Qantas First Class Lounge – Hong Kong

When we were checking in at the Qantas First Class desk at the Hong Kong airport the gentlemen behind the counter gave us directions to the lounge. Except he didn’t. He gave us directions to the Business Lounge, not the First Class lounge.

You would think that he would know that if we were checking in at that particular counter, that we were either flying First Class, or are Platinum frequent flyers (or both), and therefore would have access to the First Lounge.

We found Hong Kong airport to be a bit of a maze, but we followed the given directions and finally found the lounge, except it wasn’t the one we wanted. The lady at the front desk said the First Lounge was directly above the Business Lounge but there are no stairs, escalators or elevators. We had to go back around through the shops and upstairs and try again.

So, if you want to find the Qantas First Lounge this is what you do: After you check in at the Qantas counters, go through security and customs right next to the counters, as soon as you are through, make a sharp right and following the walkway until you reach the lounge, you can’t miss it as you can’t go any further, the walkway stops with the lounge.

Our boarding passes were checked and stamped with a re-entry badge. This is handy if you want to go for a look around and come back in again.

The lounge is open and looks out to the floor below where the gates are and out onto the tarmac.

It is set for renovation at the end of this year, so make the assumption it won’t look like these photos for much longer. It is presumed the design and furniture will be the same as the Melbourne and Sydney First lounges.

There is no table service for food, it is all help yourself from the two different sections though, there are 2-3 hot dishes that can be ordered from the staff.

There is a decent selection of spirits and non-alcoholic beverages and the mandatory champagne.

J tried two little canape things and said they tasted stale, which is a bit of a worry as the lounge had only been open half an hour.

We both had a glass of Veuve and then left our larger carry-on bags in the storage area and headed over to the Cathay Pacific lounge.

We came back later on to shower, have another glass or two of champagne and I had some cheese and biscuits.

Hopefully the showers will be included in the renovation as there were broken bits in the one I used and also in the one J used.

When we were in the lounge it wasn’t busy, so there was plenty of room to spread out.

This lounge was refreshed in 2009, and I didn’t find the décor bad at all. It will be nice when they renovate but I hope they do something about the food, as the Sydney and Melbourne lounges offer a far superior eating experience, as does Cathay Pacific, and if you can get into the Qantas First Lounge you should be able to get into the Cathay Lounges like we did, and this would definitely be my preference until the renovation is complete.