moa999

I think it got closed after storm damage.
Hopefully they are using the time to give it a decent refurb - taking a few walls out would help dramatically.

bhoyinoz

This was the first time we had flown QF to HNL so can't comment on what the old one was like,couldn't have been any worse than what HA are offering,surely.

serfty

I have been thinking Qantas believe the current lounge situation at LHR is costing them much more than having their own branded lounge might.

I have seen reference to significant costs applied for each passenger that uses a partner airlines lounge ($170 each time) - Qantas would pay BA for each QF PAX in First/Business (on QF) and/or each PAX using QF status, and any any guests.

2 388's a day totalling 156 F/J seats as well as any SG/WP flying economy/PE and their guests. Of course, there's those QP members accessing the AC to pay for as well.

thadocta

So, doing the maths here, that would be (assuming every flight is full in F and J) $26 520 per day (using dollars here, as that is what serfty originally quoted).

Add on to that the OWE and OWS flying in PE or WHY, as well as Qantas Pub members.

So it does amount to considerable dollars.

BUT, counter that with the revenue that QF gets from BA passengers using the SYD lounge before BA15, and surely there would be an off-set, so that expenditure at one lounge counters income from another?

This should really come down to alliance issues, shouldn't they all be consolidating, and just having one "oneworld" lounge, to which all OW carriers send their passengers to, would cut down a lot on costs.....

Dave

serfty

I have been and continue to postulate.

This postulation is that it is a local issue - doing this will change balances for the QF2/QF10 services ex LHR.

I wonder how much AA charges for the QP members using the A/C at T3?

Rami Tamimi

While your figure is correct,this is the charge for F lounge,BA J lounge costs less.

serfty

Still, my thinking is that Qantas believe they can reduce costs by having at T3 their own lounge.

Rami Tamimi

Almost all QF customers will still have access to BA/AA/CX lounges.Ofcourse Qantas will actively advise pax to use it's own lounge,but there is nothing they can do if someone wants to use the other lounges...unless ofcourse their lounge will significantly outweight others in terms of quality of F&B,ambiance,facilities e.t.c.

Also,AA/BA/CX each have a separate First class section,so I doubt that many Emeralds/F pax will use the QF lounge instead of the other 3...particularly the CX,as they will have a really great F lounge. It is simmilar to what happens at HKG.

Rembember what happened in BKK? QF lounge was by far the best OW lounge there,but then CX opened a lounge,that was way better than QF/JL. 5 monts later QF decided to close the lounge,presumably because everyone migrated to the superior CX lounge and QF started paying large fees to CX,while still incurring their own lounge operating costs.

So I would say it's more to do with branding,then with costs.

og

Except for the large number of QF customers with Qantas Club membership travelling in Y - the ones who do not have access to other alliance member lounges because of class of travel and/or status.

sxc

Are there really that many Qantas Club members? I've never seen it as good value.

Rami Tamimi

Even if there are many of them,they don't fly enough to get Sapphire (otherwise why would they pay for membership?),which means that there are not that many of them on a given flight. It's the same logic with the ill question whether CX GR creates long lines in priority boarding queue.

serfty

I am sure Branding has something to do with it - but the MD is a numbers man ans I reckon his bean counters have deemed more cost effective.

Of course, bean counters have been wrong before ...

Platy

Maybe not good value at publicly advertised price....but, cost to employees of certain companies and universities with corporate deals is a pittance maybe 75% cheaper!

Platy

Crazy logic! You only get 140 credits for a SYD-LHR return in discount economy ! You could make four trips per year and not reach Gold! And that assuming you don't stumble onto an EK flight number..if flying in business club membership is immaterial

You have no idea how many paid QC members are out there and need to factor that many pay very little for membership if employees of corporate deal organisations ....

thadocta

I fly discount WHY (10 SC's each way) SYD-MEL about thrice every two months, so about 420 SC's per year (allowing for variances). Nowhere near enough to qualify for SG, BUT often enough to value QC membership, particularly at the Corporate Rate that I get it for.

Comes in very useful with my semi-regular trip to Europe.

Why do you think that this is not a normal usage pattern?

Dave