genovese

Saw that the BA/Qantas lounge in Hong Kong is closed for refurb - but passengers can use the new Qantas lounge.

Does that mean that the shared lounge will reopen as BA only ? More importantly, for me, will a gold card get me into the Qantas lounge (assuming that the BA lounge has not reopened by March) when flying on a non one world flight ?

stevie

You can definitley use the QF lounge when floying Non OW. They let me in flying China Southern recently.

DavidJBell

I'm a bit confused. It was closed some time ago, but has recently reopened. I used the F lounge in early Jan. The F lounge is now what used to be the old F and J lounges combined. I believe the J lounge is downstairs.

I also believe it's still a joint QF/BA lounge complex.

potfish

I believe (but may be wrong) that both F and J lounges are only QF not BA now.

I tried asking the ladies on reception to check for better seats on my recent BA flight and they said they'd have to phone the BA staff at the gate, as they had no access to BA's systems there.

nth_utsera_sth_utsera

It is indeed only a QF-op lounge now.

LHR-HUB

So as a hypothetical question, if one was flying BA CW without status, which lounge would be offered?
QF, CX or are there plans for a BA lounge?

Mutu

According to the QF email announciing the new lounges they are open to QF and BA, and OW status pax, as before

Tom Otley

Funnily enough, I've just come back from there and reviewed it as part of a flight check. Here is the relevant section, hope it's some help

The Lounge: there have been changes here, as reported on Businesstraveller.com

http://www.businesstraveller.com/new...e-at-hong-kong

Where before you turned right and walked through the business class lounge to reach the first class lounge, now the business class lounge has been moved, and the old business and first has been turned into one large lounge, for first passengers. I have a gold card, a gift from a frequent travelling friend who “had the gift of silver” which, since I already was silver, I moved up to gold. (You can only imagine how many times he reminds me of this favour.) As such, despite flying business (ClubWorld), I went to the First lounge. Both of the lounges are best accessed through the north security gate. The sign now says ‘Qantas’ and does not mention BA, which is strange, but these are the lounges to head for. To recap, for First (or Gold Card tier level in Oneworld) you stay on this level and walk along the corridor, for business you go down the escalators, so if you are flying business, skip the next paragraph.

The first lounge has now doubled in size, but other than that, it hasn’t really changed, though it has had a “soft” refurbishment with a new carpet and some new lounging chairs. Perhaps the Apple computers in the business sitting area are new as well. I stayed and worked here using the airport wifi (free, but so slow that instant messaging was more effective than email). The champagne is Veuve Cliquot, which also passes the time waiting for a web page to load. The food offering runs from cookies to dim sum and noodles (you order these).

Flights are called from this lounge, but I wanted to see the business class lounge and so half an hour before departure I went down to the business class lounge which is reached by walking down to Gates 15-17 and then going down a further level using an escalator. This new lounge for Qantas and BA has a low ceiling, no natural light and the same carpets as the First lounge upstairs, but it is much more modern with spot lighting making it seem almost bar-like and a bar area with stools making more effective use of the space. On a quick survey, there also seemed to be a better food selection as well, though that might have been just because of better presentation.

On the way out I told the reception staff that I thought the lounge was better than the First one upstairs. She said that was because it was new, and the First lounge was going to be renovated towards the end of the year (ie: 2010). Until then it’s a toss up which is best: First which is empty, noisy from being open plan with the concourse below and slightly dated, or business which can get crowded, is slightly claustrophobic but is modern and more intelligent in its use of space.

nth_utsera_sth_utsera

Good to see you posting here, Tom. Useful info too.

For anyone with either status or a premium BP (which CX will honour) I can't see any reason why anyone would want to use anything but CX's The Wing @ HKG, even though its heyday has long since passed.

Captain Schmidt

That's interesting - is that a change of policy? A couple of years back I tried using what was then the joint BA/QF lounge at what was then BKK (now DMK) while flying TG from HKG-LHR and was told I wasn't allowed in on an open-doors access basis because it was a QF-run lounge.

lorkers

I think it's a question of whoever is on the door: when I was a gold last year (sniff... I remember it well...) on a BD award I had no problems making it into the HKG lounge using open doors - but only into the Biz section. I also made it into the BKK biz lounge using open doors... and the woman on the door ushered me over the other side into the F side, adding that "open doors should really be in C, but F is empty..."

As always with the open door, you mileage really will vary.

Captain Schmidt

Last year in HKG should have been no issue as that was most definitely a BA lounge and on the odd occasion I've been flying out of HK on a non-OW airline in the last few years I've taken advantage of the open-doors policy with no problems - same at SIN, but it was my understanding that this is because they were BA run whereas it was made clear to me that the lounge at the old BKK was QF run and therefore the open-doors policy didn't count.