Originally Posted by
gemac
I don't think this is exactly correct. "American Airlines First Class and Business Class passengers traveling on, or connecting to or from an American Airlines international* flight have access to the Admirals Club on the same-day** of their international flight." The eVIP upgrade will put your dad in business class DFW-NRT or LAX-NRT and return. He would definitely have access to the Admirals Clubs at DFW or LAX and at NRT. AA's lounge access rules can be found
here.
While not strictly entitled to access at ORD if he is there the day before his international travel, he would probably get it if he explains that he is on an international Business Class trip. No Admirals Club in BKK.
The above is Admirals Clubs only. My understanding is that he is not entitled to OW lounge access, but if JL has a lounge in BKK, I would ask on checkin at the JL desk, pointing out that his NRT-US flight is in Business Class. That has worked before, but if they say no, it's no.
It is my understanding too that evip upgrade entails business class travel, therefore also lounge access.
gemac, I am a little confused. Can you clarify? I am only looking to evip upgrade his outbound flight. Let's say he is routing ORD-LAX-NRT-BKK, I would assume that he has lounge access at ORD and LAX, since he is traveling in business class. What I really want clarification on is at NRT, where his onward NRT-BKK will be in JAL coach, and it would be nice to know if he can get at least AC access there.
Actually, you remind me of another question: Shouldn't he have access to all the oneworld lounges (NRT and LAX)? Since he is, by evip, a business class traveler, I would imagine that the oneworld lounge access policy grants him access, regardless of his lack of status at that point.