KEY POINTS:
After a day of meetings, and the usual airport palaver of checking in, queuing for security, taking your laptop in and out of your bag, a welcoming lounge with all the facilities can be the best part of the day.
No more meetings to prepare for and a respite before the kids fall all over you at home. These lounges are like a little oasis, a time for replenishment and revitalisation, and the airlines are realising their importance to corporate clients.
In the past year, Air New Zealand, Emirates and Qantas have been spending some serious money on making them out of the ordinary, hotels away from home.
Air New Zealand's new international lounges, designed by David Scott, are now operating in Los Angeles, Melbourne and Christchurch. With attention to detail, you'll find some number eight wire incorporated in the hostess's "pod" (podium) made from a Totara trunk
Busy corporate travellers are invited to sit with their laptops at a big communal table near the food area. "I am sure there will have been deals hatched at those tables,' says Scott.
The designer says in designing the lounges he was trying to take the most iconic elements from the New Zealand bach - so the communal table represents the bach kitchen table where everything from card playing to gutting the fish is done.
The materials are suitably "beachhouse-y" made of weatherboard, corrugated acrylics and recycled timber.
There are also separate places to get away and do some work or watch some good sport.
For travellers with children, a dedicated children's lounge designed with a Buzzy Bee and Poppy theme is provided.
"We have grown a number of spaces that have their own personality," says Scott.
The international lounges are open to Business Premier Class travellers, paying Koru Club members, and passengers with Star Gold and Gold Elite airpoints.
Auckland International Airport is next on the list for an international lounge, in the next 12 months, then Heathrow, then San Francisco, says Ed Sims, group general manager of international airline.
Sims says there is more emphasis put on the ground service. People are spending more time in lounges because they are getting to the airport earlier for security reasons.
Even if it is only 20 per cent [of their experience] it is critical to get it right, he says.
The improved business lounge experience is a plus if you are travelling with clients.
"When you are hosting clients, it is incredibly important. They want to be proud of their national airline,' says Sims.
Meanwhile, for its first class travellers, Qantas is pulling out all the stops with its new First Lounges.
Qantas first class travellers will have a range of goodies such as a chair-side waiter, food made to the instructions of acclaimed chef Neil Perry, a dedicated entertainment zone with banks of plasma screens and luxurious marble lined shower suites complete with luggage racks designed by industrial Australian designer, Marc Newson, the lounges are managed by the hotel group Sofitel.
Other perks to being a first class Qantas passenger is the new premium check in service at Sydney and Melbourne international terminals where passengers are checked in prior to arriving at the airport and greeted by a Qantas First host and porter.
Emirates, meanwhile, has been running business lounges with panache for years.
Its new two-level business lounge in Dubai even has guest bedrooms, while the first class lounge has double bedrooms and ensuites.
Emirates offers a top-quality dedicated lounge airside at Auckland International Airport, with seating for more than 100 passengers.
This lounge is the only one in Auckland with wi-fi access and a chauffeur-driven service is all part of premium offering, says Emirates NZ manager, Chris Lethbridge.
- Detours, HoS
