Airline partnerships can be complicated, and if you’re a frequent flyer, maybe you’ve wondered who exactly is paying when your ticket gets you lounge access. If you’re flying Lufthansa business class and have Star Alliance Gold status with United MileagePlus, who pays for lounge access? What about if you’re flying in economy?
Mainly Miles wrote an interesting post about this recently. It occurred to me that it’s something that I’ve never covered before, so I figure it’s a topic that may interest some…
In this post:
Which party is paying for your airport lounge access?
Obviously there are many different ways to access airport lounges nowadays. Maybe you get access through your first or business class ticket, maybe you get access through your elite status, or maybe you get access through Priority Pass. In many cases, the logistics can also get complicated, so let’s talk about that.
Each of the big three airline alliances — oneworld, SkyTeam, and Star Alliance — have their own airport lounge access policies. However, which party foots the bill for lounge access seems to be pretty consistent between the alliances:
- The operating carrier (the airline you’re flying with) is on the hook for the cost of lounge access first, assuming the class of service you’re traveling in entitles you to access the lounge
- If you’re gaining lounge access based on your elite status rather than based on the class of service you’re traveling in, then the airline with which you have status foots the bill
- One added wrinkle is that in some cases, the marketing carrier rather than the operating carrier pays for lounge access; in other words, if you’re on a codeshare flight, the airline that sold you the ticket (and has its “code” on the flight) may be on the hook for paying the lounge access cost
Let’s use a “lounge hopping” example, in the case of London Heathrow Terminal 3, which is great for oneworld flyers. Say you have oneworld Emerald status through American AAdvantage, and are traveling British Airways business class:
- British Airways would foot the bill for any lounges you could access based on your business class ticket, like the American Admirals Club, British Airways Galleries Club Lounge, Cathay Pacific Business Lounge, and Qantas Club
- American would foot the bill for any lounges you could only access based on your oneworld Emerald status, like the American International First Lounge, British Airways Galleries First Lounge, and Cathay Pacific First Lounge
If your ticket were instead in economy, American would be on the hook for paying for all your lounge access.
For programs like Priority Pass, the individual lounges are paid by the program for each visit that a member makes. Then Priority Pass either sells memberships directly to consumers or to credit card companies at a fixed cost, and essentially takes a risk on how much people will use lounges.
Of course Priority Pass loses money on some customers, but a vast majority of customers are likely very profitable (it’s no different than the economics of virtually any other subscription service).
How much is being paid for your airport lounge access?
So, when you access a lounge, how much money is actually being paid for you to use it? The answer is very much “it depends,” as there’s not a single amount that’s consistent.
Based on what I’ve heard (and these are ballpark figures), you can generally expect that access to a business class lounge belonging to a major alliance will be billed at somewhere around $50 per person, and a contract or Priority Pass lounge will be billed at somewhere around $30 per person. Meanwhile for first class lounges, the reimbursement rate could even be a bit higher than that.
As you might expect, if you go lounge hopping around a terminal, an airline could easily be dropping a couple of hundred bucks on your visits. However, it’s important to remember that this is largely an accounting exercise.
While there’s some imbalance, lounge access obviously goes both ways. Just as you might have American passengers visiting British Airways lounges in London, you’ll have British Airways passengers visiting American lounges in Miami.
You’ll also notice that in some situations, airlines may try to send you to a contract lounge over a partner airline lounge. In those situations, you’re generally still allowed to use the partner airline lounge, but the reason for this is typically to minimize costs (sometimes capacity is also a consideration). That’s because contract lounges typically charge less for access than alliance lounges.
Bottom line
As a frequent flyer, it’s always fun to do some “lounge hopping,” and check out the different lounges in terminals. Lounge access is typically paid first by the class of service you’re traveling in, and second by your elite status, if that’s higher.
While lounge access can be pretty pricey for airlines, ultimately not much cash necessarily changes hands, since these arrangements go both ways.
How can Priority Pass be profitable if it is obtained through a credit card or in some cases multiple credit cards?
