This was a HUGE step up from the Quanta's Business Lounge, but even then, you notice some things…read morethat are lacking. It's not necessarily their fault but it is what it is. They are the Amex Centurion Lounge... run by Plaza Premium. I don't believe I've had a chance to try a Plaza premium lounge so is this what would be expected? Possibly. In any case for an AMEX lounge it definitely was lacking in 2 places: the bar and the seating. This is without a doubt, the smallest centurion lounge that I've been to. Really not that much seating compared to others, yet still much more accommodating than the average priority lounge. Service: They were transitioning meals at the time and so it took a good chunk of time before we could actually get food. The sign asked for 20 minutes to change over. Realistically, it shouldn't take 20 minutes just to swap out food. If that's the case, then you should leave up the previous meal service so that people can get what they need and leave if they're in a rush. Then just transition the food to the next meal when the food is ready. As for the table, it took a while to lock in a table and get it cleaned. We had asked the workers, whenever they get a chance to please wipe down a couple of dirty tables of people who had left but it took a while for anyone to come over. By the time someone had come, we already started just getting drinks. As for the bar, it moved VERY SLOW but I don't hold that against them. They had a combo alcohol/coffee bar. At the time it was one person running both sides so it took my family a very long time to get their coffees. Because of this, I decided not to get coffee. The woman working the counter did her best and she was so nice. Eventually another person came to help her so it started to move much faster. When she came over to the bar side the woman was able to pump those drinks out quickly. The downside to the alcohol side of the bar, it's not at the level of a typical centurion lounge. I'm used to a large full bar with plenty of offerings, and more importantly, its own cocktail list inspired by the location but this place did not have that. Maybe because it's technically a plaza premium lounge? As for the food I will say I was pleasantly surprised for the most part. A good selection of substantial food. Some of the foods include:"salads," cakes, noodles, a veggie dish with tofu, pizza and even braised beef bourguignon. Big negative mark for dirty forks.

This Centurion Lounge is so crowded, tables were dirty, chairs uncomfortable, stark fluorescent…read morelight, food was really unappetizing. This is not the same Centurion lounge in the USA! Too crowded, chairs needed to be replaced.

Top-notch lounge close to my gate. It is part of the Star Alliance Gold. Very clean, organized and…read morea great buffet. Need to go to the counter and use the pad to order a variety of coffees and chai tea. Lots of seating areas. Make you sure you bring an adaptor to charge your phone. Bathrooms very clean.

This is a beautiful lounge. There is even a barista here to make your coffee drink. The lounge…read moredoes become rather crowded. The food is decent as is the overall experience.

Better than gen pop, but not by much…read more Small lounge with not much going on. The breakfast offerings were basic and not very good at all. They do make a good coffee though. Staff was pleasant enough.

We dropped by this lounge b4 our flight back to LAX bc the Amex & House lounges were not near our…read moregate. There were positives & negatives: Positives: Nice lady in front; Lotion in restroom; Decent food and they make your coffee to order Negatives: Small space w/ single person rest rooms; All in all, a positive experience. Lounges are a great way to relax b4 a flight.

The Qantas First Lounge at Sydney's international terminal is a very nice place to wait for your…read moreflight. Like most Elite Lounges I've visited, there are self serve coffee/tea/snack stations. Unlike most, there is no buffet or self serve bar. There is an attentive staff that take your food/drink order off a very nice selection on their menu. Both menus highlight Australian produced food and wines. Very nice! The lounge is large and sirs over the Qantas gates, so its easy to see when your plane is at the gate. They also use the archaic mechanical flight screen that gives a delightful click-click-clack every time it updates. Guaranteed to bring back delightful memories for us older travelers!

