Currently both Star Alliance and SkyTeam run their own lounges at some major airports. These are shared lounges for the alliance, run by the alliance, that member airlines pay for their passengers to use rather than being a single airline’s lounge that other partners pay to access.
- Most airline-run lounges are open to the premium and elite customers of that airline’s partners, at least if passengers on those other airlines can access the terminal that the lounge is in.
- From a passenger perspective it doesn’t much matter whether a lounge is run by an airline or by the alliance the airline is a member of.
Really this is just a different management model than a new customer benefit, although it may lead to there being a single larger lounge in a major airport where alliance member airlines co-locate in the same terminal, versus multiple smaller lounges operated by individual carriers. That has pluses and minuses, the lounge may be better than what the more miserly members of the alliance might provide and scale may also support a better product — though less likely a premier product.
The old Star Alliance lounge at Heathrow was pretty good, the SkyTeam lounge in Sydney quite unimpressive.
SkyTeam Lounge Sydney
SkyTeam Lounge Sydney
oneworld hasn’t done this to date. The closest perhaps is the ‘oneworld lounge’ at LAX which is a joint project of Qantas, Cathay Pacific, and British Airways.
oneworld lounge LAX
oneworld lounge LAX
That’s changing, as reported by Australian Business Traveller. The first true oneworld lounge is expected to open towards the end of the year, though the airport hasn’t been announced.
“We’ve got a shortlist of airports around the world and in the middle of this year we will be announcing the first Oneworld lounge,” confirmed Oneworld CEO Rob Gurney, speaking at a press conference in London to mark the alliance’s 20th anniversary.
“By working together, it may be feasible at some locations for our members to offer customers… bigger and better lounges than they could justify individually,” Gurney added.
What Star Alliance lounge are you referring to in London?
I think FRA would be a good airport for one. None of them have a big presence there, but they do have a decent operation there collectively.
Generally speaking, I think joint lounges tend to be a step up from a single airline lounge (aside from hubs) as there is more shared investment to offer a better hard and soft product.
Skyteam is the only exception to this observation. I haven’t been impressed with any of their lounges.
I always thought Narita was an odd duck having so many OneWorld clubs. The Admiral’s Club is quite large and has long hours when the AA departure window is quite small.
The downside is that you may not be able to access the lounge through club membership or credit cards. AA Executive card gives you access to any AA lounge branded as Admirals club, but it wont give you access to a Oneworld Lounge.
VVFF – I used the AA card to access 8 different lounges in Australia last fall, so I think it is far from certain that you will not be able to access OneWorld lounges in the future.
LHR is a good candidate for the first location—OW airlines operate tons of lounges there already that vary widely in quality and many are already located near each other. Plus, the announcement was made in London…
While at CDG Paris we arrived for our BA flight and were able to access the Admirals lounge. It was closing in 20 min since their morning flights had all departed for the day. BA there does NOT give access to their clubs in CDG or LHR unless in Business or First Class.
There is a flowchart that each Lounge has to figure out how to refuse access to passengers.
We had 2 hrs to wait in that Great Paris terminal (yea it is a pit) Thus Combined lounges need to include airlines members based on the same as their own lounges.
Charles, you got access to Qantas lounges with your AA card, not because they both are OneWorld members, but because AA and QF have a reciprocal agreement.