Review: Qantas lounge Hong Kong airport

The flagship lounges in Hong Kong airport are obviously the various Cathay Pacific offerings, so when my BA flight directed me to the Qantas Business Class lounge, I was somewhat curious as to what I’d find.

I was, however, instantly impressed. The lounge is spacious, modern and extremely well-stocked with quality food and drink.

With the exception of a spa area (which can often be limited in their appeal, and slightly gimmicky), the Qantas lounge provided everything I could reasonably look for in a business lounge, and did it very well. 

The lounge

 

The lounge is just round the corner from security, meaning you avoid having to battle your way through an enormous airport (and in my case steer the wife briskly past the duty free cosmetics) to find it.

It is a genuinely stylish lounge. Qantas say it was designed to “reflect the colour, vibrancy and luxury of Hong Kong”, and while you should always take such marketing speak with a pinch of salt, it really does feel like a concerted effort was made to create a unique and pleasantly modern space.

At 2,000 square metres and with seating for 300 customers, the lounge is well-sized without being dauntingly enormous. It is on the mezzanine floor above departures, and at the edges forms nothing more than a balcony over the airport: there are no actual walls on one side, just waist high glass barriers. I thought this was a nice touch, as it keeps the place light, with interesting views out to the runway apron and the busy airport below. A great place for people watching.

Unsurprisingly, it’s a well-suited lounge for genuine business travellers. There are power points and USB sockets in multiple locations, and the wifi was properly high speed. While there are no desktop PCs provided, you can also find various areas specifically geared to the working traveller armed with a laptop:

While the more laid-back seating areas are also perfectly suitable for work:

Those looking simply to relax (or eat and drink) are also well catered for, with an array of comfortable seating areas and a wide range of magazines:

The food and drink

The food and drink at the Qantas lounge has been “inspired” by celebrity chef Neil Perry. Signature cocktails from Perry’s Spice Temple restaurant are served at the impressive-looking bar:

While at the time of our arrival, there was a good spread of hot and cold buffet food options, all of which were excellent:

And some impressive desserts, which a helpful staff member talked us through in detail (I went for the caramel cheesecake):

As you would expect from anything supplied by Australians, you will also not have problems sourcing a drink. As well as the bar and its cocktails, there is a great selection of international wines in the buffet area, and various well-stocked fridges:

The bathrooms

There are 12 beautifully clean and well-supplied mini-bathrooms in the Qantas lounge. This is a relatively large number for what is a modest-sized lounge, and there was no issue whatsoever with availability when I went for a shower.

The bathrooms offered good quality, plump towels, and a wide range of Aurora Spa products. I needed a toothbrush and shaver, and kits were supplied without hesitation.

Overall thoughts

In short, the Qantas lounge Hong Kong airport is excellent. We were perhaps lucky to be there when it was reasonably quiet, but the lounge area as a whole, the catering and the bathrooms were all of the very finest quality. Notably, the staff also made a real effort to cater to you, bringing us fresh orange juice and a beautifully made coffee. This is something sadly lacking in many of the larger scale lounges.

The Qantas lounge is exactly the sort of lounge you need before a long-haul flight: accessible, relaxing and ideally-equipped.

Finally, for the celebrity spotters among you, the lounge and its benefits became totally irrelevant to my wife when she saw Kate Moss in it.