I thought I'd create this thread,as I feel there is too much confusion going on around this topic. Mods,feel free to delete it,but I do hope it will be useful for some people. This thread may help to manage expectations on a long layover and possibly save people from the "walk of shame" if they are denied access to a particular lounge.

1)OW lounges

This is probably the easiest part.

Any J passenger traveling on any oneworld airline can go to any lounge operated by any oneworld airline in the same terminal. Same goes for F pax,who can access the F lounges (if available at the airport).F pax can also bring 1 guest to the lounge.

I see a lot of FTers mentioning that you have to be a OWS/ OWE if you want to use a lounge different to the one assigned (more one "assigned" lounges below). This is wrong...for the purposes of lounge access J=OWS ,F=OWE.

OWS/OWS members can obviously go to any lounge operated by a oneworld member in that terminal

I specifically mention the word terminal,rather than airport because in some scenarios you would not be able to use a oneworld operated lounge in a terminal different from the one you are departing from. LHR is a good example-A BA pax departing from T3 would not be able to use the MH lounge in T4,or even the BA lounges in T5. It's due to BA's policy,but rather due to LHR's airside flow arrangements.At the same time,in airports such as FRA,one can move around the terminals freely,so if you are flying on LA,you can get a train to T2 and use JL/CX lounges. They would probably be surprised to see you but have to let you in (from personal experience).

It's also important to note that there are some exceptions to the oneworld rules,as of today they are the following:

BA:Concorde Room and Concorde Bars are restricted to BA F class passengers and CCR card holder. oneworld Emerald does not allow access in this case.
QR: Al Safwa (First Class) and Al Mourjan (Business Class) lounges: no access for OWE/OWS members,these members are invited to the(inferior) lounges,one of which is for OWE ("First Class lounge") and one for OWS
(The Business Class lounge)
UL: OWE/OWS are not allowed at Serendib lounge and are sent to the (inferior) Serendiva lounge.
AA: No access to AA'own OWS/OWE and F class on purely domestic itienaries.


2)Contract lounges

This is where it gets tricky. I see some people complaining and some generally not understanding why in some airports,airlines send their pax to contract lounges,when there are lounges operated by oneworld airlines. Most of the time this comes down to cost. Take an example of HKG,where access to Plaza Premium costs airlines 50% of the cost of accessing the CX J lounge and 68% cheaper than F lounge.

Contract lounges are mainly operated by:
the airport authority;
a non oneworld airline;
lounge operators,such as Plaza Premium, Aspire ,No1 and many others

It's very important to note that a contract lounge is contracted by one airline,not the whole alliance.This means that only passengers flying on this airline's metal can access this contract lounges.

Take an example of BKK:

There are 2 oneworld operated lounges:CX and JL,as I said above any J/F/OWS/OWE pax traveling on any oneworld airline from BKK can access any of these (and even both),subject to them being open before your flight.

There are also:2 other lounge options in BKK,both are marked as "operated by third party":
-Louis Tavern :logos of AY,MH,QF,UL in the oneworld lounge finder;
-Thai Airways logos of RJ,QR in the oneworld lounge finder.

Only passengers departing on the metal of airlines listed in that lounge entry can access these lounges. FFP plays no role here,so if you are an AY Platinum,flying QR ex BKK,you still can't access Louis Tavern.

Third party or contract lounges also don't have to honor the oneworld rules relating to connecting (eg: from long haul J to short haul Y).

People often complain about these arrangments,but I find them beneficial for everyone.
1)Those pax that don't know that they can access the (often superior) oneworld operated lounges go to the contract lounges,thereby saving money for the airline (which should, in theory be beneficial for us)

2)Those who know the rules can access the oneworld operated lounges (yes,they absolutely can),enjoying more space thanks to point 1. These pax can also go to the contract lounges in case they are better,or closer (eg: flying RJ ex BKK,I can go to CX,but I can also go to TG,as this is my only option for taking a shower).

3)F lounge access in contact lounges

This depends on the airline and the lounge operator,but the general rule is that they don't have to honor oneworld access rules.

Coming back to the BKK example: QR used to pay TG for it's F class (but not OWE) passengers for TG First Class lounge access,this is no longer the case. RJ has never paid TG to allow OWE members on their metal to enter the F side.

In some cases the airlines might only pay to allow F pax,but not OWE to the third party F lounge,in other scenarios airlines may let their own OWE pax in,sending partner OWE flying their metal to a normal J class lounge (correct me if I am wrong,but I believe this is the case in LGW,where non-BA Emeralds can not access the Club Rooms)

There is also a notable example (and one that confuses a lot of people) of the QF-EK partnership,allowing OWE members to access EK F lounge and OWS members to access EK J lounges when flying on QF metal and on a flight marketed by QF. Despite the extensive partnership between the two airlines,the EK lounge complex in DXB is just a third party lounge (as far as the oneworld rules go). QF is generous enough to pay EK for non QF OWEs access,but they are under no obligation to do so.

To summarize ,OWE/F pax don't get an automatic right to access the F sides of third party lounges and their access is governed purely by the arrangements made by the airline.

4)Airline-branded lounge,operated by third parties.

This is even more confusing,but I have not seen too many such lounges across the BA/oneworld networks. These lounges would normally appear as if they were operated by particular oneworld airlines themselves,but looking at the oneworld lounge finder you would see "operated by third party" note.

DME is a notable example of this practice. FIDS screens in the lounges and entry doors have BA logos ,there are lots of BA brochures in the lounge,TVs steam BBC and there is a good selection of British newspapers ,so this may appear as if it was a BA operated lounge. In reality, this lounge is operated by the airport authority,exclusively for BA (and IB),making it a third party/contract lounge ,so pax on other OW airline flying ex DME can not access this lounge,even if they are BAEC elite members.S

Another example is IIRC JER,but since there are no other oneworld airlines operating to/from JER,it does not change much.

Conclusion:
Actually,everything written above does not matter as any of us can be denied access "due to lounge capacity constrains"

Regards
Rami