oneworld member Qantas is having a 72 hour sale on Qantas Club memberships

“Qantas Club” Photo credit: Bentley Smith on Flickr

Last year I seriously considered joining Qantas Club instead of buying a membership at the Admirals Club for one big reason: Qantas Club members can access the Admirals Club when traveling on American Airlines and British Airways lounges when traveling on British Airways.

So even if you never travel on Qantas, a membership in their lounge is useful when you travel on American Airlines. An Admirals Club membership won’t get you access to any partner lounges, even when traveling on a partner airline (recently that changed and Admirals Club members can get into the Alaska Airlines Board Room when traveling on certain flights).

In the past it wasn’t a problem for me, I had AAdvantage Platinum status and was able to to access oneworld partner lounges when traveling on a international itinerary, but my travel dropped off last year and so because I dropped down to AAdvantage Gold status, I no longer have access to oneworld lounges when traveling.

I still have my Admirals Club membership, so it’s not a big problem except when I connect at London Heathrow to a British Airways flight. Heathrow has an Admirals Club lounge in Terminal 4, but British Airways flights leave out of Terminal 5 and you have to clear through security when transferring between the two terminals. So now that I don’t have access to any of the BA lounges in Terminal 5, a Qantas Club membership would solve that problem. I enjoy having access to free wifi, a place to brush my teeth and clean up a bit, and the snacks, but in the end I decided against it mainly because of the cost. I just couldn’t justify the extra cost of a Quantas Club membership in order to use the BA lounges a couple of times each year. I do miss the British Airways bacon sandwiches though!

But for others though, a Qantas Club membership might make more sense. Particularly so now that Quantas is having a 72 membership sale:

By joining The Qantas Club, you’ll be welcome to relax, dine, freshen up or even catch up on work before you fly at more than 25 international and domestic departure lounges around Australia when travelling on an eligible flight#. Plus, you’ll be welcome at more than 130 Qantas Clubs, International Qantas Business Lounges and partner and associated airline departure lounges around the world.

You’ll also enjoy exclusive membership privileges such as a chip enabled membership card allowing you to access faster, smarter check-in at selected domestic airports, as well as the ability to request On Departure Upgrades using points within Australia and receive International Priority Check-in when travelling on a Qantas International flight.

However, during this 72 hour sale you can buy a membership for $470 AUD instead of the usual $840 AUD. The fine print though is this:

Rates are…based upon a tax residency of Australia for Australian Income Tax purposes.

I went ahead and tried to sign up using my U.S. address and it let me, so I’m not sure how that is defined or what qualifies as residency, so that a question better answered by someone that’s familiar with that issue. But if you do qualify as an Australian resident for AU Income Tax purposes, you might want to take advantage of this sale before it end at 11:59pm AEST on 30 June 2011.

Go here to join or to read the complete terms and conditions.