cavemanzk

Well VA is currently almost owned 50% by 2x star *A airlines with NZ at 23.9 and SQ at 19.9.

Also note this line on the *A website, which none of the other 5 lounges mention the airline running it.

"This lounge is developed and operated in partnership with Air New Zealand."

ashill

I'd hope that the airside bus would now run T5-TBIT, but I don't know if that's the plan or even if TBIT has a suitable bus terminal. The T5-T3 bus was never mentioned anywhere on delta.com or virginaustralia.com that I could find; the only place I ever saw its existence mentioned in writing from the airlines was in the VA in-flight magazine.

Well, experience from the past isn't much of a guide, as today's TBIT is a new construction replacing the very bare-bones TBIT of the past. The current one officially opened on September 18.

But, of course, VA's joint venture partner to the US is Delta, and I think it would be hard if not impossible for them to switch their joint venture to United: UA has more than twice the capacity to Australia that DL does, so I assume the DOT/DOJ would frown on any such joint venture for antitrust reasons. So it's very hard for me to see VA joining *A. SQ and NZ compete much less directly with any SkyTeam airlines, so it's easier for me to see VA joining SkyTeam and retaining those partnerships than joining *A. But I don't think either is likely in the short term.

gmttr1

Any insight folks? Is a VA boarding pass in J adequate to enter the Star Alliance lounge? And is there any bus/shuttle for going from T5 (Delta) to TBIT for the VA flight?

Supersonic Swinger

Presumably you can check your bags in Seattle all the way through to Brisbane, worth calling Delta to confirm.

You may be fine with your J boarding pass in terms of lounge access. From the VA website:

"From 1 December 2013, Virgin Australia Business class guests, Velocity Platinum and Velocity Gold status members can access the Star Alliance Lounge. Velocity Platinum guests are invited to access the First Class Star Alliance Lounge."

http://www.virginaustralia.com/au/en...l/los-angeles/

What is a bit of an unknown though is you are traveling on a DL ticket and if your boarding pass is issued in Seattle it will presumably be a DL boarding pass. Again, may be worth checking with DL.

TPJ

IMHO this is to have parity with QF Platinum/Platinum One members, who can access F-class lounges.

ichindar

I flew back on Dec 1 on VA2 to SYD, and was welcomed into the lounge including getting a pamphlet with a map on how to get to the lounge in TBIT, as a VA Gold/J ticket. I flew in to LAX on Frontier, so no through check, etc but checking in at T3 and walking to TBIT was a non-issue (given that it wasn't raining). Word on the street is that check in space in TBIT is coming (I forget the timeframe that I was told though).

The section of TBIT containing the new lounge is in the refurbished section, so looking all sparkly and new. The lounge was nice enough, though I'm now kicking myself for falling from VA Platinum to Gold and missing out on the F lounge!

taylorc418

We were on the same flight! I'm a lowly DL Diamond who was on an award ticket on VA. We had a pretty seamless experience with check-in at T3 and then walking to TBIT. The only hitch was that our flight to LA got in around 8am, so we effectively had 12 hours to kill. DL couldn't print our boarding passes at our starting airport, so we couldn't get into the *A lounge early. We had missed the VA T3 desk by a few minutes (they close in the middle of the day/morning) so we ended up heading off airport to explore. Bags were checked through to CNS however, so at least we didn't have bags to deal with.

Coming from a world of DL lounges, the lounge at TBIT was fantastic. Showers were great and the outdoor seating area was great to spend some time on before being stuck in a tube for 12+ hours.

justin_krusty

Bumping this to see if the situation with T5 (DL) to TBIT has changed. Suspect still no airside transfer and must go landside and do security again?

cssaus

The transfer from T5 to TBIT is available at gate 52B, has been for a while. The only condition is that you must be holding a BP for your VA flight to be allowed to use the service.

justin_krusty

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 7_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/537.51.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.0 Mobile/11D167 Safari/9537.53)

Thanks. One thing to note for future readers of this thread is that the bus is not all that big - it's like a small American school bus. They only allow 40 pax on. Tonight there was more than that so some had to either wait for the next one or do the walk. It'd be a good idea to loiter right near the stairs.

BP's weren't checked incidentally, just a "going to Brisbane?"

glu800

Deleted.

Nevermind, realized check-in is at T3 and then walk to TBIT!

KeepClimbingDick

On an upcoming trip to LAX-SYD, I have a choice between the *A lounge (flying in J class) and the KE lounge (using Priority Pass). Any recommendations for which one to use? And, why?

Thanks!

ual744777sta

The NZ lounge has hot food while the KE lounge has finger sandwiches and instant noodles. Both have showers.

KGDIII

Heres the question:

Im ticketed on Virgin Australia from LAX-SYD-CHC in economy. (SYD-CHC is on Air New Zealand)

I have Star Alliance Gold and Etihad Gold.

Virgin Australia utilizes the Star Alliance lounge for Intl Departures in TBIT. I know if this was Air New Zealand ticket, I would be fine for the star alliance lounge. But since this is VA- Will i still have access?

And Can i use the NZ lounge in SYD with my star gold access?

I bring up my Etihad gold because they are partners with Virgin Australia and recognize their status. A status benefit written says lounge access. But since this isn't a Virgin Australia Lounge, I am not sure..

Help!!

Thanks!

Jorgen

At SYD you should be able to use the NZ lounge using your *A status, because it's an NZ-operated flight.

At LAX, your *A won't get you in because it's a VA-operated flight. Etihad status will get you into all domestic VA lounges but I don't think it gets you into partner lounges. So I think you might be out of luck at LAX.