LOUNGE REVIEW: Adelaide Qantas Club, December 2024

The Qantas at Adelaide Airport is rebuilding its entire Qantas Club precinct. Formerly a combined Business and Club and a separate Chairman’s lounge.

When the building work is complete, it will become a Qantas Club, Business Lounge, and Chairman’s Lounge, all led by resident Qantas design lead David Caon.

The evening I visited was probably one of the busiest periods at the airport during these Christmas holidays. That limited my photography, but hopefully it will give you an idea of the reality versus the renders.

The new Qantas Club, Adelaide

But so far, we have only have a glimpse of the new Qantas Club. The other liunges are currently under construction.

Currently, the new Qantas Club occupies, by my estimate, a little under half the old area of the combined lounge. Instead of the pre-Mark Newson mish-mash of design choices, that in my opinion was still visually pleasant, acoustically good and comfortable, although looking a bit like an office fit-out.

The new Club Lounge is more like a beach cafe with its pot plants, terrazzo, driftwood-like wood accents, and marble and resin benches. The bucket chairs are comfortable, but their modified egg shape does not allow comfortable reclining. After a month, the camel-coloured leather at their bases is already discoloured by the impact of businessmen’s dark leather shoe heels and black rubber soles.

Technology

This is an area of major improvement. Unless you were located at the workstations in the old lounge, it could be hard to find an electrical outlet. No more. Now, it feels like every service is covered in recharging contact points. Outlets are set into the terrazzo of tables, into the bumpers of benches, and essentially adjacent to every seat.

Wifi coverage has always been good in this lounge, which has not changed. The only change I detected was that I couldn’t see any legacy internet plugs that littered the old lounge.

Food and beverage

The major change is that the bar has been relocated and basically bifurcates the lounge. Its striped sandstone cladding is gorgeous, although the overall installation is a little heavy and imposing. Service, even when full, as it became when I visited, was excellent, well staffed and attentive.

I used to praise the food offerings at this Lounge. Party pies being handed around on trays, short blacks in paper cups, and sweet treats were regular occurrences. I suspect that has been discontinued. Alternatively, the lounge may have just been too full for this service to function.

There is not really anything new here. Hot food in heated containers is now elevated and accessible from two sides on a couple of island benches. This is designed to increase guest access, but I am not sure the island is a complete success, with staff constantly taking up space while restocking.

You can still make your own toastie (ugh!). Did I say I hate self-service, even at supermarkets? Anyway, I will let the images tell the story.

Bathrooms

These are located where they were in the old lounge, against the right-hand wall as you enter. The layout is broadly the same, with a set of stalls on one wall and urinals on the other divided by contactless sinks, soap dispensers, hand dryers, and wall mirrors. I’m a paper hand towel person, so I miss them.

The duck egg green walls—for want of a better description—are only one step away from public toilet/hospital green, a colour I have an aversion to. But maybe that’s just a boomer thing.

My main concern is the apparent flimsiness of the construction. I don’t know whether it’s actually flimsy or just the appearance the rivetted aluminium strips holding the walls at right angles give. Anyway, it just looks more temporary and less well constructed than the tile and wood-look Laminex of the previous incarnation.

The bathrooms do at least look fresh and function well. Again, I will leave it to the images to tell the story.

2PAXfly Takeout

Look, this lounge is fresh and new with some striking elements and fresh more contemporary furniture. The three-sided workstations have been abandoned, and the look is much more like the Brisbane Qantas Lounge — which is not necessarily a good thing.

It’s unfair to judge something incomplete. This is only stage one. Only the Club Lounge is open. The Business Lounge, with its dramatic red stone bar, still needs to be opened. The temporary wall between the two lounges also makes the Club Lounge feel smaller and more compact than it will be.

On that basis, I am prepared to lay aside my initial adverse reaction to the new Qantas Club Lounge in Adelaide.

I’ll re-assess next year when the lounge is less full, and the Business Lounge is open around June/July.