Qantas Lounge at HKG: a Oneworld Best?

I recently needed to be in Singapore for work and decided to make a stopover in Phuket to see the sights.  Here are the other parts in the report:

American Airlines Business Class DFW-HKG
Qantas Lounge HKG
Amanpuri
Hyatt Regency Hotel & Resort Phuket

Hong Kong International Airport is a melting pot of airlines and alliances.  Hong Kong’s national airline, Cathay Pacific, rules the roost but almost every mainstream airline in the world goes to HKG.

It’s a fantastic airport.  Easy to navigate, lots of shopping and food options, and the architecture is wonderful.

Plus, if you have a long enough layover you can take the Airport Express train into town for some Tim Ho Wan!

With a variety of airlines and alliances comes a variety of lounges.  Oneworld, in particular, has a multitude of lounges for its constituent airlines (almost every single Oneworld airline flies to HKG).  Cathay Pacific has five lounges, Dragonair has one, there’s the Plaza Premium Lounge that contracts out to American and others, and then a newcomer arrived late last year: the Qantas Hong Kong Lounge.  It’s a fantastic lounge, in fact I’d put it up against most of Cathay Pacific’s if you’re not flying in First Class (or are a Oneworld Emerald).

Getting to the Qantas lounge

The lounge is located above Gate 15.  Right now there’s some construction around that area but hopefully it’s cleared up by the time you’re reading this.  If you’re transiting in the airport, head to the restaurant level near gates 15-19 and walk towards where immigration lets out into the terminal.  If you’re arriving at HKG and are clearing immigration, go to the North entry for immigration.  Either way, you’re looking for this sign.

You’ll proceed down a walkway, overlooking gate 15 (where BA flights to London frequently depart from).  You’ll pass through a door, be greeted by some nice lounge attendants, and then you’re in.

Quick reminder: you’re eligible for entry into this lounge if you’re traveling in Business or First Class on any Oneworld carrier.  Also, if you have status that equates with Oneworld Sapphire or Emerald (Platinum or Executive Platinum on American, for example), you can enter the lounge regardless of the class of service you’re flying that day.

The lounge

When you turn left and enter the actual lounge itself the first thing you will realize is that this lounge is massive.  It’s simply unbelievable how much seating there is.  I can’t imagine it ever being crowded, even if you emptied out a footy stadium into it.  Seating everywhere, in other words.  A lot of seats.

Anyway.

The lounge is one long row that opens up to the gate area below.  Most lounges at HKG are open air and so too is the Qantas lounge.  You first arrive at seating area 1.

I absolutely love the decorations and theme they used for the lounge.  On each wall you have the geometric design with harsh lines and angles.  If you notice the pattern on the seats, it follows the same diamond shape as the wall decor.  Really cool touches everywhere and it stays on theme really well.

Up next is the bar.

It’s well-stocked and well-staffed.  I was here pretty much right as the lounge closed and most of the remaining staff were at the bar making sure my glass was not empty.

Facing the bar is a seating area that looks like you’re in a spaceship.

This seating area would’ve otherwise been empty space, so why not put some couches there?  On the right side of that picture is the entryway to the toilets and the shower entryway is behind me and to my left from where I stood to take this picture.

The food

The Qantas Lounge boasts a decently-sized buffet.  Not as good as some of the Cathay options but it’s not bad either.  There are hot food options as well as a salad bar.

There’s (surprise) plenty of seating near the buffet.

Also, just in case you happen to have many knights with you and are in need of a round table, you’re in luck!

I parked myself at a seat and lounged for a bit with a glass of champagne.

The rest of the lounge seating areas

After I was done eating, I went around to grab some more pictures.  The pictures ended up being mainly of the rest of the seating areas.  Seriously, I know I’ve gone on probably too much about them, but there’s a hilarious amount of seating!

I was going to calculate just how many chairs were in there but that sounded dangerously similar to math so I’ll just approximate the number to be around 7.8 million seats.

Wrapping up

I think the Qantas Lounge is an amazing addition to HKG.  If you fly Oneworld you have your choice of many fine lounges, and this one is definitely worth a stop if your gate is close.