With airlines borrowing and using the FFPs as collateral, I wonder what kind of allocations are made to the programs in terms of both costs and revenue, especially for lounges. As lounges existed before FFPs, airlines could lump those costs to flight ops and club entrance revenue from alliance members could go the FFP. You would think if they are lending against these programs, whose costs and expenses are whose, those need to be laid out in legal docs.
There is no Qantas "Club" at LHR.
wrong its in T3 at LHR.
Wrong.
Air Canada*A ticket SFO-LHR (UA), LHR-ZRH (SWISS), ZRH-IST (TK), IST-MCT (WY), MCT-BKK (WY) Aeroplan Pts. Business award.
Long layover IST wanted to try new TK lounge.
Denied access to TK lounge because "WY not *A"
Question were they? Joining 1W soon?
Doesn't *A pay for access? *A ticket, on *A PNR (UA)
Kindda piggybacking on one of the examples provided in the comments, if i book an awards flight on UA site for travel with ET from BKK to HKG, who pays for my visit to the TG, SQ and TK lounges ?
An award ticket is considered a "paid" ticket, and therefore lounge access is generally paid under the same rules as if you had paid cash for the ticket: marketing carrier pays on codeshare, operating carrier pays if interlined. However, be aware that some airlines have rules that do not allow full lounge access on award tickets and some airline lounges aren't necessarily part of the network. Alliance access rules only apply to lounges owned by...
An award ticket is considered a "paid" ticket, and therefore lounge access is generally paid under the same rules as if you had paid cash for the ticket: marketing carrier pays on codeshare, operating carrier pays if interlined. However, be aware that some airlines have rules that do not allow full lounge access on award tickets and some airline lounges aren't necessarily part of the network. Alliance access rules only apply to lounges owned by the airline, so this can also be a concern where the lounge in an outstation is "owned" by a contractor or where airlines wish to exclude others' customers from their nicest lounges at hubs. You can tell by looking to see if there is also a logo for the alliance status at the door to the lounge.
So in your example, if an elite J customer visits lounge A, who would pay? The carrier or the FFP?
If it’s to a lounge with access provided on the basis of cabin flown, it’s the operating or marketing carrier paying regardless of the passenger’s airline program elite status.
It would be interesting if the airlines coordinated even a bit more to say that if someone visits multiple lounges on the same day (and they use progressively a little bit less of the "amenity" at each successive one) the first lounge gets the most payment, and the next one a bit less, etc.
So that the paying airline doesn't get hit with 3x lounge charges just because someone lounge-hopped for the fun of...
It would be interesting if the airlines coordinated even a bit more to say that if someone visits multiple lounges on the same day (and they use progressively a little bit less of the "amenity" at each successive one) the first lounge gets the most payment, and the next one a bit less, etc.
So that the paying airline doesn't get hit with 3x lounge charges just because someone lounge-hopped for the fun of it.
Granted, this is probably only a weird edge case situation for fanatics like people here who care about trying different lounges (who does this?) but still it might save the paying airline a bit if they had such a policy.
For in-alliance airline operated lounges, things may go a different way with accounting for lounge hopping than when the lounges are contract lounges operated by a party other than an in-alliance airline member.
If there is a choice, why not change lounges? We used the BA first lounge at London T3. It was terrible. Having a lot of time on our hands we decided to use the Qantas lounge. Too busy and slow service, so we ended up in the Cathy first lounge. Empty and superb!
Hi Ben
I am a Flying Blue elite plus. I noticed that the SFO Air France lounge on the Skyteam website only allows AF/KLM and SAS access. But on the AirFrance website, it said I should have access even flying other Skyteam airlines, such as Virgin and China Airlines.
Last November, I bought a Virgin Business Class ticket marketed by AirFrance from SFO to LHR and tried to access the SFO AirFrance lounge and...
Hi Ben
I am a Flying Blue elite plus. I noticed that the SFO Air France lounge on the Skyteam website only allows AF/KLM and SAS access. But on the AirFrance website, it said I should have access even flying other Skyteam airlines, such as Virgin and China Airlines.
Last November, I bought a Virgin Business Class ticket marketed by AirFrance from SFO to LHR and tried to access the SFO AirFrance lounge and was denied access at the lounge and was told to go to Virgin Clubhouse. The SFO Virgin Clubhouse is wonderful but I think it is wrong that I was denied access by the Air France lounge. What would have been the best way to approach this?
