I'm travelling from MEL-HKG in economy and have a 6 hour layover in Melbourne before the flight.

I'm travelling from MEL-HKG in economy and have a 6 hour layover in Melbourne before the flight. Can I access any lounges in Melbourne International before the flight, even if I have to pay? I'm gold with SkyTeam, Velocity and Star Alliance but I don't believe this will be any use to me. Priority Pass seem to have dropped their Melbourne lounge. Any tips appreciated!

What airline(s) are you flying? and where are you coming from?

Sorry I left the most crucial info out.  Flying with Cathay Pacific and am coming in from Launceston.

Provided you are flying Virgin from Launceston, you can use the Virgin lounge in domestic upon arrival...I wouldn't want to spend 6 hours in there though... Have you considered a day rate at an airport hotel? 

You can pay your way into the Air NZ lounge - $55 for up to 4 hours of lounge time.

I thought AirNZ stopped that.

Arnie,

I presume there was a good reason why you didn't go with SQ?

Why would he fly SQ to HKG?

So that he/she will earn points/miles, benefit from priority check in, priority boarding, priority luggage and enjoy lounge access.

The miles/points would also go toward elite qualification for future period.

The marginal difference in price may prove to be worth it, when compared to the waste since this CX flight earns him/her zero reward benefits. The cost in terms of time saved versus benefits earned  is however subjective.

Given his/her focus is the Virgin partnership and/or Star Alliance, accruing Oneworld equivalent miles/points is practically pointless.

Arnie does mention that he is Gold with SkyTeam, Velocity and Star. Nowhere does he mention any affiliation with OneWorld or what that might be.

Given his extensive Gold Tier status on these carriers, that indicates a serious amount of travel across a range of alliances. It may be that he is Silver (or lower) with OneWorld - and in that case, a Y Class trip to HKG might also advance his status in OW, mightn't it?

Always a bit dangerous to make assumptions from an external standpoint. And for a trip to HKG, I would think that a non-stop would be highly preferable over a one-stop via SIN anyway. Why would you want to endure two sets of Customs / Immigration and a layover - unless you were doing a finite 'mileage / status' run?

It comes down to how you account for the value of the overall experience.

Overall Experience = Benefits - Cost of flight, where the objective is  maximum Overall Experience through minimum cost met with an associated maximum benefit. 

Consequently, if you consider benefits such as lounge access to be incidental, then overall experience will be lower than if you account for all associated elements as benefits.

Singapore would have been the best in my situation, however their flight times were not convenient for me.  Thanks everyone.

There we go. Timing's the factor. Now I do know there is this rather posh restaurant at MEL international terminal. I can't, for the life of me, remember the name of it. Might be worthwhile to spend sometime there. 

macchinetta or little ludlow

http://melbourneairport.com.au/shopping-eating/restaurants/little-ludlow/