Qantas club worth it?

[whiteshark]

Hi all,

I have been doing a lot of reading here recently and have learnt a tonne from many threads in these forums. It has helped me make several travel decisions and all for the better.

So I'd like to get some ideas on whether people think QC is worth paying for. I understand that for the most part I will need to decide if I think I will get the value out of it and that will, of course, be determined by how many times I expect to use it. But what I would like to know is what others think would be reasonable use for the money. All my work travel is Y as its all domestic and while I have no trouble maintaining silver I can't quite get to gold so any QC privileges will need to be bought.

So please let me know what you may consider adequate use to justify the price. I expect to travel once or twice a month.

Cheers
Phil

View attachment 15822View attachment 15823 The rubbish that Qantas servers up and calls food in the lounge is enough to say that club is not worth it. If you are predominantly a domestic flyer then don't bother. As the attached picture shows they seve up a lot of slop that's best described as cheap garbage. The attached picture was taken in the Adelaide lounge this week. Its their hot food dinner offering to their loyal FF club members. Now before people flame me on their other offerings available - I am well aware of their poor salad bar, defrosted bread rolls, watery soups, and sickening coffee beans. Qantas knows what good looks like - just go into the Mel or Syd first lounges (not business) and you will see great food and service offerings. They just choose to serve up cough in their other lounges. If its comfortable seating you are looking for - go and sit in a café at the airport and buy yourself a decent meal or go and check out one of their competitors. Qantas domestic lounges suck.

 

[crm911]

I mainly travel AVV-SYD and SYD-MEL every week and am a paid member of both QF and VA lounges. Y-grade QC in SYD is better than VA Lounge when it comes to food and availability of Macs (VA is BYO computers). However, an under-appreciated aspect of lounges is the peace of mind that you can leave your things at your chair and walk away to get something/use the loo without fear of someone stealing it or causing a bomb scare.

 

[Inver]

Whiteshark the attachments aren't working for me.

 

[hdfb]

View attachment 15822View attachment 15823 The rubbish that Qantas servers up and calls food in the lounge is enough to say that club is not worth it. If you are predominantly a domestic flyer then don't bother. As the attached picture shows they seve up a lot of slop that's best described as cheap garbage. The attached picture was taken in the Adelaide lounge this week. Its their hot food dinner offering to their loyal FF club members. Now before people flame me on their other offerings available - I am well aware of their poor salad bar, defrosted bread rolls, watery soups, and sickening coffee beans. Qantas knows what good looks like - just go into the Mel or Syd first lounges (not business) and you will see great food and service offerings. They just choose to serve up cough in their other lounges. If its comfortable seating you are looking for - go and sit in a café at the airport and buy yourself a decent meal or go and check out one of their competitors. Qantas domestic lounges suck.

Last time I was at adelaide QC I really enjoyed it. It was around 5pm. Nice tomato soup, meatballs and pasta as well as sticky date pudding. Was quite surprised at the offerings available. It was much better than Y food

 

[mannej]

View attachment 15822View attachment 15823 The rubbish that Qantas servers up and calls food in the lounge is enough to say that club is not worth it. If you are predominantly a domestic flyer then don't bother. As the attached picture shows they seve up a lot of slop that's best described as cheap garbage. The attached picture was taken in the Adelaide lounge this week. Its their hot food dinner offering to their loyal FF club members. Now before people flame me on their other offerings available - I am well aware of their poor salad bar, defrosted bread rolls, watery soups, and sickening coffee beans. Qantas knows what good looks like - just go into the Mel or Syd first lounges (not business) and you will see great food and service offerings. They just choose to serve up cough in their other lounges. If its comfortable seating you are looking for - go and sit in a café at the airport and buy yourself a decent meal or go and check out one of their competitors. Qantas domestic lounges suck.

Your pictures haven't worked.

Comparing a domestic QP with the F lounge isn't really a fair comparison considering they are the flagship lounges of the network.

