thegoderic

My wife had exactly the same issue as the OP today, when returning from FRA to MAN on a CE ticket.

She called me from the lounge entrance saying she's been refused entrance.

I told her to go back and say the magic words "connecting from a same day CE flight" and heard the lounge agent say - "That should show on the system but doesn't" as he let her in.

RobF

As a staff member who spends time manning the entry points to the various lounges in T5, there will always be isolated occasions when access is incorrectly denied. Sometimes it is an oversight on the part of the staff involved but there are other explanations too.

For example, some passengers travel on separate tickets so an inbound F class would not show in the system when the onward boarding card is scanned. Not everyone is quite so proactive to have this to hand (even in the Arrivals Lounge). The other more common situation is that the frequent flyer details have not been entered into the booking for some obscure reason but this is usually easily rectified.

I cannot see an obvious reason for the refusal mentioned at the start of this thread but I would like to make one additional point.

The post I am replying to states 'If BA staff can't be trusted to interpret the rules...' I do find this slightly amusing as many more problems are caused by people trying to gain access for extra guests, entire families etc than by a lack of awareness of access criteria.

People may not agree but trust me it can be an eye opener when you see it from the other side of the desk.

flibbly

Oh I don't think anyone on here is unaware of the varied attempts to gain entry from ineligible passengers - there have been many many threads on the subject. However, there have been just as many on eligible passengers being refused - one of the most common being on the connection to a domestic from an incoming CE flight.

(By the way I think you forgot your "staff disclaimer" line)

LTN Phobia

Out of curiosity and boredom I have watched the entry and by far the more common instance is people asking for access that they are not entitled - one of the instances trying to bring 6 people (!) in under one Silver card into the F lounge (!? maybe he was flying F) - than incorrectly denied.

I suspect it's just that on FT incorrect denial is reported far more often than a correct denial. I'm not saying that it's acceptable to incorrectly deny entry, but just that there are far more people correctly denied.

Some take it with good grace, others not. I have seen some shocking behaviour at various lounges when people are denied, plus lies and all sorts of funny goings on. Some are quite funny to watch, others not.

LGW F lounge is the great place to do this because of seats near the entrance if you want to observe. LHR isn't easy - sitting on the horse lamp to observe this is not exactly on my list of recommendations.

craigmmorq4

What about this;

Travelling on a Business ticket but which is just a domestic flight from NCL > LHR as I booked my NCL > LHR > LAS ticket on a premium economy class.

So my NCL > LHR ticket will show as Business - so the question is will I be able to get access to business lounge in LHR because of this?

nux

No, only at NCL.

Calchas

No.

paulwuk

Hi RobF, welcome back. I don't mean to scare you away, and please don't feel under any obligations, however 2 years ago you posted:

Which we have been assured on multiple times in the echo-chamber that is flyertalk, is simply not true.

Yet these issues (CE->Domestic on RFS) keep cropping up. I've been personally hit by it, and had to utter the magic "u-class" words.

Do you still have this information printed in your guide?

RobF

The lounge guide does now stipulate that the exception to the lounge access ex CE onto Domestic is indeed the U-Class that you mention. Whilst this is now well known amongst staff, the problem is that the system does not default to allowing access in the way that it should.

This can result in erroneous refusals, particularly at busy times when resources are a little stretched.

Hope this helps a bit.

HIDDY

Very good of you to give us up-to-date information on this.

FlyerTalker6245

Which itself is ridiculous. I did a CE redemption recently and the domestics booked into X class.

A CE ticket doesn't automatically book the domestic sector into U; and also this doesn't include a provision for separate bookings.

It has become so wooly, I'm glad I'm not reliant on class of travel for lounge access at the moment.

IanFromHKG

Admittedly slightly OT since this is a "status" story - I wonder what the system shows when the pax is another oneworld member. Earlier this week I headed to the BA F lounge in T3, and handed over my CX business class boarding pass and asked if they needed my card as well. She replies in the affirmative, so I dig it out and hand it over. She scans the BP, glances at the screen, and says "Oh, I think you should be in the business class lounge over there." I did take a deep breath before pointing out that I was oneworld emerald. "Oh", she said, "in that case you can go in. Sorry but these different ones are all so confusing".

WHAT??? You asked to see the card, do you not recognise the green symbol on it, that is the same for EVERY ONEWORLD AIRLINE? How confusing can it be? Not to mention the words "DM/EMERALD" printed TWICE on the BP (DM = Diamond, my CX Marco Polo Club status - yes, they abbreviate their own nomenclature and put the oneworld one in full).

Honestly, at times you do have to wonder about the level of training...

RobF

Cannot comment about the training but also struggling to find any justification for a refusal in this scenario. Human error?