Qantas Club Lounge Going Downhill

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mrdenn1s

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Jul 16, 2007
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Hi guys,

I discovered this site today and reckon its a beauty.

As a QF Platinum member, I am slowly losing confidence in their ability to offer a quality product

Is it just me, or are the domestic lounges starting to resemble bus terminals?

1) Over crowded
2) Noisy
3) Bad food selection, especially for breakfast
4) Always out of food
5) Queue for the coffee man too long
6) Not enough seats
7) Smelly toilets

What do you think?
 
Hi mrdenn1s. Pretty cool avatar! Welcome to AFF!!

1) yes.
2) sometimes.
3) sometimes. Food isn't too bad. What do you suggest is reasonable brekkie type food?
4) Hot food disappears quickly but is often replaced regularly. Other food is pretty good replacement wise.
5) Never been in SYD (and/or MEL) at Brekkie when the Coffee van is open.
6) Havn;t really had problems finding a seat, but have had to search hard at times.
7) Toilets are manky everywhere. The QP ones do smell a little, but no worse than many others I've been in! At least they don't have the squat toilets that some airports offer :mrgreen:

There was a survey a while ago that indicated that WP's (Platinums) may end up in a separate lounge eventually, but nothing seems to have happened with that yet.

The biggest issue (as I see it) is the continual offering of Qantas Club at ridiculous prices to corporate customers. They provide some money towards the running of the club, but have lots of members floating around.
 
(1) Over crowding does occur at peak hours, I agree

(2) Normally not noisy ime except when crowded - I tend not to travel at rush hour though

(3) Food hasnt gone downhill recently from what I can tell

(4) Dont agree

(5) Don't agree. Cannot remember ever queueing for coffee

(6) During peak times, I would agree - pretty much linked to (1)

(7) Don't agree. I havent seen any issues with the cleaning of the lavatories

Dave
 
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1) Can be depending on flight times

2) As per 1

3) I don't go there for meals, so I find the food ok

4) Not my experience

5) Coffee Man? I am at the wrong airports!

6) I can't remember not finding one, but they can be a bit sparse at times

7) No worse than anywhere else, and better than many places (why do the railways have such a problem with this?)
 
Mal said:
There was a survey a while ago that indicated that WP's (Platinums) may end up in a separate lounge eventually, but nothing seems to have happened with that yet.
Mal, are you able to elaborate any more?
 
odoherty said:
Mal, are you able to elaborate any more?

Can't find the threads now... did search.

Basically, Qantas in one of their pseudo regular surveys asked questions related to lounges, what people thought of them and whether they should segregate WP's.
 
Mal said:
Can't find the threads now... did search.

Basically, Qantas in one of their pseudo regular surveys asked questions related to lounges, what people thought of them and whether they should segregate WP's.
Would be nice, but I just don't see it happening.
 
oz_mark said:
I think if nothing else, the bean counters would see to that.
I do think Qantas need to do more to reward their frequent-flequent-flyers.
Compared to other airlines, Qantas does a pretty lousy job at rewarding their top-tier FFs.
Especially WPs - not many benefits at all, really.
 
I will not eleborate too much about "The Lounge" at Virgin, suffice to say I have not experienced any such problems..and I like having the lounge to myself -

I guess it depends on what you want from a lounge. Generally it is only for 15-60 minutes before departure, so I just want to be somewhere out of the rat race, somewhere I can do work if it is a reasonable hour, or sit down and chill out with a beer and a snack. I am not sure if they were designed to provide a meal service? The toilets are always clean, staff always friendly etc etc.
 
wallacej said:
I guess it depends on what you want from a lounge. Generally it is only for 15-60 minutes before departure, so I just want to be somewhere out of the rat race, somewhere I can do work if it is a reasonable hour, or sit down and chill out with a beer and a snack.

This is exactly the problem. Turned up at BNE domestic last week at 2.30 on the Tuesday afternoon and went up to the Qantas Club, hoping for an hour's peace and quiet to get some reading done. It was packed! After five minutes looking for a seat I gave up and went back out for a coffee on the main concourse, which was much less busy. It's a sad situation when the lounge offers a worse environment that the rest of the airport.
 
spiggy_topes said:
This is exactly the problem. Turned up at BNE domestic last week at 2.30 on the Tuesday afternoon and went up to the Qantas Club, hoping for an hour's peace and quiet to get some reading done. It was packed! After five minutes looking for a seat I gave up and went back out for a coffee on the main concourse, which was much less busy. It's a sad situation when the lounge offers a worse environment that the rest of the airport.

Exactly...

It is now more of a bus terminal than a lounge!
 
Ha!

