Hong Kong International Airport is a stronghold and a heaven for oneworld elite members. With Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon being home-base carriers and operating such a strong network of lounges in their home ports, one would naturally be very curious as to how another oneworld lounge may compare.
Entrance to Qantas Hong Kong lounge, right above gate 15
That’s why, this time round I decided to try the Qantas Lounge rather than head to Cathay’s The Wing, given that oneworld elite members can also gain entry to the Qantas lounge.
The Qantas Hong Kong lounge is located to the immediate right hand side right after immigration and security checks, and easily missed if you don’t know where is it. Overseeing gates 15 & 16, the lounge features a high ceiling and plenty of natural light during the day and an abundance of space.
Feature wall adjacent to the entrance
The present lounge opened in 2014, featuring an international concept that catered to both first and business class passengers. The design is contemporary and influenced by the airport itself, featuring a lot of triangles similar to what you get from the airport’s ceilings.
Opened from 11.30am to midnight daily, the lounge changes its offerings throughout the day to cater to the different profiles of its key customers. Early in the day, the lounge serves mainly JAL business class passengers, while the evening and night crowd serves the redeye Qantas and British Airways customers.
One of the many sections in the lounge
I got in at about 5pm in the evening to check out its offerings and also to get some work done before my overnight Qantas flight to Sydney. I was immediately impressed with the amount of space and natural light, although the evening sun was starting to come in.
The lounge is longish and features several zones. When you first enter, the bar greets you with the lounge’s signature roast proudly displayed behind it. The next zone features the restaurant style dining area, where you will get table service during the evening peak.
Dining area
Further in there’s the self service buffet bar, as well as coffee tables and armchairs where guests who don’t want to dine can lounge at. Right at the other end from the entrance is another self-service drinks bar, stocked with sodas, an espresso machine and wines.
The food was amazing. Let me just give you a list of what they offer in the evening:
Made-to-order
Barbecue pork & roast pork rice
Beef brisket noodles
Barbecue pork buns
Stir fried prawns with rice
Small bites served in trolleys
Dumplings in soup
Siew mai
Tempura prawns
Deep fried beancurd with salt and pepper
How’s that for a lounge offering?
Char siew rice
Pan fried prawns with rice
Beef brisket noodles
On top of that, there’s the full buffet bar with 5-6 different salads, cheese, and 3 hot dishes, similar to what was available in the Singapore Qantas lounge.
There’s also a full bar, serving up all kinds of cocktails. In the early evening, there will be a trolley full of cocktails meeting customers right at the entrance, so guests can just grab one on their way in.
The signature drink, Chi Chi, features a dark rum, complete with pineapple juice, lime juice, vanilla syrup and topped with a kaffir lime leave.
Chi Chi, Qantas Hong Kong signature drink
Overall, you can see that Qantas has definitely up the ante with its offering in Hong Kong. Competing directly with Cathay’s suite of lounges given that both carriers are in oneworld, the Qantas Hong Kong lounge is definitely a worthy alternative for those who wish to avoid the crazy crowds at Cathay’s lounges.
Also, with that crazy amount of food – especially made-to-order food – on offer, they have enough to create a complete restaurant menu, so I’ll definitely be back again for another dinner some time.
From now till 23 April 18, Emirates is running a sale to Australia and Europe (and Dubai actually, if you intend to go there). Sale fares include both economy and business class fares, starting from S$429:
Destinations
Economy return (S$)
Business return (S$)
Perth
429
2,039
Melbourne, Brisbane
559
–
London (Gatwick/Stansted)
899
–
Wellington
899
5,679
Johannesburg
1,169
5,179
New York (JFK)
1,429
6,499
Know your operating airline
For Australia-bound customers, Emirates only operate two flights daily using their own aircraft – one to Melbourne, and one to Brisbane. For all other Australia destinations, you will be travelling with Qantas and that includes Perth, Sydney, Adelaide. Even for Wellington, your Australia-Wellington leg will be carried by Qantas.
If you check both their websites, you will see that for the same flights, you will be paying the same regardless of who you book through. This is due to a partnership between Emirates and Qantas signed five years ago that allows both airlines to better leverage each other’s networks in different parts of the world, as well as coordinate pricing in certain markets.
Are you a oneworld/Qantas Frequent Flyer?
So what does that mean for you? If you have a Qantas Frequent Flyer account, you might be better off booking through Qantas.com and earning some points and status credits on it. Since Qantas is part of oneworld, this also means that you get much better use of those points if you want to redeem flights within Asia.
