San Gottardo

The lounge comparison is a bit tricky. Lufthansa itself has the same structure of lounges as BA: Senator = BA First lounge, Business = BA Business, HON/FCL/FCT = Concorde room. Indeed, as a Star Gold you do not get access to the HON/FCL/FCT, but neither do you get access to the CCR or to Qatar's Al Safwa lounge as a OWE. So for those ones, it's identical. Where OWE is more generous is where the airline only has two levels and the uber-level is reserved for people flying in F or having the highest status. FOr instance, as a OWE I can use AA Flagship Lounges or CX First Class lounges. As a Star Gold, I cannot use UA Intl. First Class lounges unless flying in intl. First or on some special deal such as HONs can use the intl. FCL of United.

The Skyteam carriers typically do not have two tiers for their lounges like BA and LH/LX/OS have.

brunos

We are mostly in agreement. Although I do not understand what you mean by "Senator = BA First lounge, Business = BA Business, HON/FCL/FCT = Concorde room".
I have used quite a few Senator lounges and do not find them very different from the main *A business section. On the other hand the F-Gallery lounge at LHR is quite a step above the Business Gallery lounge. It might not be the CCR or La Premiere lounge but I am quite happy with its wine, liquor and food offering. At some outstations, BA has a first class lounge that is different from their business lounge with upgraded offering well above the typical outstation Senator lounge.
HON gives you access to the wonderful lounges in FRA, MUC and ZRH, but none in Asia. FB Plat give you access to no F class lounge.

As I stressed, my travel pattern is primarily in Asia and OWE give me access to F lounges in many countries, including HKG my home base. There is no way I could get such a pleasing travel with FB Plat or M&M Senator.

San Gottardo

Reading your post while in the Lufthansa SEN lounge at CDG, so I could just walk over to the Business section and compare.

SEN section has a wide food buffet with hot and cold food, salad bar, dessert bar, spirits. Very much what they also have in the F lounge at LHR T5 ex-the-waiter-service, but less than in the SEN lounges at Lufthansa's hubs (I just know the one in DUS, CGN and HAM, the other airports I don't fly to or I use the FCL if there is one). Also the LHR SEN lounge is much better. I was surprised to see that the Business section also has hot food and a salad bar, but all in all less choice. Interior design is a little warmer and a little more upmarket on the SEN side, a little colder and more functional on the Business side. The only other Lufthansa Business lounge that I know is LHR as one needs to walk through it on the way to the SEN lounge, and there as well, the Business section has less food choice.

What I meant by SEN lounge=BA First lounge, LH Business=BA Business, FCL=CCR is an incorrectly worded attempt at an analogy. Let me try again:

Lufthansa Senator Lounge=BA Galleries First Lounge: the upper tier of their lounge structure with the exception of hub-only uber tiers (FCL/FCT/CCR), accessible to First Class customers outside of hubs, Gold card members of airline's own FFP, and top level of alliance FFP

Lufthansa Business Lounge=BA Galleries Club Lounge: the lower tier of their lounge structure, accessible to Business Class customers, silver levels of their own FFP, and I believe also to second highest tier of alliance FFP

FCL/FCT=CCR: the uber-tier, available only at longhaul hubs and a few select outstations (JFK for instance), accessible to First class pax and the airline's own top tier (GGL, HON), but never to alliance partner top tiers.

As for Asia, I do remember having used the ANA First Class Lounge in Tokyo. Don't remember whether that was because of flying in F or status. In a couple of other airports as well, HON actually gives access to the real First Class lounges when flying out on LH/LX/OS. But it's not an alliance benefit, not available when flying on a partner airline, just a locally negotiated deal between LH/LX/OS and the local hub airline.

Having said that, I do recognize that OWE is much better in Asia as it gives you access to the real F class lounges.

brunos

We now disagree mostly on details like the quality of FRA Senator lounge vs LHR F Gallery lounge (great wine selection and occasional uber bottle, blue JW,..).

The sad part is that the original topic was on FB Plat, the top tier of FB, and that it compares very poorly with OWE or M&M Senator.

orbitmic

It really depends on which Senator/*A G lounge. For instance at ZRH, the difference is really negligible, but conversely, at FRA, MUC, and LHR it is substantial. The exact same is true of BA F lounges: at LHR the difference is big but at ORD or JFK it is marginal, and increasingly, BA is doing away with F lounges anyway in favour of CCR bars not opened to OWE pax.

Of course some other airlines like CX and QF have much greater differences between J and F lounges and as OWE we benefit from them, and of course, as you say, the academic discussion of LH vs BA doesn't change a thing to the unanimous agreement that the lounge value of FB Plat is zilch.

San Gottardo

For Zurich, only knowing the non-Schengen SEN lounge in the B gates, I am glad to hear that the Business lounge isn't even worse. Lounges in Zurich are poor, really. Not in the same way, but about as good or bad as the AF lounges in CDG 2F for instance.

Each one of them - SEN, Business, FCL - below their LH counterpart.

+1

carnarvon

For what it's worth, I recently saw a printed sheet of paper in the galley where flight information was summed up.

In the box "passagers avec particularités", there was a C2000 : 1.

I went through the page several times and could not see anything about Plat PAX on the flight.

orbitmic

Ah ah very true!!! I've always been surprised by that by the way as LX is still a pretty decent airline service wise (I've not hidden why I am annoyed at them but I do acknowledge they are decent otherwise) but those lounges are dire (especially for someone who's never smoked a cigarette, as I know that on the other hand smoke addicts love the ghastly smoking bar). And yes, I chose to go to the C lounge once or twice as the Sen one is invariably packed and it is quite similar minus the spirits.

brunos

This is a bit OT. But CX has just opened its new lounge in LHR.
The F lounge looks nice:
http://www.jarvismarcos.com/2016/12/...december-2016/
It does not compare to La Premiere lounge at CDG but is well above anything AF or ST offers at outstations (JFK, HKG, LHR,...).

sorry, link updated

San Gottardo

Thanks for the heads-up. Unfortunately the site doesn't open.

As per rules, this should be accessible to all OWE, correct? So when I am flying out on AA and don't want to use their tired Flagship Lounge or the BA Lounge in T3, I should be able to use this? Or will they send me back, arguing that I should use the AA lounge because I fly on AA?

brunos

Sorry, I updated the link.

In theory you can use any OWE lounge at T3.
Of course, CX might use the "capacity control" rule, especially before one of their five flights. They have four flights between 5pm and 10pm.
Time will tell what is their policy once they have some experience of traffic.

orbitmic

I've never experienced any problem using the CX lounge before. A new QF lounge is also opening at T3 in January. Both CX and QF tend to have great lounges, much nicer than BA and AA.