Just wondering on anyones thoughts on why cathay don't have their own lounge in Sydney and if and when they could start one up? Yes there might be a lack of space and they can divert their pax to their affiliate airlines but surely 4 daily flights to a single destination is enough pax to start up their own fully serviceable lounge?
I wonder if it is a lack of space at KSA to allow Cathay Pacific to create a lounge suitable for their service offering? Also Cathay Pacific is having financial challenges at the moment so expect not much cash to pay for it.
It always surprises me OW members open their own lounge rather than taking advantage of QF lounges. Same with QF having its own lounge in places like HK. Understand (for QF) that having its own lounge helps with the value proposition for Qantas Club, but otherwise why go to the expense?
If all OW airlines relied on the home country airline to provide a badged lounge and then in neutral sites like SQ they pooled resources, imagine how great the pounds could be! Scale is important with these things.
I suspect it is revenue-driven - cheaper to pay QF for use of their lounges than to build their own, particularly since they would presumably be unlikely to accrue much additional revenue from other-airline traffic into their own lounges given the competition from QF's lounges.
This contrasts with, for instance, Heathrow - because Terminal 3 is not BA's main base, the BA lounges there are not that great. So CX can earn money from other airlines by allowing pax into their lounge - and the more clued-up FFs know which lounge is best (especially if they read the AusBT lounge guides!). The sums involved, btw, are quite considerable - I happen to know that as of quite a few years ago (and I can't imagine the cost has gone down in the meantime) QF were charging other airlines US$250 pp for access to their First Class lounge in Sydney
As for HK - QF had a longstanding lounge there and despite the end of the BA-QF JSA it clearly made economic sense for them to take over the former BA space with the assurance of traffic from BA (who still direct passengers to the QF lounge, I believe) given that they already had a lease on their existing space and could take over the adjacent BA space quite easily. The same might not be true for CX at KSA
It is quite interesting, in this context, to see how carriers are turning lounges into profit centres rather than cost centres. It is also quite interesting to see how less clued-up FFs still blindly follow carrier's instructions as to which lounge to go to and don't use their alliance rights, especially (I suspect) in oneworld - Star, for instance, widely publicise their *G lounges so most *A FFs will know to go to a *G lounge even if it isn't their carrier. However, given that oneworld (uniquely, I think, among the big three alliances) allow top-tier members to access F lounges, it surprises me how often pax don't seem to do this where their carrier gives them an invitation to another (usually J or mixed J/F) lounge.
The same goes even more for business class passengers. Finnair J pax ex HKG get an invitation to the Plaza Premium lounge, even if they are (as I am) oneworld emerald. Well, sod that, I'm going to a CX F lounge thank you very much. And I know many former colleagues who would blindly use the AA lounge in LHR because that what it said on the invitation instead of going to the vastly superior BA (despite what I said above!) or CX lounges.
Now, I emphasise I have no affiliation (other than as an occasional unpaid contributor) with, and no financial interest in, this recommendation - but i would like to plug a great app, loungebuddy. Load your FF details and credit cards which give lounge access or lounge memberships etc into the app, it will import your itinerary from Tripit or you can load it manually, and it will tell you which lounges you can access, paid or unpaid. Great little app and I am a huge fan.
I guess CX does not see much value in it - pax can go in good enough QF lounge. In general lounges in Australia are crap. Main reason that we do not have much transit here - just few kiwis. And without transit with few hours of layover lounges do not have that much appealing. So it places like SIN, HKG or BKK lounges will flourish while in AUS they will survive.
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Cathay Sydney Lounge
F-Flyer
F-Flyer
Member since 11 Aug 2015
Total posts 22
Just wondering on anyones thoughts on why cathay don't have their own lounge in Sydney and if and when they could start one up? Yes there might be a lack of space and they can divert their pax to their affiliate airlines but surely 4 daily flights to a single destination is enough pax to start up their own fully serviceable lounge?
Looking
Looking
Member since 10 Aug 2015
Total posts 29
I wonder if it is a lack of space at KSA to allow Cathay Pacific to create a lounge suitable for their service offering? Also Cathay Pacific is having financial challenges at the moment so expect not much cash to pay for it.
freshthoughts
freshthoughts
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 08 Aug 2016
Total posts 112
interesting, as they do have a small lounge in melbourne. however J lounge in melb is worse than sydney
Steve987
Steve987
Member since 23 Feb 2015
Total posts 268
It always surprises me OW members open their own lounge rather than taking advantage of QF lounges. Same with QF having its own lounge in places like HK. Understand (for QF) that having its own lounge helps with the value proposition for Qantas Club, but otherwise why go to the expense?
Ian_from_HKG
Ian_from_HKG
CX
Member since 05 Jun 2012
Total posts 61
I suspect it is revenue-driven - cheaper to pay QF for use of their lounges than to build their own, particularly since they would presumably be unlikely to accrue much additional revenue from other-airline traffic into their own lounges given the competition from QF's lounges.
Serg
Serg
QFF
Member since 12 Apr 2013
Total posts 999
I guess CX does not see much value in it - pax can go in good enough QF lounge. In general lounges in Australia are crap. Main reason that we do not have much transit here - just few kiwis. And without transit with few hours of layover lounges do not have that much appealing. So it places like SIN, HKG or BKK lounges will flourish while in AUS they will survive.