Qantas lounge access in Melbourne - I am flying Business Class Sydney to Melbourne (transiting) and onwards to LA in Economy (on the same ticket).

Qantas lounge access in Melbourne - I am flying Business Class Sydney to Melbourne (transiting) and onwards to LA in Economy (on the same ticket). Will I be able to access the Qantas lounge in Melbourne for my 2 hour stopover?

Hi jjkkk123

From what I understand you would have access to the Qantas lounge in Melbourne only if :

(A) you were travelling in Business Class or above (so economy to LA doesn't make you eligible as it must be your next onward flight), or

(B) you are a member of the Qantas Club, or have at least Qantas Gold or above status, or

(C) you are an Emirates Skywards gold or platinum level member or

(D) you have elite status with any of the One World airlines (at least sapphire or emerald)

Hopefully one of those applies for you at least ? And this assumes you are flying Qantas ?

Cheers

Though MELdom arr to MELint dep is an easy walk, and you would have had a lot of procedures done already in SYDdom for your MELint to LAX flight, I would not dawdle in the MELdom J lounge.

Even if you can have time to spend there, 2 hours is not really a lot of time to "play" when it comes to int flights, no expresspath card, esp having to go through int security screening (with body scan if picked), and you would have to go through e gate, (if its started).

In other cities, you go through immi first then int security screening, in MELi its the other way around, so you would get int screened first, so don't put away your passport and OPC too far into bag, just not on your person, as full body scanning needs you have nothing in your pockets, but then, after that, you would need your passport and OPC to go for the e gate and the OPC to be manually collected.

Also with e gate, there is something somewhere that says you don't need OPC, but not sure if MELint has gotten that yet.  Heard/read that BNEint has it.

jjkkk123,

No you would not be allowed access to the Qantas International Business lounge or the domestic Qantas Club/Business Lounge at MEL. The reasons are as follows:

1) Lounge access is for departures only, unless it is an arrivals lounge, which is governed by a different set of rules. Qantas does n

ot operate any arrival lounges. Upon arrival from your domestic flights, you may try to access the domestic lounges but this is at the discretion of the lounge staff and not a formal feature of the lounge access policy.

2) Oneworld lounge access rules allow you to access the lounge prior to the domestic/short haul leg if it is flown in Economy class, if the onward international leg is in Business or First. In your case, it is the opposite scenario. Therefore the Oneworld lounge access rule does not apply. Consequently you cannot use the Qantas International Business lounge at MEL.

Of course all this changes if you have elite status with Qantas/Oneworld or are a Qantas Club member.

Just as a reminder to everyone, you can only access the lounge as a QC member before an LA operated flight if it was booked as a QF marketed flight (ie. QF flight number). Even if you are, the lounge hours may restrict access as well.

For the avoidance of doubt, you can find the published access rules for Qantas' international business class lounge in Melbourne here.

(And no, based on the information provided by jjkkk123, lounge access in Melbourne would not be offered in this instance.)