Originally Posted by HandyAndy
After security I was invited to the AA lounge. This was the biggest disappointment. It fails miserably compared to HKG and the product offered by CX. ... Overall, the lounge experience was unsatisfactory.
It will probably be little consolation to you to know that the Admirals Club at T4 (which sounds like where you were) is one of the better ones in the AA system, because much of its cost was paid by QF as part of their part-move into T4 from the TBIT.
For that matter, if you want to see truly shocking lounges at a major international hub in the Western world, try the ones in the TBIT. They're so bad that as part of the lounge improvement scheme that's about to get under way, the first step is to shut the whole lot.
Unfortunately, if you're used to the Wing and the Pier at HKG, there are actually few lounges in the entire world that can really compete, and you're liable to disappointment everywhere. One of the significant improvements in my HKG experience was becoming able to access the CX lounges there when flying BA and QF rather than being stuck with the BA/QF joint lounge (which is acceptable, but nothing special).