I don't think you were wrong to be denied access to the AF SFO lounge. SkyTeam allows airlines more flexibility than other alliances regarding lounge access. Where do you see on the AF website that their SFO lounge should be accessible to travelers on any SkyTeam operating carrier? Since VS was the operating carrier, and VS operates a lounge at SFO, what you experienced is what I would have expected. Remember, in SkyTeam, the rules...
I don't think you were wrong to be denied access to the AF SFO lounge. SkyTeam allows airlines more flexibility than other alliances regarding lounge access. Where do you see on the AF website that their SFO lounge should be accessible to travelers on any SkyTeam operating carrier? Since VS was the operating carrier, and VS operates a lounge at SFO, what you experienced is what I would have expected. Remember, in SkyTeam, the rules are that you have access to "/a/ lounge" not "/any/ lounge."
As a general rule, 95% of my flying is at the behest of my masters. They pay for my ticket, F or J and I embark and disembark airside. I completely bypass the general passenger terminals, customs, security, etc.
As a consequence, the only time I experience the usual land/airside of the passenger terminal is when we are engaged in personal travel.
For us a lounge is simply a waiting room away from...
As a general rule, 95% of my flying is at the behest of my masters. They pay for my ticket, F or J and I embark and disembark airside. I completely bypass the general passenger terminals, customs, security, etc.
As a consequence, the only time I experience the usual land/airside of the passenger terminal is when we are engaged in personal travel.
For us a lounge is simply a waiting room away from the noise and hubbub of the main terminal areas. One tends to pass through them without much thought, however, I believe that I might take more notice of the facilities in the future. My curiosity is aroused, thank you Ben.
The three alliances do seem to have slightly different mechanics for lounge reimbursement.
OneWorld actually seems to have elite lounge access be paid for by the marketing carrier not the FFP (there's an assumption that those correlate and even if they don't, there's an assumption that Emeralds will tend to buy more expensive tickets). AA foots the bill for BA Golds accessing the flagship lounge on domestic flights. It's perhaps interesting to speculate whether the...
The three alliances do seem to have slightly different mechanics for lounge reimbursement.
OneWorld actually seems to have elite lounge access be paid for by the marketing carrier not the FFP (there's an assumption that those correlate and even if they don't, there's an assumption that Emeralds will tend to buy more expensive tickets). AA foots the bill for BA Golds accessing the flagship lounge on domestic flights. It's perhaps interesting to speculate whether the new BA Club will lead to low-profit former elites getting status with other OW programs and continue to fly BA and whether a consequence would be some dilution of alliance lounge benefits. This policy does encourage OW airlines to open their own lounges at alliance hubs.
Star is "FFP pays" and doesn't provide an opt-out. We can infer this from, e.g. Aegean introducing a flight requirement for their *G status as they ended up with an imbalance of payments with UA (more A3 elites using the status for United Clubs than UA elites and passengers using the A3 lounges) without even getting much payment for the A3 miles from UA.
SkyTeam is basically Star, but FFPs are not required to pay for their elites having access to all ST member lounges: they are apparently allowed to designate alternative lounges. The Virgin Clubhouse, where AFKL and DL elites are denied admission unless flying Premium Economy and instead directed to a contract lounge bears this out. DL matching the SkyClub policy is perhaps not surprising (though the provision of the contract lounge points to the opt-out), but AFKL is really telling: it's the one STE+ lounge that they exclude (as far as anyone can tell): this is likely because there are many FB elites in the LHR catchment area but not many VS elites flying through CDG/AMS (and thus a more one-sided-than-usual flow of lounge payments, especially if VS charges a high rate for lounge access).
@ Levi -- Very interesting. Just curious, are you 100% sure that the oneworld info is still correct? I was under the impression that the system changed in 2023 (from the policy that you stated), though maybe that's not actually the case.
Industry statistics reveal that, on average, the total cost is about US$25 per guest to operate an airport lounge. And, on average, gross revenue is about $30 per guest. This revenue number is an average and is not necessarily indicative of the reimbursement rate a lounge operator receives from a partner.