Personally, what I love about the QF-EK partnership is really about being able to earn QF points on Emirates flights. While Emirates run a pretty solid programme, their refusal to join any major alliances, couple with their Dubai hub, means that the points you have with them are pretty much useless for intra-Asia flights redemption since they don’t do any of that.
WIth Qantas Frequent Flyer, not only you can redeem on oneworld partners, you can use them for Jetstar Asia flights too (but yeah I know, waste of points).
To earn Qantas points, you have to make sure you book on a QF code (e.g. QF8404 from SIN-MEL rather than EK404) and that’s easily done on Qantas.com.
In the meantime, there are many other fares available in the Emirates sale, so just check it out here.
Five years after moving out the transit point of its flagship Sydney-London route to Dubai, Qantas is now moving the layover stop back to Singapore from next year.
Along with the shift of the stopover point, Qantas will also increase services to Melbourne to twice daily, including a daily A380 service.
Qantas and Singapore shares a historic link, given that the Australian carrier operated its first international service to Singapore way back in 1935, becoming one of the oldest airlines to operate into Singapore.
In 2012, Qantas and Emirates became strategic partners, which saw Qantas moving its transit point for Australia-London flights to Dubai. This is so that Qantas customers travelling from Australia could benefit from connecting to Emirates’ network of over 30 destinations in Europe in Dubai. With the move to Dubai, Qantas also suspended flights to Frankfurt via Singapore in 2013, and focused on only point-to-point destinations between Australia and Asia.
In its announcement of the return, Qantas also announced the extension of the partnership with Emirates, which means that Qantas and Emirates customers can still enjoy the benefits of both airlines’ extensive networks in the Southwest Pacific and Europe, Middle East and Africa respectively.
Qantas’ return to Singapore is also a win for customers in Southeast Asia, who can now also choose from First and Premium Economy classes when travelling to Sydney, Melbourne or London on the A380.
In an announcement last month, Qantas also unveiled a refurbishment programme for its A380 fleet, which will be completed by 2019.
Qantas Airways / 28 Apr 17 / A330-200 / QF81 SYD-SIN / Business Class / 5A
Credit: Qantas Airways
I returned from a work trip in Sydney on a Friday morning, catching the first of two daily Qantas flights back to Singapore. QF81 departs at 10.25am arriving into Singapore slightly before 4pm, while the later flight QF5 leaves Sydney at 3.15pm for a close to midnight arrival into Changi.
Out of Singapore, Qantas also serves Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth.
Qantas’ international flights departs from Sydney International Terminal (Terminal 1). Qantas check-ins are at Rows C & D, on the left wing of the airport once you enter.
Check-in was relatively quick but do note that if you are taking economy class, the queues in the morning can stretch really long (we are talking about a half hour wait or longer) so be sure to arrive early at the airport with ample time before your flight.
Immigration and customs on the other hand was a breeze. Ever since Australia granted citizens of several countries (Singapore included) the use of the automated gates, the immigration lines have shortened significantly. I took less than 10 minutes to breeze through immigration and security screening.
I arrived at the gate 20 minutes before the scheduled push back time and there was barely any queue. Right after I was welcomed and shown to my seat, the friendly crew, Lily, came by very quickly to offer a drink. It was too early for a champagne, so I opted for water.
We pushed back on time at 10.25am, but took more than half hour to hit the runway as it was a busy time at Sydney Airport. The airport has a night curfew between 11pm to 5am, which means that morning and night times were often the busiest time in the terminals and on the runways.
The aircraft
Qantas flies mix of A330-300s and -200s between Singapore and the east coast of Australia. Regardless of which version, all A330s boast a two-cabin product. On today’s flight, we have 28 business class seats and 243 economy seats, with the latest Business Suites.
Qantas’ business class layout in the A330-300 and -200
There is a slight difference between the 300s and the 200s. In the A330-300, all 28 business class seats are in the forward cabin, separated from Economy by a galley. Whereas in the -200 variant (which I am on), six of the premium seats are located in the second section of cabin.
The seat
I am seated at seat 5A today, in the first section of the cabin (between the two aircraft doors). If you select your seats online, do remember that rows 7 & 8 are located in the second section of the aircraft, just in front of the economy cabin which may be a little tight for some people’s liking once the curtains are drawn.
Seat 6E across the aisle
Qantas has refreshed its business product across its entire A330 fleet in 2014 (except two aircraft VH-EBG & EBL), introducing the Business Suite. The Business Suite has a seat width of 21.5-23 inch (58cm) and a pitch of 78 inch (198cm). It not only has a flat bed, but it also offers a gate-to-gate recline mode, the first in the world. On the A330-200 today, all but three seats are occupied.
The Business Suite is in a staggered formation, where each seat’s feet well extends into the seat in front. This means that some of the seats are separated from the window by the side table. I personally prefer to have the side table next to the aisle, making the seat feel more private.
