I'm a BAEC 'Gold' and have just got home from a MAN-MXP return journey in Y booked through BA.com. These flights were BA codeshare flights operated by Flybe.

I booked the flights through BA.com rather than through the Flybe site (at more or less a comparable cost) as I was travelling with my partner and assumed that having bought the tickets from BA, and having Gold status, I would be able to 'guest' my partner into the BA lounges at MAN and at MXP.

At MAN there was no problem with this (although I was disapponted that Flybe would not issue us with a 'Fast track' sticker on our boarding passes). However, at MXP the BA lounge staff insisted that although I had purchased the tickets through BA, and although I was BAEC 'Gold' etc., I was not able to bring a guest into the lounge. The member of staff was very polite, but insisted that she was right, and even showed me a grubby piece of paper confirming that "... passengers flying on a codeshare flight operated by Flybe can only use the lounge if they are in possession of a valid BAEC Gold card..." She went on to explain that there are different rules for different BA lounges.

Despite all this she had already told us that she would make an exception 'just this once' - (which perhaps was linked to the fact that there was nobody at the desk when we arrived at the lounge, and by the time she emerged, some ten minutes later, we were already on our second foccaccia)! If she was correct in her assertion, it seems a bit unfair.


[Interestingly BA.com did not give me a MAN-LHR-MXP option (without going multi-city), and in any case I only flew to Milan because BA seem to withdrawn their mid-evening LGW-MAN flight, which means that I couldn't get a connection to MAN from TRN, my preferred airport for my monthly trip to northern Italy.]