Air New Zealand Lounge, Sydney

Our transit in Sydney involved clearing security and then moving straight onwards to the lounge, all of which took about ten minutes.

As we walked into the lounge, the very first thing I noticed was the aroma permeating the whole place. Sure, it wasn’t even 8 am yet, but the entire lounge smelled like coffee. In a good way. It’s rare that a scent is so memorable and even rarer still that it’s both natural and enjoyable.

Clearly, we made a beeline for the bar, where the bartender was spending 100% of his time pulling espresso, and got a flat white and a long black after putting in our orders on the iPad and waiting a few minutes.




Back to the lounge: everything looked brand new or at least recently renovated, as the current iteration of this lounge opened in May of 2015. Lots of seating options with views around about half of the international terminal.









A full breakfast spread was on offer, though we had had so very much to eat on our previous flight that we skipped it.









Self-service drink options included sodas, espresso drinks, several wines, several (mostly New Zealand) beers, and flat and sparkling water.





We had two and a half hours on our layover, and given the coffee situation, this lounge was indeed a very pleasant place to spend it.

The review

Air New Zealand has some very nice lounges. There’s no personal service or restaurant-style dining like you might find in a first class lounge but for a business-class lounge, this one left nothing to be desired. At least at breakfast time.