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After being shuttered for almost 20 months, the Qantas Lounge at London Heathrow T3 finally reopened its doors on 10 December and is welcoming oneworld flyers once again. Fortuitously, I was flying out of Heathrow Terminal 3 shortly after the lounge reopened so I paid it a visit and took a look at what it’s offering as the travel world struggles to get back to some semblance of normality.
The Heathrow Qantas Lounge
The Qantas Lounge lounge at Heathrow T3 was a great oneworld lounge option right up to the point where the pandemic brought about its closure so it’s great to see it reopening its doors.
I wasn’t sure what to expect as I took my first steps into the ‘covid safe’ environment in which the lounge now has to operate, but any concerns I had were soon blown away – the lounge is as ‘normal’ as it could possibly be given the circumstances.
Guest may be expected to keep their masks on when not eating or drinking but everything else about the lounge is pretty much how I remember it before Covid-19 brought the travel world to a standstill.
On the ground floor, the tables and seats may be a little more spread out than they once were, but the bar that greets you when you walk through the lounge doors looks very much the same.
The area around the bar continues to offer guests ample seating for dining…
…and other than the covers over the small buffet selection, there’s very little here to indicate that a pandemic continues to rage outside.
On the next floor up, the normality continues with the circular bar still serving drinks and excellent coffee…
…and most people will struggle to spot any major changes to the seating areas that the lounge offers.
The lounge’s main food service area remains on the top floor and a buffet is still provided.
At the time of this visit, breakfast was being served.
I didn’t have much to eat on this visit but I can still confirm that the Qantas lounge still does the best scrambled eggs out of any Heathrow Lounge. It’s all relative, obviously, but it’s worth noting.
Lastly and a little surprisingly, the Qantas Lounge’s showers have been reopened.
A lot of the lounges that I’ve visited in the past few months have chosen to keep their shower facilities closed so to have the Qantas lounge showers available at T3 is a little bit of a treat 🙂
Overall
I’ve always liked the Heathrow Qantas Lounge so I was excited to find out that it had reopened and I was delighted to find that the lounge didn’t let me down.
The staff were as friendly and helpful as ever, the food was still good, the drinks selection was still impressive and the big effort that Qantas has obviously made to make things feel as normal as possible goes a long way to getting a trip off to a good start.
The Qantas lounge was always one of my two favorite lounges in T3 before the pandemic ruined travel for everyone, and right now it’s a very welcome oasis of normality in a world that’s nowhere near normal.
What day were you there? It was closed again on Dec 15/16
Dec 11th.
Was there a message posted on the entrance explaining why it was closed?
According to BA and AA staff one of the QF lounge staff tested positive to covid so everyone was deemed a contact and the lounge closed.
A sign on the lounge door read “Due to unforeseen circumstances the lounge is closed today. Please use the British Airways Lounge F”
If what the BA and AA staff told us is true it seems ridiculously over cautious and either bad policy or poor planning, regardless 2 years in to a pandemic I don’t think a covid case can be called “unforeseen”
I don’t know if it is open again though?
Hopefully, the lounge has now reopened as UK government guidance doesn’t require all close contacts of people who test positive for Covid to self isolate.
“Anyone aged 5 years and over, who has been identified as a contact of someone with COVID-19 and who is not legally required to self-isolate, is now strongly advised to take a rapid lateral flow device (LFD) test every day for 7 days or until 10 days since their last contact with the person who tested positive for COVID-19 if this is earlier. If any of these LFD tests are positive they should self-isolate in order to protect other people.”
Unless multiple members of the lounge staff have tested positive (leaving Qantas short of staff to operate the lounge), there doesn’t appear to be a reason for the lounge to remain closed.
UK Govt rules don’t require it but I wouldn’t be surprised if QF policy required isolating all close contacts. Remember Australia has been absolutely bonkers lately