You can pay monthly for Qantas Club now, but it’s not worth it: Here’s why
Tempted by $99 a month? Think carefully.
Lounges are lush, but Qantas Club membership is expensive. You have to pay a $129 joining fee and $699 for a 1-year membership. (These prices went up in April 2024.)
Qantas now offers a pay-as-you-go "Flexible" option, where you pay each month rather than annually. That costs $99 a month, and auto-renews each 28 days.
If you're an irregular traveller but have a few flights coming up, Flexible might seem like a tempting temporary option. But a close look suggests it's probably not worth it.
You still have to pay the $129 joining fee. So a single month will cost you $228. (And after 6 months, an annual membership would be cheaper.)
What does getting into the lounge get you? Broadly speaking, somewhere to sit, somewhere to plug in your devices, and free food and drink.
The first two don't always count for much. In busy periods, you'll sometimes struggle to find a free seat or a vacant power outlet.
So food and drink are key. At the airport:
- You'll pay around $6 for a coffee
- You'll pay around $20 for a Club-equivalent meal
- You'll pay around $15 for an alcoholic drink
That means in the first month, you'd need to visit the lounge 6 times to be ahead financially. In subsequent months, you'd need at least 3 visits.
Most travellers won't fit that profile.
The food options in a Qantas Regional lounge - even harder to get value for money here! Image: Angus Kidman/Finder
Annual Qantas Club members can invite a guest into the lounge, which lets you effectively double the value. But Flexible members don't get to invite a guest.
Until March 2025, Flexible members also get an additional 9kg checked baggage allowance (32kg rather than 23kg). That would normally cost $50 at the airport. So that might add some value, but it's not a permanent feature, and most folks don't want to lug a 30kg suitcase around.
Bottom line? Most folks could do better buying food or drink elsewhere in the airport, unless they have very specific luggage needs and a lot of flights booked in a short space of time.
If you do sign up for Flexible, remember to cancel once you're not using it - otherwise Qantas will keep charging you each month. If you cancel and then decide to restart your membership, you'll have to pay the joining fee again if more than 90 days have passed since your membership lapsed. Ouch.
Side note: you can pay for Qantas Club annual membership with Qantas Points, but that's not a good way of using them. Joining and signing up for a year costs 138,000 Qantas Points - giving each 1,000 points a value of around $6. That's way lower than using those Qantas Points for flights or upgrades.
Want to keep your frequent flyer points balance growing? Check out the latest credit card sign-up deals.