Originally Posted by
Steve M
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.
My feeling was that it should be BA that pays as my qualification for access is as a BAEC elite and that the AA flight was merely incidental. On the other hand if AA had not chosen to operate from TBIT I would probably not have tried to use the OW lounge. However, in principle, I could have accessed the lounge with a T4 departure as others have tried to do. I note that on the OW web site AA is listed in the entry for that lounge!