Compared: Qantas Club vs Virgin Australia Lounge membership

There are many perks to being a loyal frequent flyer, and airport lounge access is up there with the best of them. But even if you don’t fly often enough to land status, there’s still a way to enjoy benefits similar to those who do – pay for it.

Qantas and Virgin Australia both offer paid lounge entry through annual memberships, unlocking unlimited access whenever you fly, together with single-use lounge passes.

Whether they differ though, and rather substantially, is price, network and additional benefits. Here’s how the two offerings compare. 

Qantas Club, Virgin Australia Lounge locations

The essential ingredient to any airline lounge program is its network, with facilities available in locations travellers will use them most. After all, there’s no point having a lounge in an airport seeing one flight a week.

Virgin Australia has seven domestic airport lounges within its network, in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth and on the Gold Coast. 

Virgin Australia's Adelaide Lounge.

At present, there are no dedicated international lounges, though Adelaide and Gold Coast are accessible ahead of international flights.

Qantas, on the other hand, boasts a much broader network with 24 domestic Qantas Clubs and Regional Lounges (which are found in smaller cities, such as Hobart or Rockhampton).

In addition, Qantas welcomes paid-up Qantas Club members in international lounges in four Australian cities – Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth – plus New Zealand own-brand and partner lounges in Auckland, Christchurch, Queenstown and Wellington.

Qantas Club members can access a huge network of global lounges.

That’s 32 lounges for Qantas Club members across Australia and New Zealand alone.

Qantas Club members also enjoy access to a variety of lounges overseas, with partnerships extending to ‘associated lounges’, American Airlines’ Admirals Clubs, selected Alaska Airlines lounges, and the Emirates business lounges in Dubai.

Qantas Club, Virgin Australia Lounge membership cost

On the pricing front, here’s what you can expect to pay for a fresh Qantas Club or Virgin Australia Lounge card:

Notably, Qantas Club memberships can be purchased in blocks of up to four years, whereas Virgin Australia Lounge memberships are sold on a yearly basis, or for a lifetime.

For existing members extending their tenure in the travel club, the rates below apply instead.

Annual Qantas Club membership costs are also waived for the airline’s top points earners, being Qantas Points Club Plus members – but that requires 350,000 Qantas Points earned from eligible transactions every year, keeping that benefit to a small subset of travellers.

In addition, Qantas now offers a month-to-month subscription known as ‘Qantas Club Flexible’, which unlocks access to Qantas lounges in Australia and overseas for 28 days, at a cost of $99 plus joining fee.

While good for those with a specific period of travel in mind, yearly membership is still better value in the long term.

Qantas Clubs, Virgin Australia Lounge access

Paid up Virgin Australia lounge members can step inside the lounge whenever travelling on a same-day Virgin Australia flight. In addition, they can bring one adult guest, plus up to three children aged between 2 to 17 years. Infants under 2 enter free.

Subject to availability, lounge members can also make use of ‘on arrival’ access, which grants use of the Virgin lounge for up to 60 minutes at the arrival airport.

(That’s a key point of difference to Qantas Club, which doesn’t allow on arrival entry. That benefit only kicks in at Qantas Platinum status)

You can enjoy access to lounges before or after your flight.

Qantas Club members can access lounges ahead of Qantas and Jetstar flights. However, it’s worth noting Qantas lounges only open ahead of scheduled Qantas flights, making access for Jetstar flyers a ‘nice to have’ perk, but not a ‘core’ benefit.

(Also worth a mention for Jetstar passengers is the lounge isn’t always in the same terminal as those Jetstar flights, as seen in Sydney and Melbourne, making it less convenient.)

Qantas Club members are entitled to bring one adult guest, plus two children aged 4-17, and any kids aged 0-3. Those regularly travelling with a second adult can buy an Annual Guest Card for $449 or 74,900 Qantas Points per year, on top of the base membership.

Qantas Club provides more flexibility for regular adult guests via the Annual Guest Card.

