Should Cathay Pacific be worried? A Qantas First Class lounge is coming to London Heathrow

Well, well, well, a Qantas First Class lounge is coming to London Heathrow. This is great news for frequent flyers travelling through Terminal 3, as the Australian airline is known to have excellent First Class lounges, such as the one in Sydney.

Are Cathay Pacific going to be quaking in their boots? Everyone with oneworld Emerald status knows the Hong Kong airline’s First Class lounge at Heathrow Terminal 3 is easily the best. Will the crown pass to the Aussies? Time will tell!

Qantas First Class Lounges and More

Qantas are expected to announce scandalous profits later this week, so they’ve pre-empted any criticism by throwing something at the customers. They’re planning to spend A$100 million (US$68,600,000 or £56,610,778 or €64,365,500) on new lounges and long overdue refurbishments across the network.

As you can see, Hobart gets a new Qantas Club, Broome gets a new Regional Lounge, Port Hedland gets a refurbishment and then there’s Adelaide. I visited the lounge there in 2020 and it is certainly in need of some attention, so good news there. The real fun though is international. The headline news is, of course, a First Class lounge in London, to complement the existing lounge. The other major news is the demise of the Hong Kong lounge seems to be premature. It is now coming back, and that’s great as I rather liked the design when I visited in 2015. Updating of the Sydney and Melbourne International Business Class lounges is long overdue as is a new lounge in Auckland, all three of which are perhaps the worst in the network right now.

Overall Thoughts

I do love how the oneworld alliance has Emerald tier, allowing access to exclusive lounges. Some of the lounges on the list are among the best in the world, and the new Qantas First Class lounge in London is sure to be up there. I mean, if it’s anything like Sydney it will be a destination of choice for frequent flyers.

All the details are in the Qantas press release, including some images of the forthcoming Auckland lounge design. I’ll miss the separate First Class lounge in Auckland, which is where I first tried Chia Pots. A memorable experience in a pleasantly designed space!

What do you think of the announcement by the Australian airline? Will you be visiting the new lounges? Which one is the best currently? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Lounge maps via Qantas.