It is the only airline that provides a direct aisle access for every Business class passenger, forming a 1-2-1 configuration in the front cabin for all its flights from Singapore to Australia’s east coast. Its key competitor on this route, Singapore Airlines, operates different aircraft across the day, with most of it being the regional configuration of 2-2-2 across unless you are on the A380 or the B777-300.
The service
Champagne and nuts
Shortly after take-off, the cabin crew went around with a beverage service again, and I was ready for a champagne. The cabin service manager (in SQ’s term, in-flight manager) Rebecca then came by to every business class passenger to offer immigration forms and ask about their connecting flights.
Less than one hour after take off, lunch was served. Qantas Business class dining is done Aussie style, with a choice of a small and big plate. On today’s menu, we have:
The service begins with the crew coming by with their trolley, laying out the tablecloth before they set the bread plate, side salad, drink, water and finally your choice of small plate. The cutlery, plates and glasses were Marc Newson, made specially for Qantas.
Prawn, celeriac remoulade with frisee salad and sourdough crostini
My choice of small plate for the day was the prawn salad. It didn’t look quite as I expected, and a little too heavy on taste. A choice of sourdough bread or quinoa bread was offered, and I took the latter. The butter was a dollop of hand churned Australian butter. While it was hard to spread, but it definitely went very well with the bread.
Despite having a champagne, Rebecca offered another drink so I took a Chardonnay. Qantas offers two choices of red and two choices of white wines in both business and economy, the key difference being you are served a glass of your choice in Business, while passengers are given a small single serve bottle in Economy.
Beef goulash with grilled zucchini, orzo and creme fraiche
Once you are done with your small plate, it will be cleared before the main course is hand-delivered from the galley to your seat. I had the beef goulash on orzo (some kind of rice) with grilled zucchini, which fared much better. My experience with beef of any kind on board usually disappoints as they end up mostly too hard or overcooked. Surprisingly, the beef was still tender and the zucchini was warm and crunchy despite being drenched in sauce!
Dessert trolley
After the main plate, all the plates were cleared before the crew wheeled out a two-tier trolley with all the desserts plated and laid out. I had the famous Pat and Stick’s ice cream sandwich, which I wished was opened and served on a plate more fitting for a premium cabin so that I don’t have to struggle with the packaging.
Irresistible ice cream sandwich
When lunch was done, the cabin lights were dimmed and all the windows were shut, so I set my seat to the bed mode and took a nap, which was easy given the amount of food served up during lunch.
While it’s an all-flat bed, I felt that the foot well can be rather tight and as a side sleeper I keep kicking on the sides. That was easily fixed by moving up the bed a little, but I can imagine it will be a problem for taller folks.
Later in the flight, I got up and asked for a cup of coffee and Rebecca came with not only a coffee, but a fruit bar. That’s what I call initiative. Another crew went around the seats with a basket of snacks such as Red Rock Deli chips, Koko Black chocolates and whole fruits.
The entertainment
Over 100 movies, 500 TV programmes to choose from, but limited Asian selection
I fiddled with the in-flight entertainment system for a bit. Having flown Qantas several times before, I know the selection of movies skew very much to Western and Australian offerings and very limited on Asian offerings. I love my Chinese movies, and I counted a grand total of 11 Chinese movies and nine Japanese ones. Another of my pet peeve was the fact that the earphones are not noise cancelling, so you could still hear a little of the cabin noise when you have them on.
About an hour and a half before landing, the cabin crew came around with the refreshment service. Unlike Singapore Airlines, Qantas serves up a refreshment in place of the second meal. The snacks were all plated and displayed on a trolley, which the crew pulled through the cabin and offered to the passengers.
Options for today were chicken wings and the vegetarian cheese balls with aioli. When it was my turn, they ran out of chicken wings temporarily (they were still being heated up in the galley) so I couldn’t see how it looked like. Thinking that it will be rather challenging to eat chicken wings mid air, I opted for the balls instead. When the other cabin crew came out with the chicken wings I immediately regretted – the chicken wings were merely drumlets and winglets, which will be easy to hand. Quickly, I asked Rebecca if I could have the chicken wings if there were leftovers and she gladly obliged, bringing me a bowl of the wings very soon. And they were fantastic.
Verdict
My flights on Qantas has always been pleasant and today was no exception. While the seat product may not be as generous as Singapore Airlines’ in terms of width, it is still a solid seat with a great design. Admittedly, the service can be hit or miss – but in today’s case, it was definitely more than a hit.
Oh, did I mention that Qantas has a very pretty in-flight safety video too?