What an awesome experience at the lounge this time round. Anna is amazing. She greeted us at the…read morefront entrance and was kind to inform us at a high level, the One World perks. We entered the lounge and the deco was awesome. Escalator up we did another round of check in and were guided towards the seating area. You can choose to sit anyone but those who would prefer to eat get seated in a reserved area for food. We sat in the casual area for some coffee and champagne and then later decided to eat. We had a full meal of options to choose from. They have an open kitchen and the variety did not disappoint. I had the corn soup and fish with veggies which was good. We also had lamb and fries which did not disappoint. Lounge has a great variety of wine and champagne. If you have a lot of time you can use their Spa. The lounge itself is very clean, and everyone here is very friendly and helpful. Location is awesome as well. View of plane landing and taking off. Our gate was below us so we could see our plane landing. This was our third time using the lounge at Sydney airport and was the best experience.

So this was supposed to be a Business class lounge. I'll start with the ups. This large had PLENTY…read moreof seating and was pretty spacious. Chairs were comfy enough as well. The down sides. I could barely find charging ports and the ones that I did find were very loose. I came just as they were transitioning meals so they were cleaning up the previous meal service and were bringing out a whole new set of fresh food. When I finally came up after they swapped all the food out, it turned out to be one of the most lacking lounge buffets I had ever seen. Don't get me wrong, I understand that this is an airport lounge. I understand that this isn't a full-fledged restaurant. But for a business class level lounge, I just expected a better offering aside from quinoa, salad and veggies. No alcohol either?? Even the lowest level of lounges have some kind of alcohol offerings whether paid or free. I'm being especially harsh because this is, in theory, supposed to be a more exclusive higher level lounge and they just didn't hit the mark. Side note whatever protein they put in their mid salad (tuna?), it was so dry chalky. I left QUICK to the Amex Centurion lounge. PS: even the Fiji Airport Priority lounge had better offerings than this lounge. Substantial food, coffee bar and alcohol (albeit on the smaller side)

The lounge is spacious and the more people that came in the more room there seems to be…read more Food quality was amazing and the staff attending to passengers were very friendly and lively. One gentlemen which I did not get his name helped me and my mom with smiles and happiness all around. Lively experience in general and would definitely recommend it

Gayle and I were flying home to Reno (via LAX) on United, and were given a choice between the Air…read moreNew Zealand or the Singapore Airlines lounges. We were talked into the former, and wondered what we missed with the later. In any event, it was a very nice and relaxing lounge experience. The food was good, barista coffee was slow coming out but good, the view of the runway was nice, and lounge staff were professional and courteous. It also wasn't too crowded. The only real "complaint" we had was it was a fairly long walk to the United gate.

Great lounge in Sydney! I was on an international flight and went to this relaxing lounge - and not…read moreas crowded as the American Express lounge. Breakfast foods were a plenty, yogurt, fruit, pancake maker, made to order omelettes, great pastries. I highly recommend this lounge!

The food was exceptional, the selection of beers and wines was as expected…read more The service was fantastic! Always nice to have someone come up and let you know that your flight gate was about to open. I took the Monday 9:15pm flight to DXB, so the lounge wasn't that busy but I have heard that the reverse leg in the morning to Christchurch near packs the Lounge out. The views were nice, but the amenities were nice and clean

One of the best Business Class Lounges. Beats Qantas Business Class Lounge in Sydney hands down…read more This may not be entirely representative as I was here at 7:00am for the 8:45 am flight to Auckland. The lounge was not crowded. Breakfast was well presented and good, serving sausages, chicken loaf, omelette, backed beans, mushroom and more. The fruit counter had a selection of fruit and cold meats all pre-arranged on plates. There were quite a few staff standing around or clearing things up and holding trays at the coffee machine. Stupid me asked for a cup of coffee and was promptly pointed to the machine! I thought there were there to serve me! But no big deal....,

Decent lounge, located in the middle of the airport gates. Cosy, but enough room. Choices of food…read moreis very limited. Quality is below average. The scrambled eggs looked like someone threw them up again. Dishes like the cheese platter were not stocked. Poor choice of bread and limited pastries. But worst thing: no water available. Only limited soft drinks (Coca Cola regular, Coca Cola diet and Sprite). Good choice of coffee and spirits though. Nice touch are the fresh juices like watermelon/orange. Too much noise coming from the open kitchen door with loud chefs cleaning dishes.

