Originally Posted by
MADPhil
There seem to be some suggestions that one should really write to AA if it was an AA flight as they are supposed to pay a fee for your entry. This does not seem fair but who knows what arcane rules govern the whole thing.
What part doesn't seem fair: that you should have to write AA, or that AA should have to pay for lounge access? Considering that AA probably does have to pay for every lounge entry into a partner lounge, they may not be terribly excited about getting the problem fixed. In fact, they may have put the LIH flight in TBIT specifically because it has a very low number of AC members and thus the lowest amount of passengers inconvenienced due to lack of lounge access. And the yields of the flight may not justify paying for lounge access.
As to whether it's "fair" that AA should have to pay another oneworld carrier for use of their lounge, I don't see any other way it could work. If it were a free-for-all, there would be no incentive for AA or any other carrier to operate a lounge in an airport where there was another oneworld lounge. It would be a race to the bottom.
Originally Posted by
gemini573
At the time of that press release, there were no AA flights out of TBIT. They could use that argument. Hence the reason why some agents at the lounge have said AA not paying the fees. Whatever the case may be, AA, along with BA, CX, and QF need to sort this out.
It may in fact already be sorted out, other than a lack of proper communication to the passenger. It's quite possible that AA has the attitude that it doesn't want to pay for lounge access for the few domestic departures from TBIT, when it operates several AC's at LAX. Also, consider that the state reason for denial of entry by the lounge personnel may or may not have any relation to what the actual reason is.