I have tried all the domestic airport lounges in Sydney - here's my verdict

I'm a regular visitor to Qantas Clubs, Velocity Lounges and Rex Lounges throughout Australia, and an occasional caller on Qantas Business Lounges. The Sydney lounges tend to be the largest, so they offer a reasonable guide to an airline's portfolio. This is what I enjoy (and don't) about them...

Sydney Domestic Terminal 2

The Sydney Velocity Lounge is always crowded - probably because the upper section is never open - and has a shopping-mall food-hall ambience. There's seating all over the place and, if you're not by the window, you're likely to enjoy panoramic views of other customers.

The food improves all the time. The curries are good, but the kitchen is probably at its best when mimicking fast-food favourites. Sometimes a Velocity Lounge even serves the real thing: I once enjoyed two plates of Betty's Burgers sliders at the Melbourne Lounge.

The coffee station is as popular as any good suburban cafe, with similar queues in the early morning.

The bar is Velocity's main failing. Beers tend towards the insipid - with either no carbs or no alcohol - and the wine bottles look like they've been left in a bath at the end of a party.

Access: Virgin Lounge members, Velocity Frequent Flyer Gold and Platinum members, Virgin Australia business-class passengers, American Express Platinum cardholders. Single-entry passes cost $65.

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Sydney Domestic Terminal 3

Even at peak times, the Qantas Club tends to lack the frenetic atmosphere that grips the Velocity Lounge when the hot food arrives. But then, the hot food is nowhere near as good as Velocity's. A recent dinner of bean nachos at the Brisbane Qantas Club tasted like a tin of baked beans with corn chips. Most customers choose from the all-day menu, which essentially means either an over-chilled salad or a self-service ham-and-cheese toastie. I recently asked for chicken sausages from the breakfast menu in Sydney, to be told, "We haven't done them for a while." So why were they still on the menu? But there's a children's play area, great runway views and a much better bar than the Velocity Lounge, with a good selection of tap beers and ciders.

Access: Qantas Club members; Gold, Platinum and Platinum One Qantas Frequent Flyers; business-class passengers. You can also buy a lounge pass - the cost apparently varies by port, but they're about $59.

Sydney Domestic Terminal 3

The Qantas Business Lounge is urbane and civilised, like being inside the business pages of The Australian newspaper while surrounded by its more aspirational readers. There's even a handy signboard keeping track of movements on the stock exchange.

The Business Lounge is exclusive - the only public lounge at Sydney Domestic Airport where you can't purchase a casual entry - but a bit tired and faded and due for a revamp. That said, it's closer to the original idea of an airport lounge than any of its competitors. The food is better at the Melbourne Business Lounge, where the Spice Bar's laksas are popular.

Access: Qantas Frequent Flyer Platinum and Platinum One members, Qantas business-class passengers.

Sydney Domestic Terminal 2

The Rex Lounge lies behind a secret door. Well, it's not that secret - it's next to the Rex service desk - but it is unlabelled, and lounge members are issued with a personal code and must have their fingerprints scanned to enter.

The rest of the set-up is pretty low-tech, however: on one visit, the handheld Priority Pass card reader didn't work because the Wi-Fi was down.

The lounge has the rustic charm of a country motel. The hot food was late arriving on the afternoon when the Wi-Fi went down, but visitors could use the kettle to make Fantastic beef noodles, while enjoying views of Virgin passengers hurrying past the window to their departure gates.

Packets of chips, banana bread and, of course, lamingtons also help to stave off the hunger. And there's wine and beer and soft drinks, and a coffee machine that's not quite as good as the one I've got at home.

However, unlike many other lounges, the Rex Lounge maintains a row of ergonomically superior desktop computers. Hooray!

Also, I once visited the Rex Lounge early one morning and there was nobody else there - which certainly doesn't happen in the Velocity Lounge or Qantas Club. At my most recent visit a few weeks ago, the woman at the desk outside said, "It's self service, and you clean up after yourself."

Access: Rex Lounge members, Rex business-class passengers, Priority Pass members. Casual access to the lounge can be purchased from $16.50-$33 but only on certain fare classes.

Domestic airports in the 1980s were overcrowded and under-catered, with too few seats and bathrooms, wildly expensive cafeteria food, and beer at champagne prices. But not everybody suffered: Ansett Australia's Gold Wing and Australian Airlines' Flight Deck clubs (remember them?) gave business- and first-class travellers a welcome refuge from the unwashed mob of people who had bought their own tickets. In 1992, Qantas merged with Australian Airlines and took over Flight Deck. Economy-class passengers could join and use the lounges for an annual fee, but membership remained relatively small. Three years later, the Flight Decks and the international Qantas Captains Clubs (remember them?) were all revamped as Qantas Clubs. After Ansett went broke, some of its former employees founded regional carrier Rex, which opened its first lounge in Sydney in 2003 and later added locations in Melbourne and Adelaide. The up-and-coming Virgin Blue (remember them?) introduced business class across its fleet in 2008 and Velocity Lounges followed. The huge expansion of frequent-flyer programs saw airline lounges fill with FIFO workers and sports teams. So Qantas opened separate domestic Business Lounges in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Canberra - and quietly managed invitation-only Chairman's Lounges for VIPs in all those airports and Adelaide. Virgin Australia has no business lounges, but maintains a small network of super-select Beyond Lounges in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Let's be clear, however: airline lounges are a perk. The pretence that business-class passengers actually do business in airports ended when Qantas permanently closed the last of its airport meeting rooms in 2023.