You should have seen them in the months after AN went belly up. :shock:

Worse than that, some bean counter at Qantas decided that since there was no longer any competition, they could get away with reducing the quality of the catering in the lounge. This was for a year or so after the Ansett demise.

No Sandwiches (foccacia, rolls or otherwise), Pastizzi's, Party Pies, soup or Hot food (other than some little sausage mince balls with tomato sauce if you were lucky). A a severe deterioration in the quality of available wine became apparent as well.

So overcrowded they were in the evenings they installed more and more of those stand up tables and otherwise removed seats to permit member to at lease have some standing space.

It was only when the not so frequent flyer QP members stopped renewing their paid memberships because of these issues that Qantas decided to improve their offering. This included the catering standard and they decided to open the Bar 2 hours earlier at 1pm to encourage the QP punters, old and new, to arrive earlier.

There's a bit more on this topic here: QC Food
 
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spiggy_topes said:
... went up to the Qantas Club, hoping for an hour's peace and quiet to get some reading done...
I often find that the circular departure lounge, with the indoor rainforest, at the end of the long departure pier, is a nice quiet space... so long as there aren't too many immanent departures in the area.
 
spiggy_topes said:
This is exactly the problem. Turned up at BNE domestic last week at 2.30 on the Tuesday afternoon and went up to the Qantas Club, hoping for an hour's peace and quiet to get some reading done. It was packed! After five minutes looking for a seat I gave up and went back out for a coffee on the main concourse, which was much less busy. It's a sad situation when the lounge offers a worse environment that the rest of the airport.

I don't know what everyone's complaining about. ;) Last few times I've been in SYD & BNE, I've gone into the QP, had a quick snack and drink or two standing at a bar table, then retreated to the peace and quiet of the airport terminal.

In BNE I just went to the pier where JQ flies from (no flights departing) and I managed to find a power point, connect to wireless broadband and get a good hour of work done in peace and quiet (I was the only one there). Likewise in SYD, just picked a departure gate where there wasn't a flight due for several hours and worked away/read in peace & quiet.

Really, it is a shame that often the only place to get peace and quiet is in the terminal itself. However, I'm not that concerned as long as WP's maintain access to the FCL when flying internationally, which I have used when flying not only QF, but also SQ, TG & NZ, which is pretty neat.
 
odoherty said:
I do think Qantas need to do more to reward their frequent-flequent-flyers.
Compared to other airlines, Qantas does a pretty lousy job at rewarding their top-tier FFs.
Especially WPs - not many benefits at all, really.

Maybe there are just too many WPs, simply because it's too easy to qualify?
 
WP is an airline status, not a royalty bloodline!!! :shock:

let's get things into perspective here...
 
It is way too easy to gain access to the QP via status and heavily discounted corporate memberships.

Accordingly the budget is spread over a larger number of people than would be desirable. I find the domestic lounges very average and I generally skip them altogether (god bless on-line check-in). In fact I only ever use them if the flight is delayed or I have had a really good run to the airport.

Creating a separate lounge for Plats would be part of the solution (along with raising the bar to achieving Plat status).

Gazza
 
Well I guess it could go like the US, where AA OW Sapphire & Emerald members only have access to Admirals Club when flying internationally (unless they're also OW S or E's with other partner airlines). Think I will put up with crowded lounges if that is the alternative. Maybe the easiest option is to close off parts of the busier lounges as quiet areas.

Crowded QP's not withstanding, I find it astonishing that is is being suggested QF do not do enough to reward their top tier flyers! The benefits provided to WP's are significant and I certainly find it worthwhile retaining this status. There is the 100% mileage bonus, anytime lounge access to QP's and FCL's internationally (including when flying with the competition), preallocation of exit rows, better redemption availability, guaranteed Y seats, priority on upgrade waitlisting, preferential seating and sometimes even priority luggage.
 
dajop said:
Maybe the easiest option is to close off parts of the busier lounges as quiet areas.

BA do this and it works well. but for domestic do you care much ?

dajop said:
Crowded QP's not withstanding, I find it astonishing that is is being suggested QF do not do enough to reward their top tier flyers! The benefits provided to WP's are significant and I certainly find it worthwhile retaining this status. There is the 100% mileage bonus, anytime lounge access to QP's and FCL's internationally (including when flying with the competition), preallocation of exit rows, better redemption availability, guaranteed Y seats, priority on upgrade waitlisting, preferential seating and sometimes even priority luggage.

I agree QF does well to reward there FF's.
And i like the lounges and happy with them, Domestic is busy (as would be expected) and international also can be but not that often.
Generally i would give them the thumbs up.

E
 
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