Originally Posted by
emcampbe
for contract lounges, you’ll generally get an invite card at check in, ideally, the agent will do this upfront if you are eligible, or if not, you can always ask. Depending on the contract, it may or may not include all *G lounge- Air China may only contract for their elite/biz class pax, and not all *G, or they may contract for all *G. When I was *G and based in BOM, for example, when I was flying TK, UA, SQ or others, I’d generally receive an invite at check in (without asking) that I could use for myself and a guest to enter the BOM lounge (there’s really only one) - in that case, it was open to any elite flying on a *A carrier.
NH, for instance, does provide lounge access to *G pax in Y, which is nice because I fly them frequently to airports without a *A lounge. But you generally need a boarding pass with "Lounge Invitation" printed on it, though I think sometimes they provide a separate lounge invitation card still, depending on the airport. That means online checkin with an in-app or Apple Wallet boarding pass might mean you can't get in. For instance, I couldn't get into the Garuda Lounge last summer—though I did manage to get into another contract lounge at
CGK, but even they had to be talked into it.