I know most of us know this already, but I am thinking whether we should have a thread on all the F Class lounges available worldwide and any specific tricks etc.. we need to be aware of and which ones we need to avoid. On top of my mind:


Asia - Pac

HKG:
CX - Wing and Pier (F Class section)
QF/BA - The Hong Kong Lounge (F Class Section)
JL -?

SYD:
QF F Class Lounge

SIN:
QF/BA F Class Lounge

BKK:
QF/BA F Class Lounge
CX F Class Lounge

NRT:
JL F Class Lounge
CX F Class Lounge

North America

LAX
AA - Flagship Lounge
BA/CX/QF/JL - TBIT Oneworld Lounge (F Class section)


ORD
AA - Flagship Lounge
BA - F Class Lounge

JFK
AA - Flagship Lounge
BA/CX/QF - BA F Class lounge (Concorde Room = NOT Oneworld access)

MIA
AA - Flagship Lounge

SFO
BA - F Class Lounge

YVR
CX F Class Louinge


Europe

LHR
BA F Class lounge (Concord Room = Not Oneworld Access)
AA - Flagship Lounge
CX - F Class Lounge
JL - F Class Lounge

I'd add

MEL:
QF F class lounge

Avoid - any of the AA flagship lounges if you have a choice of any other OW F Lounge

I would dispute this to some extent; IMHO, If travelling ex LAX to OZ, the T4 F/L is slightly better then the TBIT F lounge.

What is the point of this thread? Unless you are planning RTW trips based upon the location of lounges, you have little choice in which lounge to use. At most airports security limits you to one terminal at the airport, so you cannot lounge hop between terminals. And there are only 5 lounges in the world that are noteworthy (in OW, and 5 outside of OW). The worst hotel tends to be better than the best lounge (at least when I travel). The biggest mistake you can make is selecting routing based on lounge availability -- you are bound to be disappointed. I confess to having picked BA at times solely based on lounges at LHR, and it was a bad choice.

I rarely depart LAX "cold" - I generally plan my itinerary to route into LAX on AA the day of my travel back to Oz so as to access T4 rather than TBIT. Until November 2007 this was always a good idea (especially if headed to MEL).

Now I endeavor to route from MEL or SYD internationally rather than BNE, PER or even ADL, simply due to the availability of the F lounges there.

I will always try to route my travel to/from Europe via HGK rather than SIN or BKK for example, simply due to the nice CX lounges there.

YMMV

Fair call - I've not tried the F lounge at TBIT recently but I thought I had read that they had improved it recently and is now a joint QF/BA/CX lounge and that it was reasonably good - am I misguided here? I would agree that of all the flagship lounges T4 at LAX is the best.

Could you please list those 5 noteworthy OW lounges? And if you can also the ones outside of OW. I have no knowledge about lounge quality, and I believe I should learn about that before my DONEx/AONEx

F lounges (no status access): BA LHR T5, BA JFK T7.
F lounges (status access): CX HKG Wing/Pier, QF SYD, QF MEL (SYD is better).
Big step down (not really worth a special trip): JL NRT, BA/QF SIN, BA/QF HKG, AA/QF LAX, AA MIA
Big disappointments: BA DXB, BA JNB, BA CPT, BA SFO

Non-OW: LH FRA, LH MUC, SQ SIN, VS LHR, MH KUL
Big step down: EK DXB, LX ZRH

Not an exhaustive list, but the OW list is pretty indicative. OW does have pretty good J lounges, though (and much better lounges overall compared to Star and Skyteam; however this is changing in the past year).
My point is that even the very best lounge is somewhat mediocre as a destination. At best it is a convenience and a refuge from the chaos at the airport. IB MAD illustrates this nicely (spacious and gorgeous architecture but not special). CX really had the right idea when designing their HKG lounges.

It is almost as good as the T4 lounge in terms of hard/soft product -- but no better. And much more crowded (maybe 3x the density, to the point of being uncomfortable). Often it overflows and pax are diverted to the overflow (non-OW) lounge, which is not at nice. Given the money spent and the blank slate, it is a big disappointment, while also a great improvement over the prior TBIT lounges.

Well, that's just the point. At LHR T3, for example, you have a pretty wide (but not necessarily all good) choice.

Kiwi Flyer, why not start an "OW Lounge" thread, then sub-threads for each airport where people can comment on the available lounges. Yes, could, indeed, result in a lot of threads, but, on second thought, I bet there aren't really that many airports which would produce lounge discussion threads.

Couldn't agree more. It's a great effort, but just not enough space. The A380's are just going to make it much, much worse.

BA has a new lounge at JNB and it is quite good, although not in my top 5 list.

number_6 sometimes lounges do come into play. For example flying from PER to AKL on QF I have a choice of transitting at MEL, SYD or BNE. While schedule, a/c type, ease (or lack of ease) of changing terminals are factors, so too is the vast difference in lounge quality (BNE much much worse than MEL and SYD). Similarly between UK and Australia the choice of transitting via SIN, BKK, HKG, NRT, LAX and SFO can be influenced by lounges, although I personally have more important considerations (like avoiding the horrid US transits where possible).

At JFK, if you are connecting to/from flights in terminals 7 and 8 I would highly recommend the AA FL lounge in T8 over the very hot and overcrowded BA F lounge in T7.

Actually, the AA lounge is in T8 and the BA lounge is in T7 ... other than that:

+1 ^

Well duh, my bad. By the time you read this the previous post should be corrected.