The new lounge software is by a company called IEG. This is the same software used by all carriers across Star Alliance for lounge entry management. The UI is literally the same, a grid with logos of all alliance airlines and a green tick appears against the eligible FFP of access (or airline if accessing based on class of service) when the boarding pass is scanned along with the passenger’s name and flight number below it. In fact I’d argue it is much swifter than FLY - I’m sure a few of you have had experiences where the system used to circle for a good few seconds after scanning and between passengers. It is essentially instant in the new system. Curiously I see that that along with logos of all oneworld airlines, there’s a box that says “POS” (or at least that’s what I believe I read on my nosy eagle-eyed peek at the screen - it certainly wasn’t an airline logo). If indeed it was “POS” that I saw, I wonder if this is paving way for paid access? Just speculation on my part but surely this needs to be a new brilliant enhancement that’s been demanded and implemented based on passenger feedback?

It’s actually baffling the system isn’t used alliance-wide like it is in Star Alliance and it appears oneworld airlines have a piecemeal approach right from UL that need a separate “lounge voucher” to AA’s
that can never quite work out if one is Emerald or Sapphire to Alaska’s rather efficient iPads.

Yes I do get that it isn’t integrated into the reservation/DCS system, however most agents do have that open in another window and for example the other day I asked for the gate, the “efficient” agent simply pressed “Ctrl + Tab” and , voila, they were on the reservation system. Even a less IT efficient agent shouldn’t take more than 20 seconds to switchover.

Also I suspect this new system also enables better billing. Particularly when flying non-BA airlines, FLY wasn’t the best in reading boarding passes even though it should be. I’ve seen occasions where for example an Iberia boarding pass was scanned, it didn’t read it, then I’ve been waved though as AY Platinum but agent then input BA Gold as the qualifying status in the dropdown boxes, surely this may mean AY aren’t appropriately charged for access. Just my twopence.

Here’s a Press Release from IEG’s own website when BA initially rolled it out first at LGW - https://ieg-america.com/blog/british-airways