First look: Air New Zealand's Perth Airport Star Alliance lounge
By Matt Jelonek, December 5 2017
With Air New Zealand's Perth Airport business class lounge now open for travellers, what's in store behind that frosted glass door?
In short: an impressive pre-flight experience for the Kiwi carrier's business class passengers, top-tier frequent flyers and Koru Club members – and their equivalents on other Star Alliance airlines – before their six hour trek to Auckland.
The lounge is located past Perth Airport's duty-free retail zone, just before you head down the escalators towards the recently refurbished and extended part of the airport, with windows overlooking an internal atrium.
A variety of seating provides room for some 110 travellers across the lounge's 441m² footprint, which is divided into well-defined areas such as the dining space...
... open lounge areas...
... and many quieter nooks.
However, a lot of the single couches seemed to me to be a little close to one another.
There are no surprises in the design: black, grey, white and purple punctuate the lounge, leaning on Air New Zealand's own palette and taking cues from its cousins in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and of course Auckland.
Special fixtures including a 'wave rock'-inspired lighting feature complement images of the New Zealand landscape.
A full buffet is available in the dining area, with an extensive selection that changes four times each day, from breakfast through to supper and menus cycled monthly throughout the year. The lounge also serves up Christchurch's home pride Hummingbird Coffee.
AC and USB power sockets are liberally sprinkled throughout the lounge...
... along with wireless charging points to top up the latest smartphones from Apple and Samsung, among others. This is a particularly tech-forward approach from an airline which regularly trumpets itself as an innovator.
Internet speeds blaze at around 14Mbps in both directions.
There's no dedicated room for members of Air New Zealand's by-invitation Elite Priority One tier, although the airline says it can make available a reserved area to keep VIPs at arm's length from the rest of the lounge crowd.
Need to freshen up before your flight? Head for the roomy shower suites, which boast Antipodes amenities.
Air New Zealand tells Australian Business Traveller that its Perth lounge will open at 4am – three hours before the 7am departure of flight NZ178 to Auckland – and close after the departure of the final flight for the day, which will nominally be 7pm for NZ176 to Auckland or 11.30pm for the seasonal NZ162 flight to Christchurch.
Alongside the SilverKris lounge of Singapore Airlines, this means there are now two Perth international airport lounges for Star Alliance members to choose from.
This includes business class passengers on the Perth flights of Star Alliance members Singapore Airlines, South African Airways and Thai Airways, and Gold-grade frequent flyers travelling in any class on any Star Alliance airline.
Additional material by David Flynn
Matt Jelonek is an Australian-based photographer who enjoys travelling the world – he prefers long-haul international flights to short pesky domestic flights – and 'living life scenically'.
05 Dec 2017
Total posts 4
This looks a world above the existing, rather terrible SilverKris Perth lounge. Would love to have access to this one before heading off on SQ flights, but I imagine their opening hours would mean that won't be the case.
16 Feb 2016
Total posts 30
As it mentions the menu changes 4 times a day, perhaps they will close the SQ lounge and guests will come here? Their schedules seem to align ok and a capacity of 110 should cover at least 2 simultaneous flights in a 2hr window
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
19 Feb 2014
Total posts 439
Definitely not. SQ operate 4x daily.
16 Feb 2016
Total posts 30
Definately not?
06 Jan 2015
Total posts 66
Are Perth to Auckland/Christchurch considered trans-tasman flights? If so, is it safe to assume that velocity lounge members will be allowed into the lounge before travelling on the Auckland/Christchurch services?
18 Mar 2014
Total posts 98
Yes it is and yes they will
06 Jan 2015
Total posts 66
Thankyou Aviation!
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
06 Mar 2015
Total posts 231
Well !!, not before time. The old lounge was absolutely appalling . Small , dark and horrible food etc. Worst lounge in OZ but this certainly looks quite good. My family put Air NZ down the list of preferred Airlines because their lounge in Perth was so bad . This might change their minds .
18 Mar 2014
Total posts 98
This is Air NZ’s first lounge ever in Perth. They used the Qantas lounge previously so I wonder if that’s what your family might be referring to.
17 Apr 2016
Total posts 15
18 Mar 2016
Total posts 39
Will look forward to using it in February.
17 Jan 2017
Total posts 3
If you simply have a business class ticket on an SQ flight, will you be able to use this new lounge?
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 2561
Yes, business class on SQ and any other Star Alliance member gets you through the door of the AirNZ lounge.
29 Feb 2016
Total posts 11
Hi David,
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 2561
We're going on what AirNZ has advised us, having put this specific question to them.
29 Feb 2016
Total posts 11
Great, thanks for clarifying.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
17 Dec 2013
Total posts 8
Looking forward to having a look at it & Auckland in April 18.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
06 Mar 2015
Total posts 231
" aviation " . My apologies you are quite correct. It was SQ's lounge that I was thinking about. It was absolutely awful so maybe I did not want to think too hard about it. We have used the QF Lounge that Air NZ used prior to the new one and it was quite nice but did have fairly limited range of food and beverages. This new one is the go and I hope SQ takes note unless they already have a new lounge in Perth.
17 May 2012
Total posts 3
Is anybody able to clarify whether the lounge is open all day between (between opening at 4am and closure after last departure), or if it only opens 2.5hrs prior to flight departure as per the AirNZ website?
Flying SQ J later this year (14:40 departure) and would love to check out this lounge (anything would be better than the Perth Krisflyer lounge)! But if it only opens 2.5hrs prior to departure, then that likely won't be possible.
Thank you.
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