Review: the Qantas London Lounge at Heathrow Terminal 3

This is our review of the Qantas London Lounge at London Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 3.

This is part of our series of reviews of airport lounges across the UK.  You see all of the reviews here.

This is the first report from one of the biggest review trips I have undertaken. Over the next week we will be looking at the outbound part of my recent trip to Australia with Qantas, flying from London to Perth on the non-stop Qantas service with reviews of lounges, business class on the 787 and my hotel stay.

We will follow this up in September with my journey from Sydney to London via Singapore, reviewing Qantas’ flagship lounges and its A380 premium economy and business class cabins. Qantas provided all of my flights but HfP paid all other costs.

There’s a huge amount of content, so let’s jump in!

The first time we wrote about the Qantas London Lounge was at the opening party in 2017 when the then-Qantas CEO, Alan Joyce, was making the drinks behind the bar! What had changed?

How do you access the Qantas London Lounge?

You do not need to be flying Qantas to access the Qantas lounge. The only requirement is that you are flying a oneworld carrier (such as Finnair, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific or British Airways), either on a business class ticket or with the relevant status.

That means anyone with oneworld Sapphire or Emerald status (ie. British Airways Club Silver or Gold) can access the lounge, even if you are flying on a hand-baggage-only British Airways economy flight.

Emirates passengers can also access this lounge, although it is not necessarily better (particularly outside of the a la carte dining hours). You should note that there is direct boarding from the official Emirates lounge at T3 (ie there is an airbridge linked to the lounge). It makes your trip a lot smoother and you may prefer to use the Emirates lounge for that reason.

You can see the list of British Airways flights operating from Terminal 3 here.

How to find the Qantas London Lounge

Terminal 3 uses an alphabetic labelling system for the nine lounges that are now available at the airport. The Qantas lounge is designated as ‘Lounge B’ when you exit security.

Lounge B is situated between the main terminal concourse and shops and gates 13-22. It is inbetween the Cathay Pacific lounges and the British Airways lounges and very prominent – you won’t miss it.

The lounge is open from 6am until 9pm.

Inside the Qantas London Lounge

The Qantas lounge has a smart entrance with two members of staff to scan your boarding pass.

All things considered, the Qantas lounge is a fairly large facility at 1,200 square metres and with 236 seats. It is also the newest of the oneworld lounges, having opened in 2017. Whilst the lounge is starting to show a bit of wear and tear it is, on the whole, in good condition.

The lounge is spread across two floors. When you enter, you are greeted by an a la carte dining area. This is only open at certain times – in the mornings from 9:30am until the departure of QF10, usually around 11:50am, and in the evenings for a couple of hours before the departure of QF2 at 8:50pm.

In the centre of the a la carte dining area is the gin bar:

Qantas serves six different gins here including both British and Aussie varities paired with particular tonics and garnishes. The last time I flew to Australia I was on the evening flight and made sure to try almost all of them, but at 10am in the morning I wasn’t quite in the same mood!

To the right of the gin bar is the staircase to the upper floor, which opens onto the impressive marble horseshoe bar which specialises in cocktails:

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There is also a barista service. If you are sensitive to noise you may want to find somewhere a bit further from the bar where you can hear the grinds and whistles of coffee being brewed and cocktails shaken.

The upper floor is much more casual, with plenty of sofas, armchairs and coffee tables:

Behind the staircase is the buffet plus a small dining area:

Whilst adjacent to this you can find an area full of semi-private booths:

Views from the lounge are not spectacular, if I am honest. Qantas had to work within the confines of the existing terminal building which is not the most modern. That means the windows are smaller and straddle just the left hand side.

As a consequence, the lounge does not have as much natural light as the BA Galleries lounges or the Cathay Pacific lounges with their modern floor-to-ceiling windows.

The staff have always been exceptionally friendly every time I have been to this lounge. Qantas, like Virgin Atlantic, seems to have a friendlier and more relaxed atmosphere than other airlines, which I enjoy.

Food and drink at the Qantas London Lounge

The lounge features something of a two-tier service pattern when it comes to food, depending on when you visit.

Arrive within a couple of hours of one of Qantas’ own flights and you’ll find a la carte dining and a fully staffed gin bar. Arrive outside of these hours and you’ll only have access to the small buffet upstairs as well as the horseshoe bar.

You can expect a la carte dining to be available from 9:30-11:50am and around 6:30-8:50pm.

I was here in the morning before the non-stop London-Perth flight, which meant the a la carte menu was primarily breakfast-focussed. However, I was hoping they would still offer the iconic salt and pepper squid, a Qantas classic, which they did. It came with several large chunks of crispy squid:

Other options included:

• Organic oat porridge and unrefined brown sugar
• Salad of smoked aubergine with zaatar cauliflower, baby spinach, broccolini and poached egg
• Bacon eggs Benedict
• Bacon on rye with pickled beetroot, cottage cheese and dill

In addition to the a la carte dining you’ll always find a self-serve buffet. During my stay this was decked out with breakfast, which included all the items you need for a full English – scrambled eggs, bacon, beans, sausages, hash browns, mushrooms and tomatoes:

A selection of yoghurts were also available, as were a range of pastries and muesli.

You can help yourself to soft drinks although alcohol is only available via the bar. The sparkling wine was Petaluma NV Croser Adelaide Hills Brut.

Showers

There are a number of showers on the upper floor of the Qantas lounge. Although they are not quite as luxe as the Cathay Pacific ones they are nevertheless extremely smart. The design feels very much like it has been taken from a hotel:

Toiletries are by Li’Tya, an Australian brand. The bathroom cubicles are also very smart:

Conclusion

The Qantas London Lounge at Heathrow Terminal 3 has a lot to offer.

The absence of a dedicated lounge for First Class passengers means that Qantas has created an elevated business class lounge that straddles both cabins.

If you are there during the roughly five hours per day when a la carte dining is available, I would say it is one the better business class lounge at Heathrow. Outside of these hours, however, the food offering sharply drops.

Despite being one of the darker lounges at Terminal 3, Qantas has made up for it via design, including a lovely feature staircase and marble bars on both floors. It really is a beautiful lounge and the wood panelling on the upper floor adds an element of Britishness to the whole place.

In the next article, on Wednesday, we move on the main event in this first batch of Qantas reviews – the non-stop 17 hour flight from London Heathrow to Perth.