Originally Posted by
irishguy28
This is not at all petty!
Air New Zealand and airberlin have absolutely no relationship whatsoever. Virgin Australia has negotiated lounge access for its own flyers - but they are not going to negotiate access on behalf of every other partner airline that may just happen to, occasionally, have one of their FFP members on an Virgin Australia service.
Whenever you visit a lounge using status, the airline whose status you show is billed for your visit. Now, Virgin Australia and airberlin grant reciprocal lounge access based on their common link via Etihad. However, Air New Zealand is entirely outside of that arrangement. Air New Zealand has no lounge access relationship with airberlin. So, while Virgin Australia has negotiated access for its own status fliers, and for its business-class customers, they can't make airberlin pay for you to visit that lounge. And no - they are not going to pay for you, because then where would it end?
It's definitely a petty money issue. Try flying through SFO and visiting the SQ lounge at times when it is contracted by a million other airlines.
Furthermore, you bought a ticket marketed by VA. VA is making money off of your purchase, and should be entitling you to lounge access. But they don't want to pay for your lounge access if it's not outside their network because they want to keep more money. Unless you are a Velocity FFP elite, in which case they are making money off of you anyways.
Delta did the same things for Skyteam E+ members flying Delta. No contract lounge access for any fliers now in economy, no matter what status, only their own lounges or Skyteam lounges.