Qantas reopens Canberra, Darwin, Melbourne Qantas Club lounges

Qantas is rolling up the shutters at its Canberra, Darwin and Melbourne Qantas Club lounges, which are once again open to travellers.

It’s the first time in a year that Qantas has unlocked its Darwin lounge, and comes as welcome news for Top End travellers: particularly in light of rival Virgin Australia permanently closing its own Darwin facility.

Qantas is the only domestic airline with a lounge at Darwin Airport.

In Canberra and Melbourne, however, it’s something of a ‘good news, bad news’ scenario.

Here, Qantas Club members and Gold-grade frequent flyers had been invited to use the higher-tier Qantas Business Lounges in lieu of the closed Qantas Clubs.

Now, these members will once again be directed to the Qantas Club.

It's back to the Qantas Club, unless you're flying business class or arrive with a Platinum frequent flyer.

On the plus side, the move is sure to help ease the squeeze at peak times for all Melbourne and Canberra lounge guests, as travellers won’t all be sharing the same space.

Following the Qantas Clubs in Canberra and Darwin which reopened in late March, Melbourne’s Qantas Club returned to service on Thursday April 1, a spokesperson for the airline confirms to Executive Traveller, being just in time for the school holiday rush.

Brisbane lounges prepare to exit lockdown

With Brisbane currently in the midst of a three-day lockdown, the city’s Qantas Club, Business Lounge and Chairman’s Lounge are all temporarily closed in line with local government restrictions.

That lockdown had originaly been set to end at 5pm on Thursday April 1, although Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has brought that forward to 12pm after record COVID-19 testing across the state, and no new unlinked community transmission.

Following the end of lockdown, Qantas will reopen its Brisbane lounges from Friday morning April 2, its spokesperson advised Executive Traveller.

With lounges closed, so too is Premium Lounge entry, which feeds directly into the lounge precinct.

“We're lifting Greater Brisbane as a hotspot, and I'm asking all other leaders across the country to do the same as well,” Premier Palaszczuk said today.

At the time of writing, most states and territories remain closed to non-essential travellers from the Greater Brisbane area.

The easing of these restrictions remains at the discretion of those other jurisdictions and may not occur immediately, although Queensland currently has no domestic border closures of its own.

Also read: When will Australia's international lounges reopen?

Chris C.

Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.