Your guide to bringing guests into Qantas airport lounges

Bringing guests into Qantas' first class, business class and Qantas Club lounges should be simple, but the rules for that +1 aren't always straightforward – and, to add to the confusion, can vary significantly between lounges.

Don't be caught out when travelling with colleagues, friends or family members. Here's what you need to know to share your lounge experience with them, whether you're heading to Qantas' international first class and business class lounges, or the domestic business class and Qantas Club lounges.

Bringing guests into Qantas First Lounges

Currently found in Sydney, Melbourne, Los Angeles and Singapore – and in Auckland for the time being – here's how many guests each eligible passenger can bring into a Qantas First Lounge, and what type of boarding pass they need to have.

*Excludes the Qantas First Lounge in Los Angeles, which these travellers cannot access.
^Excludes Qantas first class passengers and Qantas frequent flyers, which are covered separately.

Guest allowances aren't cumulative, so if you're a Qantas Platinum member and are also flying first class, you're only allowed one guest in total: not one guest via your Platinum status plus another guest as a first class passenger.

As you'd also expect, guests are only permitted when the host is entitled to lounge access themselves, so all the usual caveats about travelling on an eligible flight or partner airline remain in place.

We won't list those other rules here – this article assumes the host already meets the access requirements for the lounge they plan to visit – and as is also true of the other lounges covered here, passengers with any one-off lounge invitations cannot bring guests.

Bringing guests into Qantas International Business Lounges

A broader list of travellers can access Qantas' international business class lounges with a guest or even two in tow, as follows:

^Excludes Qantas first and business class passengers and Qantas frequent flyers, which are covered separately.

Again, the host needs to be eligible for lounge access at their departure airport in order to bring in a guest.

For example, Eastern Miles Gold and Platinum members only receive Qantas lounge access when flying between Australia and Mainland China, not in other cities or when travelling on other routes. The table above merely shows how many guests are permitted when the host is eligible for access.

Bringing guests into Qantas Domestic Business Lounges

As you don't need a boarding pass to clear security at Australian domestic airports, in many cases, guests don't need to be travelling (or flying with Qantas) to accompany eligible members into the Qantas Business Lounges in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Perth:

^Excludes Qantas frequent flyers, which are covered separately.

Bringing guests into domestic Qantas Club lounges

When it comes to domestic Qantas Clubs – both in airports that also have Business Lounges, and where the Qantas Club is the only lounge available – the broader access list makes the guesting rules more complex, but as a general rule, guests who can bring guests into Business Lounges can bring the same number and type of guests into domestic Qantas Clubs:

^Excludes Qantas' Emerald-grade frequent flyers, which are covered separately.

Bringing children into Qantas-operated lounges

Whether you're flying within Australia or overseas, all Qantas-operated lounges adopt the same access policies for travelling with children, except in Los Angeles where different rules apply.

Beyond the number of adult guests each passenger is allowed to bring – based on frequent flyer status, ticket type or membership, as above – those same travellers can also be accompanied in most lounges by up to two children aged 4-17.

Children aged three and under are also permitted without quota, except at the Qantas-operated Oneworld Business Lounge in Los Angeles, where travellers can enter with a maximum of two children aged under 18 years.

Qantas also says that if you're travelling with more than two children and are visiting any of Qantas' other lounges, "the Qantas lounge manager will try to accommodate them, subject to reviewing the space available."

Child access policies vary in lounges operated by other airlines, and at Qantas 'associated lounges' in cities where Qantas doesn't operate its own lounge.

Chris C.

Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.