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Many of our members spend considerable time in airports, as a result what’s on offer in the lounge is often a popular talking point. While we may not plan to spend to spend mealtime there, delays or cancellations can often mean lounge food can become important. As both major Australians airlines struggle to turn a profit, it seems the cost cutting has extended to the food being provided in the lounge. That’s leaving our members asking the question, what exactly is a meal?
The “meals” available in the Virgin lounges are very simple. The “meals” available in the Vanilla Qantas lounges are a step up from Virgin lounges and in some ports there is another step up available.
Both Virgin and Qantas like to spruik their celebrity chef inspired food on the ground and in the air, the food in the domestic lounge is a long way away from restaurant fare. Often there is a choice of one hot dish, a soup and salads. If you’re lucky you might even find enough ingredients to make a toasted sandwich. That’s good enough for some of our members.
Currently enjoying a meal in the CBR VA lounge, veg fried rice topped by the creamy thai chicken soup, and it is DELICIOUS. Best food I’ve had in a VA lounge to date. I rarely count on either lounge for a proper meal, normally treating it as a snack only, but tonight I had seconds so I won’t be having dinner at my destination. PS lucky too as I only ate because the flight was delayed, it should have been boarding when I arrived at the terminal.
The lounges have moved on from the days when you might expect a Neil Perry inspired party pie or a slice of “gourmet” pizza in the Qantas lounge every visit. After all, variety is said to be the spice of lie. For Virgin, the infamous hot dog has gone from being a staple to making a rare appearance. Instead the regular traveller can expect an offering that changes day by day, week by week. And surely that’s not a bad thing?
You can’t please everyone, no matter what you do. Make some changes, soon people will get used to them and demand more. Compared to other domestic lounges overseas I think we are very lucky here in Australia in terms of quality and variety.
With overseas lounges offering minimal food choices by comparison, maybe we have become spoilt for choice. But that does not mean we should aim for second best. Do you think it is possible to get a meal in our domestic lounges, and could there be improvements to what’s on offer? What would you like to see in the domestic lounges in future, have your say HERE.
