Qatar Airways reopening Singapore Premium Lounge on 15 June

There’s another lounge option for oneworld passengers to look forward to in Singapore this month, with what’s arguably the best business class facility at Changi Airport set to reopen its doors in Terminal 1, offering relaxation pods, a martini bar, private shower suites and à la carte dining to those flying at ‘the pointy end’.

Qatar Airways confirmed to Mainly Miles that its Singapore Premium Lounge will open its doors to eligible guests again from Wednesday 15th June 2022, the same week Qantas will reopen its Singapore First Lounge, for a full pre-pandemic selection of options for oneworld travellers departing from Changi T1.

Unlike other oneworld lounges at the airport, however, this one is exclusive to those actually flying in First Class or Business Class, with top-tier status holders unfortunately directed elsewhere, due to the intimate size of the facility.

Opening hours

In common with its pre-pandemic operation, the Qatar Singapore Premium Lounge will open three hours before the scheduled departure time of each of the airline’s flights to Doha, however where the airline operates an evening and 2am departure on the same night there is no closure between the two flights.

Opening hours from 15th June to 30th June 2022:

• Daily: 5.55pm to 2.40am

Opening hours from 1st July 2022:

• Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun: 5.55pm to 2.40am
• Tue, Thu, Sat: 7.25am to 10.25am and 5.55pm to 2.40am

From July, the Qatar Singapore Lounge will once again be the only oneworld facility in T1 with a morning opening window, which can be useful for certain departure timings with JAL and Malaysia Airlines.

Location

The Qatar Airways Singapore Premium Lounge is located on Level 3 of Changi Terminal 1’s transit area, one level above the departure concourse.

After clearing the T1 immigration desks, make a left turn towards the C gates, then walk all the way to the end of the concourse to the second escalator, directly in front of you adjacent to gate C1 up to the lounges.

Note that this is not the first escalator as you head towards the C gates marked ‘Lounges’, which in fact leads you up to the BA, Qantas Business and SATS facilities. You have to continue all the way to the end of the concourse, where the C gates themselves begin, to locate this lounge.

Our review

Despite the brief operation of this lounge in early 2020 before COVID-19 hit, we managed to thoroughly review the facility in its first week of opening, experiencing both the morning breakfast service and an evening visit on the same day.

This elegant lounge only seats 85 customers across a 700 square metre space, which compares extremely favourably to other oneworld options at Changi Airport, as outlined below.

Oneworld Lounges at Changi Airport
Capacity and Floorspace

Lounge	Size (sq m)	Capacity (pax)
Qatar Airways	~ 700	85
Cathay Pacific	849	~ 200
British Airways	1,005	226
Qantas First	~ 1,000	240
Qantas Business	~ 2,200	570

Even at full capacity, the Qatar Premium Lounge offers an insane amount of space per guest.

It’s also interesting to note that the Qantas First Lounge (see our December 2019 review) squeezes almost three times as many people in, despite only being around 40% bigger than the Qatar lounge, because most of the seating in the Qantas facility is dedicated to dining – much more densely arranged than lounge seating provisioned for relaxation or work.

Overall our thoughts on the Qatar Singapore Premium Lounge were:

• An elegant, luxury finish
• Professional and personable service
• Fantastic à la carte dining and a tended martini bar
• Private shower suites with high-end Diptyque toiletries

Lounge access

This lounge is available to passengers flying on a Qatar Airways or any oneworld member operated flight:

• in First Class or in Business Class*.
• in any class of travel provided they are connecting between oneworld marketed and operated flights on the same day of travel, or before 6am the following day, having arrived in First Class or Business Class with a scheduled flight time longer than 5 hours (e.g. Qantas Business Class SYD-SIN followed by SriLankan Economy Class SIN-CMB, access is permitted). You are required to retain your boarding card from the arriving long-haul flight for lounge access in this case.

* Except for Qatar Airways’ Business Class Lite Fare (Booking Class ‘P’), which does not benefit from lounge access

Note that Qatar Airways does not include lounge access to those upgrading their Economy tickets to Business Class using Avios. The policy also applies to this lounge in Singapore.

However, full redemptions in Business Class using Avios, or via other frequent flyer programmes like Asia Miles, are eligible.

What about status holders?

If you hold Qatar Airways Privilege Club Silver, Gold or Platinum status, or are a oneworld Sapphire or Emerald member flying in Economy Class on Qatar Airways, you will instead be directed to the SATS Premier Lounge in Terminal 1.