 

[crm911]

Nice tomato soup, meatballs and pasta as well as sticky date pudding. Was quite surprised at the offerings available. It was much better than Y food

There is a major subjective element of lounges when food tastes differ so much. Most people I think love pasta, meatballs, bacon and sticky-date pudding (not picking on hdfb at all). I totally dislike bacon (no religious angle) but love ham and a decent tom soup. Pasta and meatballs are low on my list of choices (which are the kind you wouldn't get in an Australian airline lounge). So, any two people will form a polarised opinion of the same menu. Hence I rarely rely on restaurant recommendations, unless it refers to ones to avoid.

At the SYD QC I have had pancakes just once, but I still like the fact that the lounge has the machine, which gives it one more tick in my book.

 

[whiteshark]

re pictures are not working. Thanks - they are fixed now

 

[whiteshark]

Your pictures haven't worked.

Comparing a domestic QP with the F lounge isn't really a fair comparison considering they are the flagship lounges of the network.

In context it's fair - the point being made is that they know how to provide an outstanding offer AND choose not to provide anywhere near that in the domestic lounges.

 

[mannej]

In context it's fair - the point being made is that they know how to provide an outstanding offer AND choose not to provide anywhere near that in the domestic lounges.

The level of difference is due to the F lounge being the flagship lounge and the QP being the basic lounge. A fairer comparison would be the QP and the international J lounge.

To be fair (and the tray is empty there), that looks more appetizing than the hot dogs on offer elsewhere...

 

[samh004]

The food depicted in photos above doesn't look too bad, I'd certainly give it a go if I was hungry. It's just the last bits in the dish, waiting for them to go before they can bring out the next serve, and to be trashing it because it doesn't look amazing is a bit silly.

 

[whiteshark]

The food depicted in photos above doesn't look too bad, I'd certainly give it a go if I was hungry. It's just the last bits in the dish, waiting for them to go before they can bring out the next serve, and to be trashing it because it doesn't look amazing is a bit silly.

Ok I'm a bit silly coz the presentation of this concoction did not meet my standard of dining - our standards differ. The slop as I first called it looked like a tub of slop when it was laid out in the servery and now looks the remains of slop to me. I don't cook food like that, nor do I order food like than anywhere I dine, and I wont eat it at the club either. My opinion is that the airline can and should do better than this.

 

[whiteshark]

The level of difference is due to the F lounge being the flagship lounge and the QP being the basic lounge. A fairer comparison would be the QP and the international J lounge.

To be fair (and the tray is empty there), that looks more appetizing than the hot dogs on offer elsewhere...

Fair call (excuse the pun) I also don't regard hot dogs as meeting the standard for dinner and would not excuse that either.

 

[amaroo]

Looks no different to the dregs that are left in any empty pot/bowl/plate......it's just a matter of timing. The hot pot in the SYD J lounge looked like that at 2.30pm yesterday.

 

[flychrisfly]

Getting the conversation back on topic... Sort of. I paid for Lifetime Qantas Club about 1 month before it was withdrawn for sale. When QP membership fees tripled (?) a few years ago it made my investment much better value

I travel mainly internationally and IMHO the international lounges offer much better value for money than the domestic lounges so I'm a happy camper.

 

[whiteshark]

Looks no different to the dregs that are left in any empty pot/bowl/plate......it's just a matter of timing. The hot pot in the SYD J lounge looked like that at 2.30pm yesterday.

I can recall a time years ago when I use to look forward to getting to the club and enjoying the meal, in those days my friends and colleagues would boast about the meals they had in the club - that's not happening now, instead we are talking about timing. This isn't a soup kitchen where you have to settle for less, its a paid for service that has notably deteriorated over time and continues to do so. The occurrence highlighted in other lounges just makes it worse its unacceptable from an organisation of this size to give its customers less than excellent service.

 

[Batesy]

I think that the best thing about QP access is when there are delays. I had a 7 hour delay at SIN on QF32 after the leg from LHR. Couches, toilets, showers food etc. It was much better than sitting by the gate. I was a paid QP member at the time.
I do see a devaluation coming in QP access for both paid and status pax coming though. Once QFlink move to T3 at SYD there will be no lounge for JQ pax to use. For me it means a change to VA for flights out of SYD from T2 as I have VA lounge access.