With Priority Pass I thought credit card companies could have a direct billing model where they were being billed back for each visit and that's why they demanded restaurants be removed. I certainly could be wrong about this I'm having trouble finding a source.
I believe this is correct.
another great thought-provoking discussion about what goes on behind the scenes.
DL has a breakdown of its "other" income category buried deep in its annual financial statements which shows that they get more than $500 million which they state largely is from Amex and for lounge access.
Given that many people have non-DL cobrand Amex cards which allow lounge access on a DL ticket, part of the value of the DL-Amex relationship is "shared...
another great thought-provoking discussion about what goes on behind the scenes.
DL has a breakdown of its "other" income category buried deep in its annual financial statements which shows that they get more than $500 million which they state largely is from Amex and for lounge access.
Given that many people have non-DL cobrand Amex cards which allow lounge access on a DL ticket, part of the value of the DL-Amex relationship is "shared benefits" whether the card used is a DL cobrand or a "standard" Amex card.
$500 million is a lot of money and partly explains why, not only were DL so crowded but why DL is still building new lounges as quickly as they can even though DL has the world's largest airport lounge network. Also, shows why they are defining access to the Delta One lounges by essentially revenue Delta One tickets with few other types of access.
How is internal industry contracts though provoking?
Oh right I forgot, it is for Timmy.
Turning fluff or guess into facts is though provoking.
What's next to fluff.
You already butcher DOT and earnings call.
All you have to do is tell us the amount other carriers get from their credit card partners for lounge access.
Since other people find the article interesting enough to read and comment, your drivel is what is out of place.
I and others are glad to see Ben deal w ‘behind the scenes’ aspects of the industry
How do joint ventures play a role? I would assume, that all relevant cost providing JV services are pooled in the JV. This would certainly mean that lounge access based on cabin falls under the JV, but what about access based on status?
@ Andy -- I think every joint venture handles this slightly differently, since not all JVs have costs centralized in the same way. But I would generally assume there's not much difference for these purposes. Costs are still broken down by airline, and it probably ends up being close to a wash, given that frequent flyers from multiple airlines will be using perks.
Last year I flew with ET between BKK and HKG on a 200$ C fare. Did quite a bit of lounge hopping, lol.
SQ -> BR -> TG Royal Orchid Prestige -> TK -> TG Royal Silk E gates
I guess I virtually more than coverd my ticket on these lounge visits alone, haha.
Would I do it again; sure not. But it was fun doing this once.
Since airlines at BKK seem to often limit check-in to something like 3-4 hours before departure, that limits lounge hopping time. :D
@Ben, do lounges within one alliance (e.g., *A) charge the same amount to each other?
I ask because at BOG, AC tells its business class passengers to go to the CM lounge (One of the worst anywhere. Its buffet, regarless of the time of your visit, is mostly black coffee, cheap tea, party mix, and apples or bananas) and those who don't know about the *A rules just comply, instead of heading to the...
@Ben, do lounges within one alliance (e.g., *A) charge the same amount to each other?
I ask because at BOG, AC tells its business class passengers to go to the CM lounge (One of the worst anywhere. Its buffet, regarless of the time of your visit, is mostly black coffee, cheap tea, party mix, and apples or bananas) and those who don't know about the *A rules just comply, instead of heading to the AV lounge. That got me wondering whether the CM lounge might be (hopefully) way cheaper for AC, but at the same time it really ruins the experience of any passenger paying AC fares (always higher). Do you think this comes down to cost, or is it just poor planning on AC's side at BOG?
@ hbilbao -- Great question. I don't believe pricing is 100% consistent across the globe with all airlines in an alliance, though I also don't think airlines just price each lounge differently. I think when you're sent to an inferior lounge, it could be a combination of a lower cost, and also perhaps capacity and access restrictions.
In many cases the decision to try to send (some) customers to a particular partner/contract lounge instead of a different lounge at the airport is done because it’s cheaper for the flight operating carrier or because of capacity concerns with one or more of the lounges in use. Other times it may have to do with wanting passengers to be in a lounge closer to the departure gate in order to make it easier for...
