lounges - entry time flexibility
Jan 19, 2018, 12:23 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2018
Posts: 3
lounges - entry time flexibility
I'm new to using airport lounges. I have a question about entry times.
I'll be flying a few times long-haul coming up, and have booked long stopovers in Dubai, Istanbul, and Paris. In all three cases the plan is to pass through immigration and spend a long time in the city, and also to spend about 3-4 hours in the lounge before or after the city venture. (Visas are no problem.)
How easy is it to change my lounge arrival time? If I book to enter at 7pm, can I change my mind and enter at 8am instead - before exploring the city, instead of afterwards? Obviously I realize it's a risk in case the lounge is full but assuming they have space, what will they do?
I'll be using loungebuddy website to buy one-off passes to the lounges - I don't have a credit card that will get me in.
Thanks!
I'll be flying a few times long-haul coming up, and have booked long stopovers in Dubai, Istanbul, and Paris. In all three cases the plan is to pass through immigration and spend a long time in the city, and also to spend about 3-4 hours in the lounge before or after the city venture. (Visas are no problem.)
How easy is it to change my lounge arrival time? If I book to enter at 7pm, can I change my mind and enter at 8am instead - before exploring the city, instead of afterwards? Obviously I realize it's a risk in case the lounge is full but assuming they have space, what will they do?
I'll be using loungebuddy website to buy one-off passes to the lounges - I don't have a credit card that will get me in.
Thanks!
Jan 19, 2018, 1:23 am
#2
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,804
Welcome to Flyertalk maenad1 and welcome to the Lounge forum too, it's great to see you here. It looks like you have some amazing cities to visit too, I wish you bon voyage for that. Don't forget to write back on your lounge experiences here!
I think it's difficult to give a general but useful answer here since all of these lounges will be locally managed, with their own policies and styles of operation. In some cases I'm sure they won't be too bothered, other places would take the view that the booked timeslot should be stuck too, some lounges would in theory charge a premium for peak times, though I haven't seen much evidence of that in use, and therefore may see someone arriving a the wrong time as trying to game the system. Also bear in mind that all 3 airports segregate arrivals and departures, unlike (e.g.) US airports where domestic arriving and departing passengers are mixed together. So you can't necessarily get to all lounges as an arriving passenger. I would presume the LoungeBuddy site makes that clear.
So in short, it's probably best to get a reasonably good time alignment between booked and actual time of arrival. In most cases you could do the booking at the last moment so you can have a sharper view on your plans. These lounges won't typically mind if you are an hour or so off your booked time, however.
I think it's difficult to give a general but useful answer here since all of these lounges will be locally managed, with their own policies and styles of operation. In some cases I'm sure they won't be too bothered, other places would take the view that the booked timeslot should be stuck too, some lounges would in theory charge a premium for peak times, though I haven't seen much evidence of that in use, and therefore may see someone arriving a the wrong time as trying to game the system. Also bear in mind that all 3 airports segregate arrivals and departures, unlike (e.g.) US airports where domestic arriving and departing passengers are mixed together. So you can't necessarily get to all lounges as an arriving passenger. I would presume the LoungeBuddy site makes that clear.
So in short, it's probably best to get a reasonably good time alignment between booked and actual time of arrival. In most cases you could do the booking at the last moment so you can have a sharper view on your plans. These lounges won't typically mind if you are an hour or so off your booked time, however.
Jan 22, 2018, 3:05 am
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Germany
Programs: Some
Posts: 11,521
Do you book pay lounges in advance or do you have Priority Pass? In general most lounges are not worth staying there for a long time. With PP pre-booking is not necessary so no problem. Problem could be to visit at arrival. Some lounges have strict policies, some don’t even ask for your boarding pass. Very different.