As sky team lounges go this location is pretty solid. Maybe not quite as much space as some of the…read moreothers, but well maintained with all the bells and whistles you would expect including showers, and a decent food selection.

Over the years I have reviewed this airport and all the same issues still exist…read more Charging stations.... Where are they near the gates The PA system is so muffled that you have to strain to hear it I appreciate the airports proximity to the city and how easy it is to reach city centre

Very expansive International terminal in Sydney Australia, with plenty of separation between…read morecheck-in areas, high-end duty-free shopping, and very large gates with modern check-in equipment. Ended up being an easy experience: a good start to a long flight back to the States. We stayed overnight around Chinatown in Sydney, and our flight was leaving around 09:30, so pre-reserved an Uber for 06:00 pickup. It was a Friday morning, and the area was pretty empty so pickup was easy and ended up being about a 30 minute drive (costing AU$50). The dropoff area is large, identified by letters, so even though the Uber App asked which airline we were taking, it didn't tell the driver which letter to drop us off at. Thus, he did it as fast as possible (near 'B'), and we found out inside that Delta was 'J' (so a bit of a walk with a lot of checked baggage). This could work better if it was more clearly identifiable which airlines were where. There was a dedicated area to self-checkin and print out any luggage tags. There was only one flight but the lines were a bit long though it moved quickly. There were ambassadors pre-checking passports using ipads, and tagging carry-on bags to ease later processing. We were able to check in all of the bags we needed, and then headed through restaurants and shops before reaching immigration. Immigration was a simple photo take and you were on your way. Next was security: laptops and shoes could remain as-is; only belts and emptying of pockets was required. They still use full body scans here, though they ask for your arms to be at your side slightly away from your body instead of the jumping jack position that I was used to when going through in the States. My bag did get flagged, but a supervisor was able to confirm that it was a harmless back scratcher and didn't have to open the bag. You then walk through long wide corridors of duty free shops. We ended up stopping at two different lounges, but still got to the gate just before they started boarding. There are plenty of seating at the gates, and the mouth of the entrance to the jet bridge is wide: even though there were a lot of folks waiting around, it didn't seem as crowed. Another picture of your face got you through, and we were able to fully get everybody onboard 20 minutes before schedule (though we actually took off about 25 minutes after).

Touchdown is the downstairs bar in the Rydges Hotel at Sydney Airport. I'm not sure what is more…read moreconfusing: the fact that it is named after an American football term; or the fact that they couldn't make a basic cocktail correctly. (More on that later). The vibe here was laid back sports bar with a focus on beers, wine and simple drinks. Sadly, the beer list was short and standard (Australian macrobrews like VB, Carlton, etc.) The short food list was actually better than I expected, with a selection of apps (wings, meatballs), entrees (burgers, steak, salmon) and desserts. It was certainly enough to suit me, so I ate here for dinner and watched some local sports (continuing my increasing fascination with cricket). My burger and fries were pretty good, and just what I wanted. But after a few mediocre beers I decided to test the bar by ordering something basic. Specifically, I asked for an Old Fashioned (It's a never-ending quest). The young bartender got busy, muddling some fruit, adding sugar and bitters, before finally adding the liquor (which I couldn't see). The result tasted familiar, but strange...REALLY strange. I sipped slowly, but it never got any better. After about 15 minutes, the bartender proudly showed me the single malt scotch he made it with... [Insert Forehead Slap here]. No wonder it tasted strange - This drink is made with Rye or Bourbon only; and what a waste of a single malt! Dear management- you might want to think about training your bartenders to do something more than pour wine and beer.