While Virgin doesn’t offer its own take on the Annual Guest Card, adults who wouldn’t otherwise qualify for lounge access can pay $65 at the door to enter the lounge. Child passes are available for $45.

Finally, Qantas also has a single access lounge pass option, which excludes guest entry.

Qantas states the price “varies by port and the applicable cost will be shown when purchasing.” It’s also subject to availability, so you need to check qantas.com.

Qantas Club, Virgin Australia Lounge amenities

Across the Qantas Clubs and Virgin Australia lounges, you can expect complimentary food and beverages whenever you stop by. 

Virgin Australia's Melbourne lounge.

The quality and variety can vary from lounge to lounge and may also differ between weekdays and weekends, making it impractical to compare the hospitality across locations in this short article.

Still, we’ll highlight that both airlines offer barista-made coffee throughout the day in lounges with this service, as well as alcohol from 12pm. WiFi can also be expected – but again, the experience can vary from one lounge to the next.

Barista-made coffee is a hallmark of the Australian lounge experience.

Qantas offers Premium Lounge Entry in Brisbane, complete with its own security check and bag drop. Virgin Australia offers a carry-on only Premium Entry in Brisbane also, in addition to Sydney.  

Extra benefits of Qantas Club, Virgin Australia Lounge

Virgin Australia Lounge membership is just that: access to Virgin Australia lounges prior to Virgin Australia flights, where available.

Qantas Club provides lounge access too, but takes that further with a suite of benefits often bundled with hard-earned frequent flyer status.

Qantas Club membership comes with a bevy of benefits, on the ground and in the sky.

That starts with priority check-in, and a boosted baggage allowance on selected flights – such as Qantas domestic economy, where the standard 1x23kg limit is elevated to 1x32kg for Qantas Club.

On most Qantas international routes – including those to NZ – Qantas Club members can instead pack an extra 12kg over and above their ticketed allowance, with the same privilege also applying on Emirates where the ticketed allowance similarly follows the ‘weight system’.

Check baggage limits are boosted with Qantas Club membership.

Under the separate ‘piece system’ as used on flights to North and South America, Qantas Club members see the standard 1x32kg allowance in economy tripled to 3x32kg (a whopping 96kg in total), with the same applying in premium economy (up from 2x32kg as standard).

Both airlines allow travellers with lounge access to request points upgrades on the day of departure, while only Qantas adds priority standby and priority waitlist as additional benefits for lounge members.

Winner: With priority check-in, extra checked baggage on many flights, access to Brisbane’s Premium Lounge Entry as listed earlier and priority when attempting to grab a sold-out flight, Qantas is the clear winner here.

When you ‘earn’ lounge access from flying

What happens if you’re a member of an airport lounge but then reach Gold frequent flyer status, we hear you ask?

With Qantas, your existing (paid) Qantas Club membership is paused should you ascend to Gold – given that Gold members can access the same lounges, and more – and will resume automatically in the future, should your status return to Silver or Bronze.

Lounge access kicks in at Qantas Gold status.

That’s nothing short of expected given Qantas sells lounge memberships for up to four years at a time.

After all, a traveller would be mightily grumpy if they’d paid that hefty four-year fee, only to reach Gold as a result of spending even more money with the Roo, but find their paid lounge membership still ticking down in the background.

Virgin Australia, however, isn’t as generous – but aside from its Lifetime Lounge card, only sells membership one year at a time, which reduces any loss. 

Qantas Club vs Virgin Australia Lounge: the verdict

With Qantas Club members gaining access to a much larger network of lounges than Virgin Australia, as well as perks like priority check-in and additional checked baggage, it’s no surprise that Qantas Club sits superior to Virgin Australia Lounge membership.

Still, the latter is more affordably priced, and could be all you need if the airports you often traverse have lounge facilities available.

This would be true for those jetting from the Gold Coast or between most capital cities – Darwin and Hobart excluded – but may not be as suitable for travellers venturing to the regions, or to the Northern Territory and Tasmania. That’s where Qantas Club has a distinct advantage.

Also read: Qantas vs Virgin Australia vs Rex in business class