Hi I'm new to this forum, so sorry if this topic has been discussed already lately. I'm a Gold Elite Partner (no tier-status from own travel ), but will be flying alone to Germany later this year. I'm wondering if anybody knows a Partner member who has used their card to get into other Star Alliance lounges around the world lately (I realise the card is not a *Gold membership), Ideally I'd like to avoid LAX and LHR, so AKL-YVR-FRA looked like a good option. I'm wondering if the Air Canada lounge is likely to let me in (there's a ~4 hour connection).

The other thing I'm wondering about is how Partners are handled when it comes to upgrades, as I'd like to book an upgrade on the way back (just to premium economy), so I'm wondering if Partners can get standby upgrades confirmed the same as proper Gold Elites, or if I would be better to fork out the extra points for confirmed or pay for the upgrade, as my no-status would normally put me at the bottom of the list for standby upgrade.

Thanks for the help.