Background
Qantas opened this lounge in November 2017. I’ve been in several times, and here are a few of those reviews:
Lounge review: Qantas London Lounge, Heathrow T3 and from the original opening
Qantas opens Heathrow Terminal 3 lounge
Where is it?
It is located airside, beyond the shops as you walk through to the gates.
First impressions
The staff are always excellent at the entrance, which is impressive because there are just a couple of glass doors between them and the main corridor outside and they seem to get every tenth person trying to gain admittance with a credit card or a voucher. I was flying on an Etihad ticket, but the airline is using this lounge until it relocates back into Terminal 4 and starts to use its own lounge once again.
The lounge is split over two levels with views out towards some parked aircraft and beyond that the taxi ways.
The ground floor is the dining area and gin cocktail bar, as well as some sitting areas, while the upper floor has a round cocktail bar and more options for dining or just relaxing.
In total, the lounge has a capacity of more than 230 passengers, but there is no segmentation between business and first.
We arrived around 1330 and so lunch was still being served. We couldn’t decided whether we wanted to dine immediately or just get a drink or relax, so we went upstairs to decide.
The upstairs lounge has a marble bar beneath a brass chandelier on the upper level serving cocktails designed by “the Qantas Rockpool Mixologists” and Australian and European wine and beer.
The design is the same as that of Qantas’ international lounges in Hong Kong, Singapore and Brisbane, with the food and interior design taking inspiration from the local region. It has been designed by Woods Bagot, with interiors intended to “reflect London at twilight with deep greens and rich blues throughout the furniture, while warm-coloured timbers, stone and brass represent the historic architecture of the city”
Upstairs we got relaxed, realised there was a very healthy buffet of salad food as well as the cocktail bar, and decided to settle down for a bit.
Downstairs then closed after lunch and didn’t reopen until 1730, but since we were in there for several hours that didn’t matter. Normally, however, there is a time limit on staying here at least for guests of other airlines) so it’s worth checking if you are thinking of staying for a prolonged period.
At 1730 we went down and had a meal – I just had a couple of the starters from this menu.
Qantas Evening menu – London Lounge
This is the Shaved fennel, pear and parmesan salad and Hummus with a poached egg, cucumber, mint, peas, radishes, sumac and lemon (I had it without the egg). There was a small, but good, choice of wine. I had the Muscat.
Verdict
An excellent stay, with really good and attentive service, friendly as well.
