First photos: Qantas opens new-look Melbourne Qantas Club lounge

Looks very nice, cannot wait to check it out. Hopefully next month!

Where is the better place for a J class flyer to hang out this Friday? New QC or Old J lounge? Professional opinion?

Great story and pics. Will check it out on the way back from Singapore on Sunday morning :)

Vastly improved, and the design is gorgeous. However, I will be sad to see the tarmac views gone, and those buffet islands are too small. It will be a complete & utter ZOO around them during AM & PM peaks.

Looks stunning! However, it is a shame that you lose the stunning tarmac views..

However this is spun the lack of tarmac views is going to be a big downgrade to the lounge.

Looks fresher but lack of natural light is a big disappointment. Even when finished, it appears the only natural light will be some reflected light from the check-in hall below. It's not the dungeon that is the international lounge but it isn't a light and bright offer either.

Wow, now that is impressive! Yes its a shame that the Qantas Club will lose its views but you can see that from Qantas perspective they want to give the best views to the business lounge, that's understandable. All the same it would be nice if this Qantas Club Stage 3 'dogleg' into the business lounge went all the way up to the window just so the lounge could have some of that view as a little feature of its own, it'd be a very popular part of the lounge!

Great to see this progressing well. As my home lounge I visit it at least once a week the upgrades will make it a nice place to be.

Pictures look great. Looking forward to seeing it on Friday. Might have to spend time in both. I do like the view out of the J lounge. Hopefully Sydney will be their next domestic project.

+++ for the MELd J lounge, but --- for QP members!

I always wondered how a newsagent would survive there when there are hundreds of copies of all newspapers spread around the lounge.

Bland bland bland... looks like the local branch of my bank. A little street art is exactly what this lounge needs to life it out of the beige purgatory look!

Will there be a premium entry and check-in similar to Brisbane Airport?

Are oneworld sapphire members affected by the guest limit?

No personality...bland and boring. One long corridor with cookie cutter chairs. They need to take some tips form Hotels that look so much more inviting and warm.

Having just spent time flying around the US it never ceases to amaze me just how good we get it in OZ. Even our QF regional lounges are better than most US AA lounges. V happy to see this upgrade

its all nice and pretty until you go in and the yelling and fighting for food by people makes you want to just go and find a quiet corner in the terminal

Maybe images are not doing enough justice but sort of looks like a cafeteria in parts but certainly better looking than the poor standard new American Flagship Lounge at LAX.

The Qantas website still says that paper/digital comp passes to Melbourne aren't usable, so just wondering where you got the info that these are now usable outside of peak time? Hope this is the case!

Boring nothing remotely interesting and a waste of frequent flyer points

You've got to be kidding me.

This is the WORST decision Qantas has made in a long time.

They remove ALL the windows, and think putting a few new chairs and a "hydration station" will mean no-one notices? "It's so relaxing sitting inside a shopping mall with no natural light" said no-one, ever.

Wonder what's the policy if domestic business class traveller (with no status) wants to bring guests in? Would that be the same as the Gold FFP rule or would the old rule (i.e. no time limit) applies?

Based on my experience at the QF Business lounge today I will be routing away from Melbourne wherever possible. Yes they are blaming "not finished yet", State of Origin, fog in Sydney but this afternoon and tonight its like a mosh pit but not as much fun!! Literally Standing room only, not enough staff, grumpy passengers and on it goes. The business lounge is even fuller than the Qantas lounge if that is possible. I ultimately left and am sitting quietly at an empty gate - this is quite ridiculous Qantas & not good enough for paying passengers.

Fine, pedant. I should have said "they removed ALL the windows to the outside". A window into the terminal doesn't count. My point stands. They should have found a way to improve the experience for J without completely destroying it for those of us Golds who fly Y by necessity.

I visited on Saturday afternoon and I was not really thrilled. It felt cold, not relaxing or cosy as the previous lounge did. The floors are hard throughout and the colour scheme is too cool for my liking. The chairs might look great but I didn’t feel I could sink down in them as one could in the old lounge. After a long day at work or a long drive back from a holiday, it is nice to stop, take a breath and be comforted before the flight. Early morning departures might be better. Nothing on the walls either- no art work, no softening with plants, but perhaps this is still in the pipeline. It was so very similar to the Virgin Lounge, which is a shame as that lacks the comfort factors as well.

I don't like the new Melbourne Qantas Club,- loads of natural light 'that' tarmac view trump what's now on offer.

Dear Qantas

I have flown Qantas regularly over the last 7 years as a Gold Frequent Flyer, mainly Melbourne to Perth, making use of both Qantas Lounges on each side of Australia. Today I feel compelled to write to you (as a company) to express my extreme disappointment concerning the remodelling of the Melbourne Lounge.

Today was the first time that I had had an occasion to use the lounge for a number of months and when I first entered the lounge after all the previous renovations being carried out I was very extremely disappointed in the size of this much smaller lounge. As you pointed out in your brief at the top of this page, the colours are very pleasant and you correctly surmised, that the majority of the complaints were to be about the loss of the windows and light which now The Business Lounge shall enjoy and this assumption was obviously “spot on”.

Perhaps I could draw your attention to other, maybe in your opinion, smaller, dissatisfactions that have obviously not been addressed by your company or by the belief that if you ignore them, Frequent Flyer customers will leave so you can focus your attention more on the business customers. Firstly your ultramodern seats are not very comfortable and as also mentioned the new seating arrangement means that we have to sit on top of one another as there was not enough seats this morning. Secondly some people obviously wanted a table to themselves by placing bags strategically on chairs to ensure this, I am completely comfortable with this, each to their own! But this leaves a shortage of space. Before, this practice could be overlooked by the strategic placement of chairs in the lounge. Thirdly the ultra low tables placed everywhere, meant your staff had to pick up plates and clean tables with one hand whilst they had a tray in their other hand. In nearly all cases that I observed, this action made shirts come loose of waistbands, giving nearly all passengers views that perhaps shouldn’t have been on show. Having said this, I was pleased staff didn’t attempt to bring a trolley around the chairs and tables as there is no room for this service in the execution of your new space. Fourthly your hydration station is not very user friendly and quickly developed an awkward queue as there is really nowhere to queue. Which brings me to my final point, concerning the arrangement of your food stations. As previously mentioned it was my first time today and I will continue to notice, but there was no rhyme or reason to enable people to help themselves for food. There was no clear one way direction and everyone was going in both directions for everything, to the detriment of your staff member who had the misfortune to bring a trolley into the catering area hoping to restock, making congestion ten times as awkward.

All these problems and it was only breakfast time!

I realise that I am not a very important customer and I might be the only voice in the crowd that is objecting to your new design but perhaps for future planning some of my observations might cause this company to consider future design flaws.

Perhaps on reflection of this awkwardness in your not very comfortable lounge and further observations over the remaining weeks until my flight bookings run out, I think my loyalty to you, Qantas, is very much at risk and Virgin Australia might have a new customer as the only way that most Australians can object is by walking away.

Good luck, by a very disappointed customer.