Hi all, anyone had experience being allowed to take Spouse and 4 x (well behaved) kids into melb first lounge as Platinum, do they impose limit or shuffle us to Bus lounge?

Hi all, anyone had experience being allowed to take Spouse and 4 x (well behaved) kids into melb first lounge as Platinum, do they impose limit or shuffle us to Bus lounge?

Under the official rules your are entitled to one adult guest and two child (4-17) guests per each Platinum cardholder at each lounge (no different First to Business). i suspect in practice they will be more generous.

Also note that other oneworld airlines are far less generous on child access

Business Class Lounge has the same access rules as the First Class lounge.

on a similar vein what experience do you have of the f cx lounge? i am qff plat and will be travelling j with wife an 2 kids 3 and 6 from hong kong to mel

Obviously in HKG you have the very good QF lounge as well.

I believe that official CX policy is that children count as guests (although one ref said only children over 12) but there does seem to be some discretion. 

As Plat you can test it quickly using the side Wing entrance, and swap over to QF quickly if not allowed

I have found CX to be entirely inflexible, unlike QF  lounges in Australia. QFF P only gets you one guest for a OW F lounge.  I expect you will have to settle for the QF lounge or a C J lounge.  CX wouldn't even grant me extra lounge access for family after having to overnight in HKG due to  missed CX to CX connection.

Hardly grounds for complimentary lounge access

BA's the same. I once saw a couple with two kids turned away. I think QF is quite unique in its "Brady Bunch" policy. 

Exactly, some people get too comfortable with qantas breaking the rules constantly regarding eligibility and begin to expect it from all carriers, rather than expecting it as a right one should think of it as a priviledge if lucky enough.

I like that Qantas is flexible. I think that is important. But it should be on the basis that kids are well behaved. 

Well said, it's more lucky rather than the norm sadly these days.

Unfortunately there are some that don't want to see children in lounges under any circumstances.  Qantas lounge staff's approach to access for families is appreciated by many of their high ranked FFs.

 It is also unfortunate that lounge staff would have to moderate the behaviour of any guest, including parents of said children.

Unfortunate yes, but with the reality of today and so many parents willing to absolve their parenting responsibilities onto others using a common restaurant /lounge it has to be done.

CX is no different to QF (or any of the other OW members) regarding adult Guest access. OneWorld rules indicate that an Emerald or Sapphire holder is entitled to invite ONE adult guest into lounges. That is uniform across all OW carriers and is clearly shown on the OneWorld website, along with the QF website.

Where there MAY be some difference is in the definition (and discretion) of child access.