In many cases the decision to try to send (some) customers to a particular partner/contract lounge instead of a different lounge at the airport is done because it’s cheaper for the flight operating carrier or because of capacity concerns with one or more of the lounges in use. Other times it may have to do with wanting passengers to be in a lounge closer to the departure gate in order to make it easier for the passengers or the airline staff that may need to herd missing/straggling passengers.
This is really interesting, I've never really thought about who pays before. Extending this a bit, who pays for the miles you earn on a flight?
Let's say you fly AA and are crediting to BA Avios. Does AA pay a certain amount to BA, which BA then uses to credit the Avios? And I suppose technically BA doesn't own Avios, so do they in turn pay IAG Loyalty for them?
Or does AA just...
This is really interesting, I've never really thought about who pays before. Extending this a bit, who pays for the miles you earn on a flight?
Let's say you fly AA and are crediting to BA Avios. Does AA pay a certain amount to BA, which BA then uses to credit the Avios? And I suppose technically BA doesn't own Avios, so do they in turn pay IAG Loyalty for them?
Or does AA just tell BA that someone flew a segment A to B in fare bucket I, and BA credits the Avios based on that? In this situation, it would actually cost BA something for a frequent flyer to take non-BA flights (excluding codeshares, JVs, etc).
@ zigzagged8 -- The airline you're crediting miles to is paid by the airline you're flying. Much like with lounge access, not much cash necessarily changes hands, since this goes both ways. People will credit AA flights to BA, and vice versa, and it largely balances out.
Got it, thanks Ben!
The cost of miles being paid for by the operating carrier for economy class flights nowadays is probably much lower today per seat mile flown than it was 10-15 years ago. But the cost of lounge access — especially when dealing with contract lounges — seems to be higher today than it was even 5 years ago.
Some years ago when DL started getting stingy about lounge access for elite FFs, the first cut was "contract lounges," leading me to wonder if perhaps they were paying more for those than for partner lounges (which, nowadays, is the only lounge access for elite FFs).
@ Jim -- I think the distinction is that while airline lounges might be more expensive, it's more of an accounting exercise than anything else, due to reciprocity. Meanwhile in the case of contract lounges, airlines are paying out of pocket, since it's not like those independent lounge operators "owe" the airline any money.
I remember often seeing contract lounges turning down DL elites on DL long-haul international economy class flights while Golds/Platinums with other SkyTeam airlines in the same Delta economy class cabins were allowed lounge access to the very same contract lounges. This cost-cutting measure was possible because the alliances allow flight operating carriers to treat their own program elites worse than partner program elites.
Apparently, there are a few airlines that actually view their lounges as a profit center, especially when they have a high amount of partner airlines visiting their lounge.
The operating carriers more typically than not view contract and airline partner lounge use by their own passengers as a cost center, regardless of which airline issued the passengers’ elite status. If the airline is selling lounge access, then it’s a more mixed picture.
There's a bit of inconsistency in reporting, in regards to who pays for status based entry in oneworld.
AFF updated their page in 2023 to state that the marketing (operating) carrier now pays for access even if it's via another airlines status https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/who-paying-for-lounge-access/. They even say this changed from previous arrangements and differs from Star Alliance and SkyTeam where the FF program would pay.
I have good reason to have serious doubts about the accuracy of the indication that it’s commonly or even mostly the case that the lounge access is generally charged to the partner airline program when a partner airline elite is using the lounge for a flight operated by a different carrier than the one which issued the passenger’s elite status.
A lot of airline apologists and others bothered by “program arbitrage” opportunities like to...
I have good reason to have serious doubts about the accuracy of the indication that it’s commonly or even mostly the case that the lounge access is generally charged to the partner airline program when a partner airline elite is using the lounge for a flight operated by a different carrier than the one which issued the passenger’s elite status.
A lot of airline apologists and others bothered by “program arbitrage” opportunities like to try to sell the message that loyalty program operators should or do hike up status requirements because of the use of partner airline lounges costing the partner airline loyalty program, but what really drives the changes is the flight operating carrier wanting lower costs for providing lounge access — even more so contract lounge access — to the passengers on its own flights regardless of frequent flyer program used by the passenger. The flight operating carrier has more flexibility to mess around with lounge access for its own elites in economy class than it does with partner program elites in economy class.