These Shoes Can Get You Booted from a Qantas Lounge
If you want to use one of Qantas' amazinglounges, you should know that you're going to have to adhere to the dress code. English pop signer Joanne Catherall learned this the hard way when she was, ahem, booted out of a Melbourne Qantas lounge on Thursday for wearing the wrong shoes:
Catherall went on to complain about the classification of UGG shoes as sleepwear: "Why would an UGG boot I wear outdoors in all weathers be classed as sleepwear in Qantas lounge but nowhere else that I have ever been on this earth?"
The Qantas lounge dress code is not by any means unclear. I'm currently in Perth, Australia testing the brand new Qantas 787-9 on its domestic runs and each lounge I've visited (SYD, MEL and PER) has made these rules exceedingly clear with signs outside the lounge. For example, here's the entrance to the Qantas Business Lounge in PER:
And here's the escalator up to the entrance of the MEL lounge Catherall was turned away from:
If Catherall was a follower of mine on Twitter, she would have seen that I posted about the Qantas lounge dress code just a few days ago:
The airline helpfully puts this reminder about its lounge dress code at the priority check-in desk in Sydney's Terminal 3. That way, if you're wearing improper clothing, you can presumably pull different clothes from your bag before checking it.
The same information was posted at the MEL priority check-in when I used it on Wednesday — just a day before Catherall did. Although, to be fair, it was a much smaller sign than in SYD:
In all of these signs, a photo of an UGG boot is used as a specific example of "sleepwear." However, if this is unclear, the online Qantas Club Dress Guide makes it explicit:
Our team will decline entry if some items of clothing are too casual or inappropriate. This includes, but is not limited to:
- Thongs and bare feet
- Head to toe gym wear
- Beachwear (including board shorts)
- Sleepwear (including UGG Boots and slippers)
- Clothing featuring offensive images or slogans
- Revealing, unclean or torn clothing
So, the next time you want to enter a Qantas lounge — and you'll want to do so if you have access — make sure to bring the right clothing. And if you must wear your UGG boots on the plane, make sure you have another pair of shoes for the lounge.
What do you think about Qantas' lounge dress code?
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