Refused entry to the lounge at BKK
Apr 10, 2016, 8:47 am
#16
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Without being there, it is probably difficult to know what transpired, and more crucially, how exactly it played out.
Perhaps the lounge agents ask, by default, to see the lounge invitation as a handy "gatekeeping" mechanism to put-off the curious, or those who stumble in not knowing what the lounge is or who it's for or that it's not open to the public, or the chancers who otherwise might try arguing their case [I recently witnessed a very irate British man being turned away, red-faced, from an AA lounge in the US because his status wasn't good for access for his domestic flight. I can only imagine that most lounge agents develop a technique to try and head off as many of these confrontations (before they build up to one) as possible]. But the strategy is not intended to put off customers in the know, or to repel those valid customers who have other means of showing proof of entry.
It sounds like your wife and daughter may have misinterpreted the approach and perceived a non-existent requirement to brandish a lounge invitation - and may therefore not even have shown their J boarding pass, or their Platinum card (each of which alone would have been enough - you say you are all regular business class pax so assume they were in J). Is this a possible scenario? It does sound like they didn't even try "They didn't argue about it and just left".
As for you being turned away with a China Airlines boarding pass, this is far more easily explained. China Airlines has its own lounge at BKK. AF/KL lounges have good form in refusing pax that have a more "appropriate" solution in place. We've seen reports of this happening quite frequently down the years on here, ones that stick out in my mind are the tiny AF lounge at NRT refusing DL pax, and recent reports of the JFK lounge refusing AZ pax.
Perhaps the lounge agents ask, by default, to see the lounge invitation as a handy "gatekeeping" mechanism to put-off the curious, or those who stumble in not knowing what the lounge is or who it's for or that it's not open to the public, or the chancers who otherwise might try arguing their case [I recently witnessed a very irate British man being turned away, red-faced, from an AA lounge in the US because his status wasn't good for access for his domestic flight. I can only imagine that most lounge agents develop a technique to try and head off as many of these confrontations (before they build up to one) as possible]. But the strategy is not intended to put off customers in the know, or to repel those valid customers who have other means of showing proof of entry.
It sounds like your wife and daughter may have misinterpreted the approach and perceived a non-existent requirement to brandish a lounge invitation - and may therefore not even have shown their J boarding pass, or their Platinum card (each of which alone would have been enough - you say you are all regular business class pax so assume they were in J). Is this a possible scenario? It does sound like they didn't even try "They didn't argue about it and just left".
As for you being turned away with a China Airlines boarding pass, this is far more easily explained. China Airlines has its own lounge at BKK. AF/KL lounges have good form in refusing pax that have a more "appropriate" solution in place. We've seen reports of this happening quite frequently down the years on here, ones that stick out in my mind are the tiny AF lounge at NRT refusing DL pax, and recent reports of the JFK lounge refusing AZ pax.
On DL, SkyPriority does NOT imply lounge access. For instance, a kettle with a domestic FC ticket (not the JFK-LAX/SFO and vv nonstop transcons that are marketed as D1/business class) is SkyPriority and get special check in and security lines plus early baording (zone PREM before SKY in this case), but not SC access.
Apr 10, 2016, 9:22 am
#17
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On DL, SkyPriority does NOT imply lounge access. For instance, a kettle with a domestic FC ticket (not the JFK-LAX/SFO and vv nonstop transcons that are marketed as D1/business class) is SkyPriority and get special check in and security lines plus early baording (zone PREM before SKY in this case), but not SC access.
May 8, 2016, 5:52 pm
#18
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I was flying KE in J from ORD a couple months ago. My J Class KE BP was not enough to get me into the AF Lounge, I had to give the agent the pass (which I'd absentmindedly shoved in a pocket).
May 10, 2016, 2:08 am
#19
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I wont be looking in here so much as we will be flying QR to/from Asia in future although I do have flights booked to GIG with AF & KLM then I think it will be LH.