Originally Posted by
subject2load
m3red, I would be pretty surprised by lounge removal for Y ; but
IF it did come to pass, I would be equally surprised if the second part of your sentence automatically followed.
People fly Y for a variety of reasons - not least when travelling on business, and for an employer who will only stump up for non-premium tickets, often as a matter of strict company policy (I believe there are several such members on the forum). They can't suddenly say ...
"I'm not going because I don't get to use the lounge any more ...."
My own view is that if such a devaluation happened (unlikely ....but anything's possible) then we would soon be hearing a catalogue of indignant gripes - albeit with some justification - along the lines of
remember the good old days when you could use the lounge even with a Y ticket.... We have, after all, seen similar scenarios in the past, eg mileage earn/burn rates and ease of award availability.
There would be threats to move to other carriers. But if course it's not unknown to make a switch, only to subsequently find your new 'favourite' later deciding to do the very same thing that made you switch loyalty......
Ok I guess I don't represent the average flyer BUT if I was flying a GCC route in y and wasn't able to use the lounge there would be very little benefit in me using eK - I'd pick the cheapest, Qatar, fly Dubai etc.
EK already stopped lounge access for the "cheap" email offers unless you already qualify through status. I can see the same happening for "special" fares, not saver but the special ones. EK is constantly looking at ways to avoid giving out the car for example by limited D class availability so you can only upgrade at check in hence no car (I'm still getting them in dxb though with no prior booking).
Let's see but so far fare families has been ok for me, the big gripe is the huge increase in j to f redemptions on Dxb to Europe.