenstown are always wonderful!

Having said that, I'd hope and expect that they'd be paid fairly for their time -- overtime, if appropriate. Much as I think lounges should stay open, if I knew that my presence was requiring staff to work unpaid, I'd walk out and let the staff go home.

 

[docjames]

Of course it's a goodwill gesture to keep the lounge open, but I imagine the labour contracts are just not designed to offer such flexibility. The cleaning crew will be here at a set time, and they will clean and close the lounge.

I was travelling to HKG from HEL, and the flight was delayed until the early hours of morning. Lounge promptly shut at the scheduled departure time, leaving the dozen or so lounge-goers to fend for ourselves in the gate or at the sole cafe that was semi operating at 2am. Tough, but understandable from an operations point of view.

I've also been in HEL when they've elected to keep the lounge open but with "reduced service" ie. no hot food etc, but still with basic food and drinks available.

Suspect it depends on the scenario, number affected, extent of delay etc.

 

[The Astronomer]

Interesting and valuable comments on this issue and a fine article by Matt Graham. I, too, can see both sides of the situation, but just using Qantas as an example, perhaps the wording of the conditions on the website needs to be carefully reviewed, not just for this purpose but possibly in other cases, too. Given that they say that the lounge will be open until the last Qantas departure (not 'scheduled' departure), it would seem reasonable for lounge attendees to assume that there is an arrangement that the lounge staff will stay late for delayed flights. If there is no such arrangement, the wording is wrong and the staff should expect to be able to go home. Apart from that, though, Matt makes the good point that it is good to be able to use lounges when delays happen: a big advantage of membership, whether paid or earned with loyalty.

 

[trisreed]

What a timely article, Matt. I had the same experience eight days ago at the Melbourne Virgin Lounge, calling Canberra, Brisbane and Perth for boarding at ~9:15PMish and with that, the lounge has shut. I'll let the following screenshot do the talking (VA699, the flight runs so infrequently, you will find it easily):



I understand the lounge staff are human too, but I guess Virgin's (or their contractor's) generosity did not extend as much as it did for the skeleton crew in the terminal. Suffice to say, I think ~120 odd people with meal vouchers and Maccas being the only place open really ruined the staff's night (at Maccas).

I certainly chuckled to myself that "boarding" did not happen until 1AM - almost four hours after being told that our flight was boarding in the lounge. I'd be pretty angry but for the first time ever, I was upgraded for free. Sadly my partner wasn't and she wasn't too happy

 

[AIRwin]

Interesting and valuable comments on this issue and a fine article by Matt Graham. I, too, can see both sides of the situation, but just using Qantas as an example, perhaps the wording of the conditions on the website needs to be carefully reviewed, not just for this purpose but possibly in other cases, too. Given that they say that the lounge will be open until the last Qantas departure (not 'scheduled' departure), it would seem reasonable for lounge attendees to assume that there is an arrangement that the lounge staff will stay late for delayed flights. If there is no such arrangement, the wording is wrong and the staff should expect to be able to go home. Apart from that, though, Matt makes the good point that it is good to be able to use lounges when delays happen: a big advantage of membership, whether paid or earned with loyalty.

Are you a CEO who attended a concert recently by any chance?

 

[Ash]

Are you a CEO who attended a concert recently by any chance?

Bahahaha

 

[dmgale]

In the perfect world it should. In reality in Australia it is probably less likely to because of of the added cost of keeping the lounge open.

 

[elanshin]

Should an Airline keep it open? Yes.

But in terms of practical ways its very difficult especially within Australia as we have some strict labour laws. If a staff needs to go home at this hour, they are within all their right to do so. Now I'm aware in practise there lots of "lets be a team player etc" office politics with full time jobs but the average lounge staff are likely to be just more casual type workers or part timers.

Maybe that's why its easier overseas to see this in action than in the countries with much stronger labour laws or unions? Matt gave an example of AC and their maple lounge and afaik Canada is only slightly behind us in terms of how complicated labour laws are over there.

 

[Beano]

We recently had exactly this scenario. The last flight from Queenstown NZ to Melbourne on 1st May '25 was delayed , our aircraft was only just departing Melbourne at our expected departure time. However Qantas did the right thing by us and kept the lounge open until the plane arrived. The lounge staff were friendly and professional even though they were keen to go home.

Same thing on WLG-MEL last year. Loungestayed open 2 hoursafter last departure and about 5 hours after the scheduled departure.

Presumably staff would be payed for staying late.

 

[olorinn]

Seems like there's staffing issues at the VA MEL lounge, they're constantly advertising shifts on the Sidekicker app

 

[Doyen]

It is simple. Advertise what you will deliver and deliver what you advertise. If labour laws prevent you from delivering a product don't advertise it. It is misleading. If the airlines had to cater for delays it gives them an incentive to minimise delays. If they get away with misleading advertising there is no incentive to minimise delays, stop misleading advertising, or deal with the requirements in the lounge.

 

[Balad2005]

I was in Canberra last year travelling on Qantas.Several late evening flights delayed due to problems out of Sydney.I was in the Qantas lounge .They announced the lounge would be closing but we would be moving to the business lounge.Canbera being Canerra there are usually more people in the business lounge that the Q lounge . So about 20 people enjoyed the upgrade for just over an hour.
I think the airlines should keep the lounges open when there are long delays.