Originally Posted by
TheRealBabushka
That's a good point which begs the question; Why then bother offering access to BA and AA lounges in the first place? A folly of the past that they can't seem to rectify?
Either this segment of the market is valued and therefore worth keeping or as suggested unlikely to be high value, in which case there is no justification on spending for full access to BA lounges. The logical conclusion would therefore be the elimination of access to BA/AA lounges altogether and retain Qantas Club as a purely domestic product.
This half way house approach is not logical.
In relation to BA, the ability to access BA lounges has always seemed to me a bit of a windfall benefit. However, there was a time when BA and QF worked together more closely than they do now; the developing friction and tension over the years has been visible to many long-standing regulars of both airlines, even while the inception and development of OW made gaining status (and therefore lounge access) easier for high value/high frequency customers.
I think the arrangement makes more sense in relation to AA, where there is a true reciprocal relationship. That includes comparable sizes of establishments: 40+ Admirals Clubs and 30+ Qantas Clubs, according to the current AA page.
Originally Posted by
TheRealBabushka
Perhaps if BA is concerned that UK based pax are highjacking Qantas Club to get cheap access to BA lounges, there ought to be more focused caveats to restrict entry only to Qantas Club pax connecting from/to a QF flight (+/- X number of days for genuine stop overs in London for pax enroute from/to Europe)?
I've no idea what's being discussed between BA and QF, nor all of the policy considerations that each airline considers important (although we have collectively identified many potential issues in this thread). And obviously I have no idea what the outcome will be. But it wouldn't surprise me if the reason it's taking so long is that complex solutions along these lines are being proposed and discussed, but there has to be consultation with many departments inside BA to see whether/how they could be made to work.