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I had a very short layover in Brisbane before my Thai Airways flight to Bangkok. The lounge I was granted access to was the Air New Zealand Lounge, so I headed over to check it out before my flight.
Check-in was easy enough, and the Wi-Fi username and password are provided on a business card at the front desk. The lounge was very small, especially compared to the Qantas domestic lounges that I visited earlier that week. Still, it had all the essentials and didn’t seem full at all.
There were three main seating areas, the first two separated by a silverware/newspaper station (with a pancake machine!) and the second and the other separated by the food spread. There were two small, enclosed work stations that had a desk and computer behind a glass door.
For drinks there was also a coffee, soft drink, and alcohol section. The food selection was small but not bad. There was a vegetable soup with croutons, crackers, cheese, quiche, muffins, scones, cold cut meats, salad, pasta salad, and also rice and Thai chicken curry for hot foods. There were fruits above the serving station as well.
The one downside was that there was a single bathroom, and it was being cleaned the whole time I was there (about 25 minutes). I did notice that there was a sign for a shower available, but that’s a bit confusing because I can’t imagine that no one can use the restroom while someone showers. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see exactly how it worked because no one could enter that bathroom!
I noticed one of the staff looking at me while I was taking pictures. This isn’t that unusual as I’m sure it looks a bit strange, and I’ve definitely been asked to stop taking pictures by lounge staff at other lounges. After I was done taking my pictures she came over to me and said that she noticed I was taking pictures, and asked that if I have any kind of negative comments at all to fill out the lounge survey form that was available at the front desk. She said that if there was anything that needed to be fixed, it was more helpful to use the survey rather than mention it to someone afterwards.
The way she said it made it seem like she was genuinely interested in fixing anything that was wrong with the lounge, which I very much appreciated. But I told her that there was nothing wrong, that I thought it was a great lounge, and I was just taking pictures because it’s part of my job. I’m not quite sure she understood because she repeated what she said about the survey. In any case, I appreciated that she cared that much about the lounge!
This lounge isn’t spectacular; it’s actually pretty small, and I didn’t have a chance to review the bathroom situation because it was closed the entire time, but it does its job to provide snacks and a quiet place to relax before your flight.