Last month One Mile at a Time reported that Lufthansa’s top tier HON Circle members now get access to United’s first class lounges when traveling on intercontinental flights in business class on either Lufthansa or United.

HON Circle members get access to Lufthansa’s first class lounges, including the First Class Terminal, regardless of class of service flown.

But flying United, or flying business class on Lufthansa from one of the seven United airports with a ‘Global First’ lounge, these members wouldn’t otherwise have gotten access to that first class lounge. (Not that, in my experience, these lounges are all that special — but they are incrementally better than the alternative United Club offerings.)

When sharing this news, Lucky wrote,

I wouldn’t expect this to be reciprocal (in other words, I wouldn’t expect Global Services members to get Lufthansa First Class Lounge access anytime soon)

It turns out, though, that this is reciprocal.

Lufthansa’s top tier HON Circle members only have to be flying business class to access United’s first class lounges.

United’s top tier Global Services members have to be flying first class to access Lufthansa’s first class lounges.

This benefit won’t include Lufthansa’s First Class Terminal, I don’t think, because using the separate terminal requires a car ride across the tarmac to the plane — something Lufthansa does for passengers departing on their own aircraft, but not for passengers flying outside the Lufthansa Group. (United wouldn’t be expecting passengers to come up this way, and wouldn’t even be prepared to ‘board’ them.)

But Lufthansa’s First Class Lounges are nearly identical — the seating, dining options, shower rooms and furnishings are very much the same. (Here’s Lufthansa’s First Class Lounge on the A Concourse in Frankfurt.) The Terminal is, overall, the more refined experience and worth doing. But the lounges are very nice — orders of magnitude better than anything that United offers.

That’s also, no doubt, why the benefit is so limited. Global Services members can’t be flying United Global First same-day, even, they have to be departing Munich or Frankfurt in United Global First.

Presumably this benefit will last until United finally makes the investment in its fleet that coincides with eliminating international first class…

(HT: Cynthia L.)

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