Originally Posted by
orbitmic
I believe that this was not supposed to be the case even before and certainly was not allowed in Dublin when flying on the EI code. I think the EI team at LHR was quite flexible (they'd even happily change BA gold to earlier flights for free on flights that did not allow free changes!) as BA was not competing with them on the route, but things seemed to get significantly more tensed when BA introducted their own flights. With good reason too: frankly, why should EI let BA Gold pax use the lounge unless BA is happy to pay for them?
Simple - why would a BA Gold fly Aer Lingus otherwise? On a short hop, lounge access is a key differentiator.
If this is true then Aer Lingus might be willing to status match BA Gold members. They hardly want to alienate flyers who never bothered chasing EI status because their BA Gold was OK.