SFO777

In between our New Years Eve flights from Hobart to Hamilton Island, we planned on visiting the T3 Qantas Club.



Unfortunately, at the top of the escalator, the Qantas Club dragon informed us that the Club was temporarily closed for maintenance. When I inquire whether "temporarily" meant 30 minutes or a few hours, she replied "a few weeks". LOL. I'm thinking that a sign would be a little cheaper. Just saying.



We were directed down a long narrow corridor to the Business Lounge.



Past something called the Private Lounge, where a snooty dragon informed me that the lounge was indeed private and/or for Chairman's Club members.



Unfortunately, the Qantas Business Lounge was one of the sorriest lounges I've seen in a long time. When you start to miss the Admirals Club or even a United Club, you know this is bad lounge. Tons of people. But very few power outlets. Yeah, who needs to recharge personal devices.











The most notable thing about walking around the lounge was how utterly and disgustingly flithy the place was. Maybe staff only cleans up once a week. This is only a sample at 9am, prompting me ask the dragon if there was another Qantas Club or First Class Lounge available to One World Emeralds for domestic flights. She seemed genuinely taken aback when I opined that "this lounge is disgusting".































And then there was the food offerings and the masses jockeying for position to scoop up the slop being offered.













Just love the perfect-size-for-a-horse carrots.



Add in uncomfortable QantasLink 717 J seats and I'm thinking I should have flown Virgin.

og

mikalee

The Sydney Domestic Business lounge is not the shining star of QF lounges in Australia. This is simply due to the fact it will be the last one built/refurbished over the cycle of improvements. That said apart from the messiness of the place which I am surprised about if the QF Club was a planned closure for R&M I consider it to be at worst on par to the American lounges you so desire.

It is a shame you did not get to experience the far superior PER, MEL or BNE equivalents.

Oh and the carrots aren't provisioned for you to nibble but to juice.

Enjoy Hamilton Island.

secondsoprano

Not sure if this was your intention, but you do come across a teeny bit entitled and whiny in this article.

sxc

The food in the photos actually looks better than my experience. However, the cleanliness is terrible. Regardless of the people, no excuse for it to be in that state.

og

3544quebec

That's more photos than I took on my last 3 month RTW trip!

SFO777

My, my. I see we have a few apologists out today.
Come on now. That lounge was filthy and embarrassing.

Point taken that the Club closure is going to exacerbate crowding in the Biz lounge. But QF should have prepared and anticipated the resulting carnage. Also agree that passengers can be slobs (as I noted in my post) but QF shares some responsibility for not adequately staffing or managing a lounge to keep it reasonably clean.

Hamilton Island was wonderful and we lucked out on the weather as well. Thanks mikalee. I'm hardly an AA fanboy, as I hate the new AA and the fact that USdbaAA management has trashed a historically good domestic product, but the current generation of Admirals Clubs are far cleaner and more civilized than what I witnessed in SYD. On this trip, we did experience the MEL domestic Qantas Club (meh), the BNE international Lounge (nice but small and crowded when they decide not to open the 2nd level... and far, far away from QF55 and Gate 86) and even Hobart (shocked that such a small station even has a lounge). As for the carrots, I didn't realize those were for juicing. Good thing I didn't try to eat one. BTW, we arrived back home today from BNE and thought of our SYD experience tonight at our nearby horse country grocery store.



And what's with the no alcohol before noon thing? Is that some local law or just QF trying to limit costs? I do like the "Thank you for your patience" humour though.



I just call it like I see it and yes, I probably do come across as entitled and whiny to some. Then again, my perspective is probably broader than most. But are we really suggesting that the condition of the SYD lounge is acceptable or excusable?

LOL. Good one.

og

Dave Noble

If the Qantas Club was closed, then may want to consider what you wish for ( unless were in business class / had OW Emerald status )

The business lounge is only for those travelling in Business class or have OW Emerald status- QF could have kept the crowd level down by sticking to the access policy and not allowing those in economy class with QC membership or OW Sapphire status

It sounds like it would have benefitted some passengers to have done that, but maybe a poorer lounge experience is better than no lounge access

m0hamed

I am amazed someone thinks it's appropriate to post photos of other unsuspecting pax without their consent, including children.

It's peak travel time and the QP was closed. This means those entitled to J lounge access are inconvenienced with overcrowding, however those with QP access benefit from an upgraded lounge experience.

Are you offended by carrots because they aren't baby sized from a tin can?

Dave Noble

If people choose to use spaces where other members of the public may congregate, then they have to accept that they may be photographed

vbroucek

I will agree with a previous poster - many of the photos posted by OP are in the breach of Australian privacy laws and I call on moderators to act! Also reported directly!

Strawb

I thought the Qantas Club in T3 was refurbished back in November already, why is it still closed? I'm flying out of SYD T3 at the end of this month and not looking forward to the lounge situation if it's still going to be closed. Any updates?

Austman

It's been noted before that the SYD domestic Qantas lounges have carpet cleaning issues. It's usually not that bad but it is holiday time with lots of family travel and the standard Qantas Club was closed with those pax directed to the Business lounge. So the Business lounge was not what you would usually see that that time of day on most work days. Still, they should have done better.

Domestic Qantas Clubs and Business lounges offer a complimentary bar from 12 noon until closing. Some years ago it was from 2 pm. The Qantas international lounges and domestic "private" lounges have a complimentary bar whenever the lounge is open.

And the carrots and other vegetables were for the juicing machine.

Then there is barista coffee. And while the food is often not stellar, I've always manged to find something acceptable. Soups, salads, breads, cakes are usually pretty good.