One of the great things about the ”big three” global airline alliances is that they offer reciprocal lounge access for travelers. In this post, I want to take a closer look at the Star Alliance’s lounge access policy for travelers, as understanding the nuances of airport lounge access can be complicated.
Continue reading: Star Alliance Airport Lounge Access Explained: Who Gets Entry?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Regarding the rule about LH/LX F lounges only being for those airlines' own customers in F, who else even has F any more that this caveat would apply to?
Oh, well I guess ANA and SQ?
“and are then connecting from Los Angeles to San Francisco in United first class. You wouldn’t receive any lounge access in Los Angeles, since access is based on your departing flight”
This is not correct. If the domestic flight is part of an international journey, you do get lounge access in the US. This applies, when you are in transit in LAX. If you first stay in LAX for a stopover and continue to SFO later, then you won’t.
Surprised that the author doesn’t seem to know this.
AC Maple Leaf Club membership has been suspended since COVID. Any news Ben when they would eventually restart?
@ Eric Schmidt -- The other Star Alliance carriers with first class are Air China, Air India, All Nippon Airways, Singapore Airlines, and Thai Airways (though admittedly not all of those offer a first class product to a station with a Lufthansa or SWISS first class lounge).
@ CapitalMike -- Sometimes I get things wrong, but I don't think that's the case here? As I understand it (and have for a very long time), you would get access if it's based on elite status, but not if it's based on the class of service.
You can find the Star Alliance lounge access rules here:
https://www.staralliance.com/en/lounge-access-policy
You'll see for class of service based access, it specifically stipulates that it's based on "the airport where your flight departs."
Is there any airline other than UA which denies *G passengers access to contract lounges? The only times I have had that issue was in a couple of airports where airlines had altogether suspended their lounge contracts (LH 'temporarily' during the pandemic, Avianca when they used to be in extreme cost cutting mode).
It should also be noted that although the regulation for guests states "one eligible guest travelling on the same Star Alliance flight departing from the local airport", this is usually enforced on multi-stop flights as "travelling on the same flight to the same destination".
One other wrinkle to add here, but a very important benefit for myself is that with Air Canada star gold status you can ALSO get AC lounges access in an arriving ticket. So say you are flying YYZ - YVR and we're AC *gold you could access the lounge in Toronto and also the lounge in Vancouver. Huge benefit as not many airline programs give the ever so important ARRIVAL access too.
I believe that Asiana is about to soon leave Star Alliance (because of being merged into Korean) and ITA will be joining Star Alliance.
JK-SFO
I would love to see you review Air China and All Nippon first.
Honestly hit some of the more unknown western airlines. Could be fun or you end having an adventurer in serbia, turkmenistan, Georgia, etc.
@CaptainMike, you're wrong. *A sucks for long-haul multi-airline F or C trips, especially for those without *G. As Ben mentioned, if your long-haul flight is on UA, yes, you'd get lounge access throughout the trip.
Here are *A and OW examples of lounge access without status:
Outbound
SEA-SFO-LHR on AS/BA in C: AS at SEA and BA (or AS/AA) at SFO (+ BA arrivals at LHR)
DEN-ORD-MUC on UA/LH in C: UA PL/UC at ORD only
ATL-IAD-ZRH on UA in C: UA UC at ATL and PL/UC (or LH/TK) at IAD
Inbound
NRT-ORD-CLT on JL/AA in C: JL Sakura at NRT and AA FL/AC at ORD
HND-LAX-SFO on NH/UA in C: ANA at HND only
FRA-LAX-SFO on UA in C: LH Biz at FRA and UA PL/UC at LAX
wait... Americans flying from Newark to Los Angeles on United in "first class" (or whatever you call what is obviously business class) with Mileage Plus Platinum or whatever DONT get United Club lounge access? But my KF Gold flying in economy on the same flight does?
That is absolutely munted.
Meh. I’d’ve gone with OW, but, it’s like arguing over Coke vs. Pepsi vs. Dr. Pepper.
So it seems what I was describing is correct for AA but not for UA?
I always went to the lounge in the US port of entry on international itineraries with a domestic connection, even without elite status. But thinking back these were AA itineraries, not UA.
@ CapitalMike -- Correct, it's true for oneworld but not Star Alliance. It's one of the reasons I think oneworld has the best lounge access policy. 🙂
Why is United so cheap compared to the others on transcon lounge access?
Like, let’s take NYC-LAX/SFO as the premium market and example.
AA offers Chelsea, Soho, Greenwich access to First, Business, OW Emerald and Sapphire, depending.
DL offers DeltaOne for those premium passengers.
Meanwhile, United, no Polaris for you, even if you’re technically in a Polaris lie-flat cabin, boo hoo, has to be long-haul, wah wah.
Honestly, AA/oneworld and DL/SkyTeam are doing it better.
They're worse than that. DL don't even allow access on international itineraries if you're going to their confusing definition of the Caribbean (according to which CUN and CTG aren't Caribbean destinations, so you do get to queue for the opportunity to fight for a seat and tip the barman for serving you some second rate bourbon).
swiss first class to chicago, connection first class LAX on United. (whole routing first class fare code) no access Polaris, No access any lounge. seems cheap. ended up in an restaurant