Flight Lounge

Usually, the name «Fort Lane» conjures up images of short skirted girls, fist pumping dudes and a general level of filth. Flight Lounge does its best to change this image and manages to succeed if you come on the right night, but can also slip back into the general image sustained by the other bars in the vicinity.
The décor is what sets Flight Lounge apart from the rest of it’s competitors. You have your plush couches, your shared toilet basin, your recessed little coves. It’s a nice place to sit and chat while waiting for the energy to come back, and the music can be great on the right night. If you have to head downtown, Flight Lounge isn’t the worst place to go — in fact, it’s one of the better.

Flight Lounge is the kind of place to head to about 1am and will either make or break your night. In my case it usually makes it. The tunes are fun and loud. I’m no discerning music snob though, as long as there is the occasional lyric to sing along to I’m pretty happy. The bouncers also let you dance on the seats around the outside of the dance floor, ha, this is great fun. AND my favourite thing is the wall of illuminated ponies, another ‘make my night’ aspect. The things that can break it however… if the dance floor is too rammed. The bouncers have got a little greedy and have let too many punters in. This means you have to rub up against seedy dudes and it takes 30mins to get back to your friends from the bar. It’s also very difficult to cut any proper shapes. On these kinds of nights the line for the loo is huge too, another mood kill. Overall though Flight Lounge is a definite favourite of mine and a good Saturday night spot.

I have been to Flight Lounge many a time since it first opened, but only once recently. It’s location is pretty handy to Pony or the Britomart bars, but a bit of a hike from the viaduct if you’re wearing heels. Also it seems to be a bit of a late-​night venue and since I’m normally in bed by 11 I’ll leave the kids to it.
The décor, music and crowd seem to have changed little in the last few years. They play some good tunes, serve some nice drinks and have some pretty people partying in nice surroundings. Not a bad spot.

I’ve been to Flight Lounge a few times as part of the Frenzi Bar Crawl and they always, always play the same music. I’m not talking about the same type of music (that would be fine) I’m talking about playing the exact same list of songs in there week after week; it gets very dull after three weeks, believe me. I was hoping this was just because it was Bar Crawl night but I went there quite late last Friday night and the music was still the same!
It also really annoys me that the toilet area is really cramped. There’s barely enough room for about two or three people in there, let alone when a 150 strong crowd descends in there of a Thursday night and all the girls are queuing at the same time. I also wish there was some sort of outside seating area too, as the club is in a basement, it can get really hot in there.
The good thing though is that I have always found the bourncers and bar staff to be really friendly, which is a welcome relief compared to some of the more upmarket palces in the CBD.