That’s a rather average facility, so provided it’s between approximately 3pm and midnight we would instead strongly recommend visiting the far superior Qantas Singapore Business Lounge or the British Airways Singapore Lounge.

If you’re Qatar Platinum or oneworld Emerald and it’s between 3pm and midnight there’s no contest – take the short walk to the Qantas Singapore First Lounge, which we currently rate as one of the best (if not the best) at Changi. It reopens on 18th June 2022.

Guest policy

Passengers travelling in oneworld First Class, for example on a British Airways or Qantas operated flight, may invite one guest into the lounge with them.

The guest must be travelling on a oneworld operated flight in this case, though it does not need to be the same flight as the lead passenger (for example, your guest can be flying Malaysia Airlines Economy Class to Kuala Lumpur).

Those accessing this lounge based on travel in Business Class are not permitted to bring any guests into the lounge with them.

It’s a wrap for oneworld lounges at Changi T1

Once this lounge and the Qantas First Class option reopen by the end of next week, Singapore Changi Airport will have its full suite of oneworld alliance Terminal 1 lounges in operation.

• British Airways Singapore Lounge: 4pm – 10pm daily
• Qantas Singapore Business Lounge: 3pm – midnight daily
• Qantas Singapore First Lounge: 3pm – midnight daily
• Qatar Singapore Premium Lounge: Operating hours vary (see above)

On the oneworld side, this leaves only the Cathay Pacific lounge in Terminal 4 to return to operation, though the terminal remains closed to passenger operations at the time of writing, and Cathay Pacific is still operating a skeleton schedule to and from Singapore, so an immediate reopening would be unlikely even if the terminal itself comes back into operation soon.

Qatar Airways flight schedule

Here’s the planned flight schedule for Qatar Airways departures from Singapore Changi Airport between 15th June and 29th October 2022, outlining the carrier’s 10 weekly services.

Qatar Airways
Singapore to Doha
15th – 30th June 2022

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	QR945 A350
SIN 02:40		DOH 05:50
	QR947 A350
SIN 20:55		DOH 00:05*

From July the evening QR947 flight on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays reverts to morning operation at 10.25am.

Qatar Airways
Singapore to Doha
1st July – 29th October 2022

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	QR945 A350*
SIN 02:40		DOH 05:50
	QR947 A350
SIN 10:25		DOH 13:35

* Boeing 777-200LR operation planned during September 2022

Provisionally, Qatar Airways is planning twice daily operation from Singapore to Doha from the start of the northern winter season on 30th October 2022, with departures at 9.25pm (QR947) and 2.00am (QR945) each night, which would give us a daily lounge opening window from around 6.30pm to 2.00am.

Prior to the pandemic, Qatar Airways operated three daily departures to Doha from Singapore, at around 2am, 11am and 8.30pm.

Some flights have the Qsuite

Prior to COVID-19, Qatar Airways was operating only Airbus A350-1000s, all of which are equipped with the Qsuite in Business Class, or Qsuite-equipped Airbus A350-900s, to and from Singapore.

This guaranteed the excellent product on all flights in and out of Changi, however the same unfortunately does not apply today.

Effectively the airline is scheduling some A350-1000 flights from the airport, which all have Qsuite, and some A350-900 flights, some of which also have Qsuite but some of which have the older configuration.

Even if you’re on this older product, we reviewed it in September 2019 on an A350-900 flight from Athens to Doha and had a good experience, though it’s a lot less private.

At the time of writing, Qatar Airways is also planning to operate Singapore flights with Boeing 777-200LR aircraft in the month of September 2022, with its oldest long-haul 2-2-2 configuration in Business Class – one to avoid if you can!

Qatar Airways is notorious for its aircraft swaps, however, so you can’t really predict accurately too far in advance. Even short-term aircraft swaps can see you upgraded to the Qsuite (or vice-versa) on a regular basis!

The Qatar Airways Singapore Premium Lounge is hands-down one of the best Business Class lounges in the world, and almost certainly takes that accolade at Changi Airport, with its martini bar, à la carte dining, and First-Class-style space and privacy for each guest.

The reopening of the lounge on 15th June is great news for those departing from Singapore T1 in Business Class with Qatar Airways, or in First Class or Business Class with a oneworld airline, provided the opening times for the lounge fit with your departure.

Hopefully Qatar Airways will continue to expand its Singapore flight schedule in the months ahead, but even if this lounge is closed when you’re flying there are now a variety of oneworld alternatives in T1, from British Airways and Qantas.

(Cover Photo: Qatar Airways)