Hong Kong airport is well-known, at least among oneworld frequent flyers, for its excellent Cathay Pacific lounges. Especially so for The Pier and The Wing first class lounges. However, there is also another oneworld airline – Qantas – that operates an excellent lounge at the airport.
Having really enjoyed my visit to The Qantas London Lounge at Heathrow airport last year, I was excited to visit its Hong Kong counterpart before my Cathay Pacific flight back to Tokyo a couple of weeks ago.
Continue reading this review to see what The Qantas Hong Kong Lounge was like.
Location, Opening Hours & Access
The lounge is on the same floor as the airport’s security check and immigration is. In fact, it’s located on the right side of the terminal, just past security. If you are transferring at the airport, you will want to get to the area around gate 5 above which the lounge can be found.
The Qantas Hong Kong Lounge is open daily from 7:30AM until midnight.
To get in, you will need to be flying in business or first class with Qantas or one of its oneworld partners. The lounge can also be accessed by oneworld Emerald and Sapphire as well as Qantas Club members.
Finally, Emirates’ elite status holders and premium class passengers can enter the lounge as well.
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Lounge Tour
Past the lounge’s lobby – where a friendly lounge attendant checked my boarding pass – there was a seating area with pairs of sofa chairs with coffee tables as well as some benches.
Right from the start, I liked the fact that rather than being dull, the chairs came in a couple of different colors. That proven to be the case throughout the lounge – just like with The Qantas London Lounge, I really liked the design of this lounge as well.
Next, there was the feature of the lounge that stood out the most – a staffed bar. There were some bar chairs along the counter, as well as tables with pairs of chairs behind the bar structure itself and further down the lounge.
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Across from the bar, on the right side of the lounge, there was a separate room with benches along its three sides and some more sofa chairs.
Going further down the main part of the lounge, there were another area with sofa chairs and the dining area. The dining area – besides a buffet that I’ll write more about below – consisted of some more tables for two, as well as a couple of communal tables seating dozen or so people.
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When I got into the lounge, the above was all that was accessible. Later on, however, the rear part of the lounge was opened as well – and it was more extensive than I thought it would be.
First, there was another seating area with sofas, benches, and counters.
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There was also a customer service counter. That said, when I checked it out, it was not staffed.
Further back, there was an area with drinks and snacks. In terms of seating, there were more sofa chairs and benches, as well as another communal table.
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Finally, at the very back of the lounge, there was a kids’ area with a TV screening cartoons and some benches along the wall.
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Food and Drinks
There were three places in the lounge where one could get something to drink or eat – the bar, the buffet, and the snack area.
At the bar, a selection of soft and alcoholic drinks was available. For those of you that drink wine, while there was sparkling wine, I don’t think there was Champagne.
Besides that, one could also order a bowl of “pork and prawn wonton egg noodle soup” there. Or anywhere else in the lounge from one of the many lounge attendants I believe.
Drinks available in the self-service areas – other than the same wines as pictured above – included some more wines, as well as canned soda. There were also juices, water, coffee, and a selection of Dilmah tea.
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Lighter items to eat included some snacks like rice crackers, nuts, and potato chips, as well as cut fruits and a large selection of salads.
There were also bread rolls.
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Of course, there was a decent selection of warm food as well. That included some spring rolls and fried fish cakes, as well as dishes such as chicken teriyaki and curry rice. In fact, a large part of the buffet was Japanese since Japan Airlines invites its passengers departing Hong Kong to use the lounge.
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Finally, there were some pastries, as well as a variety of desserts including cheese cake, chocolate tart, and mango pudding.
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I tried quite a few different items from the buffet, and they were all tasty – especially the spring rolls and teriyaki chicken. It goes without saying that the desserts were excellent. And, I was really impressed by the (minor) fact that there were tea pots rather than just cups.
The Qantas Hong Kong Lounge Summary
As mentioned in the introduction, I visited The Qantas London Lounge last year, and I was impressed. While the Hong Kong one does not offer a la carte dining, I still found the buffet to be of very high quality – and the selection to be well above average.
Separately from that, I also liked the design of the lounge, and was impressed by its size.
If I had to mention one downside of The Qantas Hong Kong Lounge, it would have to be the lack of any office-like workspace. Especially considering how large the lounge is, it would have been nice if the designers managed to fit it in. Then again, the numerous counters with easily accessible power outlets are a decent alternative to that.
Overall, if I had to choose between the Cathay Pacific business class lounges and this lounge, I would probably pick this one.
