When I got to check in they offered me all three and even recommended the cathay lounge,I will pleased with it as the first lounge is small but you can be alone if you want
I was in the CX F lounge last week which was pretty busy – until they called the Qantas flight!
Many premium airlines have cottoned on to the fact that lounges can be significant money spinners due to the cross-charging of other airlines for access (either on the basis of class travelled or elite status). This is just one of the reasons Cathay (among others) are investing so much money in lounges. In general, it is the third-party-contract lounges which get sniffy about allowing people in. Lounges owned and operated by an airline are often only too happy particularly if it is a high-quality lounge, unless capacity is really constrained.
The Cathay lounge will be welcoming. However, it can get quite busy. Part of the problem is that it has no “working area” which means that people who want to use their laptops (or tablets to watch a film) hog the tables in the restaurant, which mean that passengers who, like me on my last trip to London, actually wanted to have dinner had to go on a waiting list for tables (grrrrr)
I am feeding back to Cathay that a workstation area would help, as would a transparent queueing system for tables (I left my name on a waiting list but by the time a staff member had found me to bring me to the table, two ladies had swooped in and taken it)
Interestingly, the staff announced the QANTAS departure – so they are clearly expecting and catering for QF pax. And after that announcement the lounge became a lot quieter (I was actually on a CX flight)
