Cairns Airport Reef International Lounge

The Cairns Airport Reef International Lounge is the main, if not the only, international airport lounge at Cairns airport. It is quite small and quiet, with comfortable chairs. There isn't much food however, but the bar is top notch. It's a decent place to spend an hour, but not much more than that.

The lounge is mainly used by Cathay Pacific.

Cairns Reef - International lounge review

The Reef Cairns lounge is a small basic box of a lounge - but it does at least beat sitting outside in the main departure hall at Cairns International, or the small cafe. The Reef Lounge at Cairns International is a private lounge, operated for United, Qantas and Cathay Pacific airlines: it used to the the Cairns Qantas Club international, until Qantas turned all Cairns flights in Australian Airlines and then Jetstar flights: it is still the same as it was when it was built in the 80s, with basic furniture and little in the way of amenities. It is very plain, uninviting and drab. Mind you, if you look at the wall, you can see where the Qantas logos were roughly painted out when Qantas shipped out. The lounge is small, with plenty of 2+2 purple seats next to the small bar and food servery, and with a small window overlooking the airport.

Food

Food in the Cairns Reef International Lounge is pretty basic, with just a few sandwiches under the plastic cover beside the entrance. Nuts and biscuits are on the shelf.

Bar

At least the bar in the Cairns Reef Lounge is better than you would expect. There is a small wine fridge high up in the wall with three white wines. Three decent reds are on the worktop. Beer is good with VB, Crown, Tooeys, and Peroni, in bottles. Soft drinks are in cans. The bar is open from 10.30 am.

Business Facilites

None, but there is free Wifi thanks to the airport's own supply. There is a newspaper stand, with one single copy of the Cairns Post, the Australian, and the Mail. There is a TV.

Bathrooms

There are bathrooms and showers in the lounge, but they are tiny: you may be better off with the ones in the main departure lounge.

Access

This is the Cathay Pacific Cairns lounge. This is where it gets tricky. Access to the Cairns Reef Lounge should, in theory, be via a frequent flyer card, or Business Class boarding pass. Alas, the Reef Lounge is now regularly turning away passengers who don't have the right kind of voucher given at check in. Always make sure you have one, particularly if you have a paid membership of either the Qantas Club or United Club membership. In particular QantasClub does not give you access to the lounge on a Cathay Pacific flight, or Jetstar unless Star Class. There is also difficultly if you have status in oneworld or Star Alliance Gold membership and try to access the lounge: you really really need to have a voucher from checkin in these circumstances. However, the lounge is also Priority Pass, and you can access the lounge without problems with Priority Pass.