The lounge restrictions are disappointing.

There are no UA operated lounges in Australia, so departing Australia offers no lounge access. Also, restricting it to a journey 'on one ticket' makes things difficult; I have more than once found that VA doesn't offer a ticketing option from certain AU-US city pairs, or it is many times the price of two bookings. I'm sure this wouldn't be a large amount of lounge traffic, and they'd all be elites flying an international ticket anyway, why not just accommodate them.

I also dislike the lack of domestic flight UA lounge access, but I can also kind of understand it. But surely VA should at least find a way to let their elites get lounge access when leaving Australia.

I would have considered switching to UA from Delta if this was a program equivalent to the old DL/VA relationship. But it's a far cry from it. I think I'll stick to DL in the USA and fly QF more in the future (I hold status in both). I guess this is the beginning of the end for my VA status...