Originally Posted by
nldogbert
This sounds like Saudia is wrongly interpreting the lounge access rule SkyTeam in the last year implemented from what I am reading/understading.
Yes, it is restricted to 3 hours before your flight at the departure airport, but there should be no restrictions at the transit/connecting airport. Maybe someone should bring/prepare this ruling from SkyTeam when travelling on such long layover situations.
This is exactly what I did when I faced the same situation last November in Riyadh on my way to Bangkok.The first agent I talked to was not willing to argue and I did not have the Skyteam policy at hand, so I went away and came back a bit later after having found the new Skyteam lounge access rules. There was a new agent, and he let us in after I showed him the Skyteam rules, without having to argue too much.
Same long layover on the way back, I was prepared to show the Skyteam rules but we were let in without any question.
I thought that this was a one time issue due to some agents not being properly trained with the new rules, but this is concerning if it still happens a few months later, especially as I'm going to have another long layover in Jeddah in a few days
