Inside look at Virgin Australia’s Beyond lounge

Stars of ‘travel, politics, sport and music’ are welcome at the airline’s revamped invitation-only lounge as it tries to win back key customers from Qantas.

Virgin Australia’s invitation only Beyond lounge has opted for lots of leather and wood panelling. Source: Supplied.,

Virgin Australia has lifted the veil on its revamped invitation-only lounge as the airline takes up the fight for corporate customers to Qantas.

Normally shrouded in secrecy, Virgin invited the media into the wood-panelled sanctuary of its “Beyond” lounge on Wednesday, after two-years in mothballs.

Previously known as The Club, the lounge is Virgin’s answer to Qantas’s exclusive Chairman’s Lounge, considered the private domain of politicians, judges and captains of industry.

CEO Jayne Hrdlicka said the reopening of the lounge was a milestone for the airline’s transformation strategy, with the promise of more changes to come.

“We’re still a work in progress and I’ll say we’ve probably got another two big years of transformation and then we’ll continue to make changes to our business ongoing,” Ms Hrdlicka said.

“(We believe) Beyond is going to be very popular with business leaders who are looking for premium travel experiences for their businesses matched with great value airfares.”

Membership to the lounge was invitation-only, but corporations were being made aware that they could qualify for entry if they spent a significant amount on travel with Virgin.

Others to be offered access to the well-appointed space included “key individuals from the world of travel, politics, sport and music”.

As well as an a la carte menu, private office spaces and a secret entry door, Beyond guests could expect a dedicated phone concierge for any booking changes and four free upgrades to business class a year.

In addition guests were entitled to a second membership for their spouse or partner, and a Velocity gold membership for an executive assistant.

Ms Hrdlicka admitted the decision to reopen the exclusive lounge was driven by demand from corporate clients who wanted the high-end service previously provided by The Club.

“It’s very important (to them) and we spent a lot of time talking to guests who were former members of The Club lounge,” she said.

“We are a value conscious airline so we don’t want to invest in things that don’t matter to people, and so we’ve taken our time, done a lot of research and now we’re able to unveil our Beyond lounges.”

Located at Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane Airports, Virgin Australia had no immediate plans to resurrect the top tier lounges at Canberra and Perth Airports.

Ms Hrdlicka said they would keep their options open, as the travel market returned in the wake of the Covid pandemic.

“We’ve had a spectacular Easter school holiday period. It’s so fantastic to see the airports busy again and see families out travelling and getting back to extraordinary experiences shared together.”

David Flynn from independent website ExecutiveTraveller.com said the revamped lounge was a “clear signal Virgin was not being constrained by its avowed ‘mid-market’ approach”.

Instead the move was an “aggressive play against Qantas for its share of the profitable east coast golden triangle market”, he said.

“Beyond is another piece that fits into the Virgin Australia puzzle, but there are still some pieces missing,” said Mr Flynn.

“Business travellers and frequent flyers are eagerly awaiting the return of inflight WiFi and the fast-track premium entry lane at Virgn’s Sydney and Brisbane terminals.”

Ms Hrdlicka said premium entry lanes would be reopened as the business travel market rebuilt, and inflight WiFi remained under consideration.

“We’re working our way through that option, hopefully (there will be an announcement) in the next couple of months,” she said.