Originally Posted by
the810
But SAS clearly doesn't want to provide lounge access, since they don't contract lounges outside *A hubs. It's the other way around - lounge access is only possible because SAS Plus is booked as business class (even though they market it as premium economy) and thus automatically comes with lounge benefits under *A rules. I'm pretty confident that SAS would have no issue contracting lounges for premium economy if they wished so.
Then people would fly to *A hubs on other *A airlines. I think this is a deliberate choice. In non-*A outstations, the competition picture is different. You normally need to connect on competitors and there is a direct SK flight. For short haul travel, a large fragment of the customer population that cares about lounges cares about direct flights and schedules even more. So here the picture is not so clear, and SK is, IMHO, gambling that they can afford not to offer lounges.