First, defining non-standard acronyms is helpful for others reading this board. Took me a minute to realize what FTF stood for.

Second, does lounge access really matter that much? The $50k you're spending on Merrill to get the lounge membership would cost you $1k in forex fees. That's more than enough to buy your own club membership (or two).

One option is to use two cards. If you can reach $50k/yr on domestic spending with Merrill and direct all of your foreign spending onto a 0% exchange fee card, you can have the best of both worlds.