Originally Posted by
simpletastes
No, not hiding anything. Many have reported success accessing the lounge as transit passengers with domestic connections showing both boarding passes to the lounge agents. It really doesn't matter to me whether they hesitate.
This lack of clarity and inconsistency puts us all in an uncomfortable position. Do we try each time and leave it to the mood or discretion of the lounge agent each time (and be made to feel like we are just taking a chance), or do we not even try and potentially lose out on a valuable benefit/entitlement?
There's clearly some internal policy/practice of directing domestic pax to the domestic lounge. Would you rather they got an official OW opt-out for this? Nobody would win if that happened.
While it's unfortunate that you were denied access, I don't see how encouraging others to assert their entitlement helps the situation. It's just going to put frontline staff who are just following instructions in an even more unpleasant situation.
At the end of the day, it's about give and take. MH is one of the very few that grant departure lounge access to J arrivals. Use that to your advantage if you ever find yourself making a similar connection again.