Originally Posted by
irishguy28
Well, don't forget that - particularly when different airlines/ticket issuers are in the mix - there is also the question of who gets billed for the lounge visit.
I'm not sure AF will receive much payment if they started allowing access to their lounges for pax bearing arriving boarding passes operated by partner/alliance airlines, travelling onwards on separate AF economy tickets, and billing these partners for such access.
So while they may occasionally turn a blind eye to an arrival boarding pass that was flown on AF, they almost certainly will not grant access to everyone arriving on a Skyteam business class flight, who then travels onwards on an unrelated AF economy ticket.
It is not a question of who will bear the cost or second-guessing what was the intention of the ST founders when they adopted that policy. The lounge access policy is a published benefit of the alliance when you take two consecutive flights on ST partner, when one of them is in international F/J. The text of the policy seems very clear: two flights, with one international F/J flight gives access to the ST lounge at the intermediate point in both directions. The why or why not are irrelevant.
What was the motivation of ST partners for creating this policy is beyond the point. Although I can fully understand one motivation which is to induce flyers to stick to the alliance rather than flying the second leg on a non-ST airline (for example a LCC). One World has a similar policy except that they specify that the international flight in F/J must be longhaul. There are many pax who buy separately the longhaul segment in F/J and a connecting shorthaul segment on another airline.